It's rare that I will post an entire letter in a diary, but today, I'm breaking that rule to post a rare and extraordinary message sent by Chip Forrester, who is running for the state chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party.
Forrester's letter - and his rationale for becoming chair - touches on the debate that has been carried in state Democratic parties across the country, as party faithful try to adjust to the 21st century, the resurgence of grassroots politics powered by an effective campaign organization and new social networking tools on the internet.
The Obama-Clinton debate, more than policy, was about ethics. By "ethics," I don't mean "questions about right and wrong," but rather the truly Greek sense of the term. Ethics are "habits of character" that are likely to promote human flourishing. So, I'm not trying to "moralize" in the sense of being a goody-two-shoes. I'm being purely pragmatic, and focused on the reality of our political situation in 2008.
OK, here comes the letter...
I have received a copy of the full letter from Forrester:
Dear State Democratic Executive Committee Member:
I know that you have received the recent letter from Gov. Bredesen, several members of the congressional delegation, and several past chairs of the Party on behalf of Charles Robert Bone.
First, I want to go on record stating that I have run a positive campaign for Party chair and I intend to continue doing so. I have respect and admiration for both Charles Robert Bone and Charles Bone and all that they have done for Democratic politics in Tennessee. In fact, I gave Charles Robert one of his very first jobs in Tennessee politics in 1990 when I was Al Gore’s US Senate campaign manager.
Second, I want to make it clear that I respect everyone who signed the endorsement letter. Most of them I have campaigned for personally over my 20 years of involvement in Tennessee Democratic politics. Most of these chairs I have served under. And, when this campaign is over, we must all come together completely unified behind the Democratic Party, if we are to be successful in 2010.
But their letter requires that I write to you, as a member of the state Democratic executive committee, because it demonstrates as clearly as anything I could have written myself, why I am running for Chair. It clearly shows the choice you have between Charles Robert and me.
This year our Party in Tennessee suffered its worst political defeat in decades, ironically while most of the country was seeing a resurgence in support for Democratic candidates as evidenced by the election of Barack Obama and the dramatic expansion of the Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
Our state Party was led this year by the very people who have now signed the endorsement letter for Charles Robert Bone. They set the strategy for this year’s campaign in Tennessee.
Our state Party did not suffer from a lack of funding, I know because as Treasurer I signed the checks. What our Party suffered from this year was a lack of a grassroots organization that involved everyone that believes in and supports the values of the Democratic Party.
You cannot build a viable political party from the top down, no more than you can improve the economic well being of our country with "trickle down" economics as failed Republican administration policies, tragically for our country’s working men and women, have so vividly shown us these past 8 years.
And while I respect everyone who signed the endorsement letter, if these elections have taught us anything, they should have shown us that the "top down" approach does not work any longer in Tennessee.
My commitment to you, therefore, if elected Chair, is to broaden the involvement of everyone who believes in the principles of the Democratic Party. We will create the most open, the most transparent, the most accountable, and the most inclusive party that we have ever had in Tennessee.
As Governor Ned McWherter taught me so many years ago, with your help, we can make the Democratic Party here in Tennessee the "big tent" that our Party is supposed to be. We will bring everyone to the table for 2010: state executive committee members, county parties, the House and Senate Democratic caucuses, all Democratic office holders including the Governor and the Democratic Members of Congress, labor, teachers, trial lawyers, the Obama volunteers in Tennessee, College Democrats, Young Democrats, state employees, Democratic activists, the Democratic women, the Hispanic and African-American community, the disadvantaged and disabled—the constituencies that make our Party the strongest when we are all involved and united in our support for Democratic candidates. A team like that gives us all we need to win!
There is now a clear choice and it is up to each of you and only you, to make it. Many of you have already committed (44 to date publicly) because you and I have discussed this vision for the Party and you believe in it as much as I do. And for those committee members still thinking about which candidate to support, there is now a difference.
Someone whom we know quite well recently said, and I am paraphrasing slightly for editorial effect, "If you want 4 more years of the same policies and leadership that the current administration has provided, then just vote for my opponent. If you want a change, from the grassroots up, and an entirely new way of conducting business then vote for me."
In sum, I believe we have a choice for the future of the Party. We can build a grassroots-based Party including everyone, or we can continue our top-down dominance. We can change the direction we are heading, or we can maintain the status quo. We can learn from history, or we can repeat it.
May God bless you & your family as we enter the New Year—2009!
Warm regards,
Chip Forrester
Treasurer
Tennessee Democratic Party
I'll dispense with commentary for now. Let me just say that I find this argument compelling. In fact, it's the same argument made by Kos and Jerome Armstrong in the book, Crashing the Gate. The argument is based on an understanding that democracy truly is government "of, by, and for the people" and that special interest and corporate influences have made the politics a largely anonymous and impersonal process. The problem with the TNDP is not the number of big-dollar donors. What's missing is the number of "average Joe" volunteers, phonebankers, and small-dollar donors who make up the base of any successful campaign or movement.
Forrester rightly notes that the grassroots were not effectively mobilized, organized, or engaged in 2008. The high level of enthusiasm during the primary season did not translate into general election successes, and this was largely due to a failure of imagination and some really nasty miscommunication within the state party.
As Marshall Ganz, Steve Hildebrand, and others have noted, a grassroots movement alone will not be sufficient to effect social change. Leadership matters. And thankfully, Forrester has the leadership credentials, having helped Harold Washington in Chicago, and Ned McWherter and Al Gore in Tennessee.
One key point that must be highlighted from the letter. Forrester writes:
Our state Party was led this year by the very people who have now signed the endorsement letter for Charles Robert Bone. They set the strategy for this year’s campaign in Tennessee.
This would suggest that Forrester either was not involved in strategy discussions, or that he was outvoted by other politicos in the TNDP. Of course, since the strategy discussions at the TNDP largely excluded members of the Obama campaign (and ultimately led to the agreement between Obama and TNDP that Obama would not campaign in Tennessee), it is hard to know what might have happened if Obama had contested the state.
What we do know is that, as a result of the decision not to contest Tennessee, dozens of Obama volunteers campaigned in Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, and elsewhere. In part, this is due to the fact that the Obama campaign made it easier for volunteers to particpate than the TNDP did. (Again, technology in the service of principled leadership is key to successful campaigns.) Gov. Bredesen even did a series of events for Obama in Ohio.
Is it possible that the Tennessee Democratic Party is stronger than might be indicated by the 57-41% drubbing and the loss of the state House and Senate?
We'll know more in the next few months, as the state party begins to unite and set an agenda for the 2010 elections.