Over the weekend, Clem Richardson for the NY Daily News put out an interesting argument: every member of the DNC should resign, because, well, we are all terrible. More importantly, he asked why we weren’t the thought leaders, doing more to lead the resistance.
Dear Members of the Democratic National Committee:
On behalf of your party and your countrymen to whom you have given so much, I ask one further service.
Please tender your resignations immediately.
This is an interesting argument, though it is mostly the same hand-wringing we hear over and over again that almost seems geared to depress voter interest coming into a midterm. The party isn’t good. The party is at fault. Well, there are things in the party we are all working to improve, but the basic premise put forward by Mr. Richardson is fundamentally flawed — you see, he wonders why the DNC isn’t spending more time driving the bus, when for the two years prior, the party has asked very directly for the party to get out of the way of our candidates, and do everything we can to let our candidates lead.
But, since the question has been asked, I think it is important to answer: what the heck is the DNC doing in an effort to help the resistance?
Why we want candidates to lead
Clem offers this argument:
And if I, a baby boomer who still feels it is my civic obligation to start my day watching and listening to the local news and BBC America before reading the Daily News, New York Times, CNN and BuzzFeed briefs on my cellphone, have no clue where you stand on the above, it’s a safe bet that most of the voters you’ll need to win in November don’t know either.
The truth is, as far as I am concerned, the voters can know where I, or others stand, sure, but to what end? Voters do not vote on the reputation of DNC members. They vote based on candidates. This is one of the most significant mistakes made by organizations who want to whip up outrage at the party. Will Sharice Davids, Paul Davis, James Thompson, Alan LaPolice or our state candidates like Laura Kelly benefit by voters knowing much about their DNC members viewpoints on the issues? Not in any way I can think of, or at least not one I think those campaigns are interested in.
One of the elements that Tom Perez and others have championed is that we as DNC members must do more to promote and lead by example, to put work effort into our party. As a result, we have DNC members actively running for office in many states, we have DNC members who serve in elected office from state houses to city government, and the majority of members continue to work as local activists.
You see, despite the thought that the DNC is a bunch of people in smokey rooms, most of us are elected by our state body and are elected in large part because of the amount of work we put into our state and local organizations.
In some ways, we are leaders — we work hard, we donate to the party, and we promote our interests. In other ways, we must be followers. I have often thought of the DNC and as an organization in many ways in service of the body whole; and when asked, we do the jobs we are assigned. That can be phone bank, it can be help train candidates, it can be recruiting candidates.
DNC’s biggest bloc are state chairs and vice chairs
The largest bloc of members within the DNC are state party chairs and vice chairs. While some are compensated, a large bloc of state party chairs act as volunteers for the party. They turn over large chunks of their lives, and make themselves subject to personal attacks and constant hacking threats, because they want to improve the work in their state.
State Party chairs are sometimes maligned, but their work is tedious, difficult, and far more time consuming than many appreciate. They work to raise money when there are no campaigns, to maintain party resources for incoming potential candidates, to provide voter service for those who need to reach out, and to keep track of all of the data in every election cycle and in their own state legislative bodies.
With the help of staff and executive directors, they build the infrastructure that gives a lot of first-time candidates a place to start, and they provide the umbrella for candidates who do not know where to go.
Over the past four years, I’ve had time to walk districts with state party chairs, attend events in dozens of states led by state chairs, and yes, I’ve been at more than a few meetings where state party chairs were berated, yelled at, and asked to help people work for the party.
That is a big part of the non-paying job.
DNC Initiatives
The DNC provides a framework for candidates to use, and it is imperative, in my view and the view of many, for the Party to find and promote good candidates first, candidates who exemplify the values we need in our government. No task is more important than that one.
It is also important for the party to engage in new ways to bring fresh perspectives into the party. That’s why the DNC and others participate in MobilizeAmerica — along with groups like Daily Kos.
It also means that the party takes big stances when the time comes. In response to the shooting at Parkland, Tom Perez offered a guest editorial for Daily Kos first, and appeared in many places talking about gun violence. We, as a party, resolved that we would no longer accept funds from industries connected to the gun lobby, period. With unions under attack, our party resolved to commit to promoting unionization of state organizations that could, and campaigns. We promote growing the values of our party, walking the walk rather than talking the talk.
Working with outside groups, the party engaged in on the ground effort in many states — notably Alabama — where we got out of the way of the candidate and we instead put party efforts into the ground, making sure all voters possible had a chance to vote.
Pithy anger isn’t the answer
Running for a post in the DNC isn’t a small thing — it is still standing for election, making a case to your fellow Democrats, and running to do service to the party. Races can be difficult. But I know many of the DNC members, and I can tell you the one thing I think none of them plan to do is quit on the party weeks before election day.
Instead, most of us are doing what we can — canvassing our districts, donating money to candidates, and working every day to benefit our candidates.
Final thoughts
If you are in a state and you feel your DNC member isn’t working hard, they aren’t canvassing, donating, or doing other Democratic support work, call them out — it is fair game. But, if they are doing those things, don’t berate them.
I have one rule to all campaigns: we respect and praise our volunteers.
Feel free to ask them to do more; vote them out if they are not. Don’t ask them to overshadow a campaign, don’t ask them to be the thought leader for your state; and don’t demand they start changing the policies of the candidates running in their state. Doing that would be truly damaging to the party, to the candidates running, and it would kill efforts to recruit candidates in the future.
Now that Unity has been adopted in our party, there are new paths to leadership for many members of our party, and I hope we all take advantage of them. New programs within the party build talent pipelines of good campaign workers and training program for candidates help us have stronger candidates.
Clem concludes with this statement:
DNC members, remember that you are the opposition, which means you offer alternatives.
I’d ask DNC members to remember that we are all the opposition, everyone as equals in the ballot box and equal in our role. Our obligation is to find the leaders who will run for office and to make sure they get elected to lead that message. Unless you are a DNC member on the ballot, the alternative we offer isn’t our loud voice screaming — though you’re free to do that — it is the effort and work we put in to elect people who will represent us. And we don’t do that by ruling over Democratic groups or The Resistance. We do it by offering our services, in every way we can, with every effort we can, to help better our nation.
At least that’s what I believe.
PS- I have no intention of resigning, thanks.