Opening up the Democratic Party
This primary season (as well as the previous ones) has shown clearly how the establishment (the two parties, media, corporations, status quo politicians, etc.) has opposed and unfairly hindered Bernie Sander's campaign for nomination. This is not a new phenomena and has been going on in previous elections as well.
Bernie has been saying that he wants millions of people to stand up and be part of the political revolution. He's called for the Democratic Party leaders to open the doors and let the people in.
Does Bernie have a plan for how he's going to get the Democratic Party to be more open and inclusive of the grassroots participants? Just asking them nicely is obviously not going to do the trick.
Is this something that can be negotiated at the Democratic National Convention? Is it feasible that Bernie's delegates raise motions from the floor to amend the DNC bylaws to make them fairer? To perhaps abolish or at least improve the super-delegate system?
Is there any sort of coordinated effort to try to change the Democratic Party from the inside by getting progressive and reform minded folks elected to the various Democratic Party committees (at the State and County committees)?
All the Democratic Party state and county committees have their own bylaws that govern how the committee gets elected as well as how the bylaws themselves can be amended. Having a grassroots movement (Bernie's movement?) coordinate efforts to recruit and get people elected to those committees can be a way to move the political revolution along.
From what I understand, this is how the Tea Party took over the Republican Party machine, precinct by precinct. Can we not do the same and vote the current lobbyists off from these party positions and replace them with progressives? Wouldn't doing so allow us to make the Democratic Party our own that we can turn into a truly progressive party that belongs to the people, and not to some private wealthy interests who seem to have a systematic stranglehold on the party machinery?
I'm really interested in issues of fair democracy, electoral reform, and grassroots participation. I would like to connect with and learn from other people who are interested in these issues and any knowledge they can share. Thanks!
Comments
All good questions..I don't know.
1. I am too impatient to deal with precinct by precinct until there is a critical mass large enough to impact the party. I'm not giving an opinion on it, just saying too long term to suit me.
2. I don't trust them. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear and do whatever they please. If by-laws can be amended to the left, they can be amended back to the right. Look how long it took DWS to undo Obama's no PAC whatever his prohibition was. She snapped her fingers, and it was gone.
3. Kshama Sawant makes an argument for building a new party outside of the Dem Party here.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/she-makes-great-argument-bernie-run-i...
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Tedious yes but our options are limited
1. The precinct by precinct approach is tedious indeed, and could take a while, but there is a need to have a viable party that truly represents ordinary peoples' interests. And it is not a good situation that both the major parties are under corporate interests' control. Even if it takes a long time, I do believe that it is a worthwhile effort to organize on a mass scale to achieve this goal. I am trying to figure out if there are people out there with the know-how of how to do this, or if there are people who might already be doing this as a coordinated effort. If not, I would like to see a movement to reform the DNC take shape.
2. I don't trust that the Democratic Party officials are always going to be honest either. That's why I think amending the by-laws is a better approach for precisely this reason. I think Obama's ban was basically through an executive decision being the head of the Democratic Party. It wasn't in the by-laws which require a full committee's vote (with proper quorum and all that) to amend. That's why DSW was able to reverse Obama's "ban" so easily. Because there wasn't anything stopping her.
By-laws can also be amended in such a way that future amendments require notification of intent to amend the by-laws to all eligible committee members so that such shenanigans cannot be secretly orchestrated in the future. I'm pretty sure there are open organization laws out there that can be adapted for this purpose. So yeah, there is always a risk but with proper thought and implementation, the risk can be reduced. But in the end, in order to keep and maintain Democracy, the citizens always need to be vigilant.
3. Kshama Sawant is great and she totally rocked that interview! I disagree with her though. I would be with Bernie if he goes for her proposal but Bernie has unambiguously stated that he is a Democrat for life. I don't think that Bernie is the sort of guy who would give his word and not follow through on it. In other words, if he dumps the Democrats and runs as independent or third-party, he would be mocked as being dishonest by corporate media and his other rivals. However, given the bad-faith efforts by the party establishment to defeat his campaign and their overt bias towards Hillary does give him an excuse to reverse his position and to run as an independent/third-party. I just don't think he'll do it and will instead push for the Democratic Party leaders to implement the change from the top-down. I would like to see his supporters, us, to meet him from the bottom-up, by running to County and State Democratic Committees. As Bernie has said, real change happens when millions of people rise together and make it happen.
I support Kshama though as well in her efforts to build up the socialist party. We need to make the progressive revolution happen on all fronts. Both from within the Democratic Party, as well as by building up viable alternative options to keep a check on the Democrats. Ah, the dreams of a healthy multi-party democracy!
Love is my religion.
As I See It
"Does Bernie have a plan for how he's going to get the Democratic Party to be more open and inclusive of the grassroots participants? "
Not in specific terms. Getting more people to participate is a good start.
"Is this something that can be negotiated at the Democratic National Convention?"
Not likely. Power and control will have to be taken from them over the next few years. That effort has to begin at the local committee level.
"Is there any sort of coordinated effort to try to change the Democratic Party from the inside by getting progressive and reform minded folks elected to the various Democratic Party committees (at the State and County committees)?"
Not yet as far as I can see. But that door is open, and Bernie supporters can take up that effort and get it going once the Convention is out of the way. We would be needed (assuming that Hillary isn't under arrest) to keep the Democrats honest. The larger party effort can build from there.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
Yes!
I agree with everything you said. We need to structurally and systemetically reform the Democratic Party, once and for all, while we are in "revolution mode" so to speak. I don't want the Democratic Party to keep getting hijacked by corporate and wealthy elites, over and over, into the future.
I know everyone is focused on the upcoming primaries for now but this is a conversation that needs to happen within the movement sooner rather than later.
Love is my religion.
things happening from the "political" angle
There's a link to reddit and the start of the "article" and in the article the link to the MSNBC "jpg" which is the filing which begins: "This firm serves as legal counsel to Bernie 2016, Inc. ..." (You can also click on the "thumbnail" I've posted just to the right - - > )
Basically, they are challenging the credentials of Gov. Malloy and Barney Frank as chairs of their DNC committees, citing "personal hostility" toward Bernie Sanders and publicly campaigning for HRC making them incapable of fulfilling the obligations to provide an impartial proceeding at the convention.
The election process requires getting on the ballots in all states; only the two major corporations are on the ballot in all 50 states; Bernie ran through the (D) corporation and is being treated unfairly as stated in the corporations' own operating guidelines; therefor Bernie is challenging the chairs of two of the committees of the corporation as being unqualified to chair those two committees.
It's all corporate contract law. None of this has anything to do with the government really, (besides now appealing to the judicial system for the corporations to follow their own bylaws as written in their corporate filings,) just two private corporations selecting their choices to nominate to the actual government election ...
(Yes, to me, the D and R nomination processes really appears no different than the NFL season - just various corporations playing with each other, and the corporate media, seeing that it is a spectator sport just as popular as the NFL, commenting on and airing some of the games ...)
this is like "Deflategate"
Bernie is taking his complaint to the
NFLDNC to complain thatTom Brady'sHillary Clinton's ball boys are rigging the game under theNFL'sDNC's own rules - and thereby implicitly threatening to escalate the situation to the judicial system as a breach of contract legal case if the results of the internal corporate decision is unsatisfactory.corporate contract law
They should still be held accountable if they don't follow their own internal bylaws, or rather be compelled to comply with them. I'm proposing that we, the people, should try to have a not-so-hostile takeover of the Democratic Party, rewrite the bylaws to make it more inclusive, open and transparent, as well as to make it harder to modify the bylaws in secrecy. Basically, apply good open organization rules that we, the people, could research and agree upon.
Love is my religion.