As an active Democrat and Community organizer, I hereby give my endorsement to Phil Noble to serve as Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
Many of the party's most active progressive leaders have already endorsed Phil, and I have little to add to their observations about his broad experience, willingness to work, and intelligence. I know of no one more qualified to lead the difficult work ahead. I've seen Phil talk about the state, and observed his capacity to gather and focus the diminishing pool of talent and energy we have available.
Read on if you want a fuller explanation of where we are and what we face in SC, but be warned it isn't pleasant. I'm not planning to run for anything. I have no incentive to say things you'll be glad to hear which aren't true.
It is important to give our thanks to Carol Fowler for her years of hard work on behalf of the party. She has been a vocal Democrat while many of our elected Democrats prefer to hide out in obscurity, hoping not to draw right wing fire while sitting in what are still considered safe districts. She deployed vote builder, brought training into the state, and never failed to return one of my phone calls nor denied me any reasonable request.
Unfortunately, Carol Fowler and our other dedicated party leaders have inherited a political culture utterly disconnected from our current conditions, a persistent hold over from the 1970s. Since our memories of victory, power and financial superiority over the Republicans remain grounded in that vanished era, we're unable to let go. Carol Fowler and our other leaders, understandably, were reluctant to discard the only thing which we had proof worked.
It doesn't work any more. We can no longer depend on walking around money given to community leaders to deliver election victories. We don't have the money. Communities are devolving into leaderless analogues of the faceless suburbs from which the Republican party emerged.
In the past three of four Federal elections in which I voted, the party was unable to place a real Democrat on it's own ticket. In those three elections I could not vote for the person on the Democratic line.
Ben Fraiser was only a nominal Democrat. It was clear he was connected to the Republicans. I voted for Rob Groce, who was running on the Working Families ticket for the 1st. Congressional District. Frasier beat a promising Democratic candidate who might well have been able to get elected.
Robert M. "Bob" Conley beat Democrat Michael Cone and went on to show the world what a “Ron Paul Democrat” is. I ended up voting for Lindsey Graham, later to be disappointed when the Tea Party beat him into submission.
And then there was Alvin Greene, the single wost thing I have ever seen in 40 years of political involvement. Watching Vic Rawl, a towering example of public dedication and integrity struck down by a mumbling imbecile left me disoriented and physically ill. We were primed for a barn burning summer campaign with money in the bank, an impressive internet presence on hair trigger, and hundreds of volunteers ready to take the fight to Jim “Waterloo” DeMint.
Alvin Greene was either the product of dishonesty, corruption or incompetence. No sane person would invest their money and time in an organization which allows Alvin Greenes to reach a position on their ticket as a nominee for US Senate.
The party is on the verge of losing nearly its entire core of competent, progressive activists. People who possess the gift of time, energy and talent will not surrender their money, weekends and emotional energy to earn experiences like Alvin Greene.
The party probably had to leave Greene on the ballot in the face of no hard evidence of fixed voting machine, but it was approximately the same thing as a man who saws off his foot to escape being trapped in a rockfall. For him the walk is over. The machines may be manipulated. I can't prove it either way.
I've read the lists of people supporting Phil Noble. They include nearly all our young activists, our tech savy organizers, what little of the Obama movement our state has managed to retain and a lot of our proven older leaders.
My son leaves the state for college in three months. He's disgusted. Much of that disgust emerged after the appearance of the tea party. Alvin Greene was the last straw.
Twenty years of increasing Republican control has produced a state and culture which repels my child, the product of ten generations of service as a citizen of South Carolina,
If the party returns the old guard to control, and enables brokered politics with our shrinking supply of chips, I don't see how the party can go forward. I'm not sure Phil can turn things around. I am certain we're more likely to go somewhere by putting the car in the shop than we would be pushing it off a cliff.
Let's support Phil Noble while there are still people left in the party willing and able to do the work.