There comes a time when the evidence of your self-destructive habits becomes so incontrovertible that it is harder to maintain the illusion that everything is under control than it is to face the hard, inflexible truth, which is that your habits are killing you. It's called hitting rock bottom, and it's what happened to a lot of Democrats on November 2nd, 2004.
The good news is that hitting rock bottom is the first step to recovery. The second step is doing something about it.
Here in the Bay Area, we're awaiting the national convention of the Young Democrats of America, which takes place in San Francisco this August. San Francisco is a good choice for this year's convention: it's chock full of progressive organizers, the kind that can help turn the Young Dems into a real progressive force within the party. After the year we've been through - after the last four years we've been through - we can't afford to let Democratic conventions look like they have in the past, in the sanguine days before the wakeup call on November 2nd. Here in the Bay Area, we're forming a new caucus within the YDA - one part insider, two parts outsider - to make sure that this year, the theme of the convention is
reform.
Some incredible things happened in 2004, and a lot of them came from young progressives. Effective new organizations begun and maintained primarily by young Democrats included: Run Against Bush, Concerts for Kerry, VoteMob, Downtown for Democracy, Music for America, The League of Pissed Off Voters, Driving Votes, PunkVoter, Oregon Bus Project.
Note that none of these organizations were hatched from within the party apparatus, or even from within its youth arm, the Young Democrats of America. Why? Because in spite of the active participation and leadership of a number of capable young progressive leaders within the YDA, the organization remains by and large a professional networking club for aspiring politicians, an MBA program for Democratic office-seekers. There's little to attract young progressives to the YDA whose political motivations are not driven by their career ambitions.
That's not just a problem for the YDA. That's a problem for all Democrats, and even more broadly, for all progressives. The Republican Party is very, very adept at cultivating a vanguard among its young partisans, and seeding the world with it. We're not. Unless progressives start taking youth organizations like the YDA much more seriously, the next generation of Democratic leaders is going to be another bumper crop of party hacks. What we need is leaders, not professional insiders, and for that it's going to take a sustained effort to change the culture of the YDA, both from the inside and from the outside.
The YDA has a lot of promise. There are some exceptional people in its ranks, at the local, state and national levels of leadership. But much of their work is wasted within an institutional culture that rewards connections and favor trading and does little to encourage activism. Let's help those leaders turn the YDA around.
If you're in the Bay Area, attend the kickoff party of the YDA Action Caucus:
Thursday, July 21, 7-9pm
Café du Nord (it's a bar, not a café)
15th and Market (by the Church Street Muni station)
RSVP: lwoodhouse@gmail.com
If you're not in the Bay Area, email me at the above address if you'd like to get involved.