Sunday, July 19, 2015

If the DNC rigs the primaries they risk the Election

Dear Ms Wasserman Schultz

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Democratic National Committee
430 South Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
 

I am a Democrat. That means I'm closer to being an independent voter than most folks who style themselves an "independent." I love the history of this party and it's ties to Jefferson and Madison. I even love the darkside of our party and our ties to Andrew Jackson. 1828 was his year. I love Andrew Jackson as a populist. He too fought a rigged financial system. He also engaged in some of the darkest behavior of our history with the Indian Removals he instigated. Our country has always had to push from the bottom to have any democratic features in this Republic, and the natural tendency of our purported leaders is oligarchy. We call our party "democratic" because that is what we are about. And in our system that means choice in the primaries. The Daily Kos is running an article accusing you of rigging the election towards Hillary Clinton.

I don't believe that allegation. I think maybe you just need some help organizing a strong primary challenge in order to vet our candidates. If it were true that you were trying to rig the primary, then it would be incredibly stupid. The Reason Bernie Sanders is in this race is that there has been a sea change in the consciousness of the Democratic Rank and File and a lot of us, even those of us who love Hillary and Obama, know that this country needs more than to simply run a slightly better alternative to the fascism of the Cons. We don't need to be deprogrammed from the Con Artists in the GOP, but many of us are outraged at the continuing behavior of Wall Street, the Revolving door among our officers, Citizens United, Spying and the unwillingness of law enforcement to prosecute our biggest criminals on Wall Street while they go after School Teachers for downloading music from public websites. Now I understand that a lot of Democratic funding comes from Wall Street. But it is in the interest of Wall Street to obey the law, and it is in our survival interest to start reigning them in and getting them to pay for their privileges, or they will succeed in bankrupting our country. They already have ruined the lives of a lot of us. And we are angry and demand change. This is not a season for Triangulating or glad-handing. We want real change.

A 50 state strategy is a start. We need a 3,144 Counties and 19,509 Cities,towns and villages strategy. And right now we need to be sponsoring robust primaries in all our states so that the people can thoroughly vet our candidates. If there is anyway I can help I'd love to. It's a gargantuan task. But that is where real democracy is. It's when the people rule, when we step up.

What you can't do is a sloppy primary.

2016 and Fighting Wall Street

I looked at your website. No mention of Wall Street and our issues with them. Also You should be talking about our Infrastructure and how we need to rebuild it. Also, when I click on "2016" I want to see our candidates first. Not a really poor quality set of graphics on the evils of the GOP. I'm looking at the DNC because I want to know who among our leadership is standing for the people, for reforming Wall Street, preventing another financial meltdown, rebuilding our infrastructure, etc.... I think most people entering the site are looking for information on what we are going to do in 2016, not the dark side of our unhappy opponents. Maybe a Tab that says "Democrats in 2016" and "What we Face" might work better. It needs a list serve, and to be more closely integrated with the State Websites. And we need to facilitate democracy in our party.

Project Ivy

Project Ivy is a page right now. I'd really like to see it as a portal to 3,144 Counties and 19,509 Cities and more closely integrated with the State Democratic party orgs. You've got a webpage to the various Democratic State Organizations. That needs to be integrated. Each of them should have a website, two way communications, a database, and the ability to query candidates. If you could get hold of the team that runs Obama's website it would help.

Each of them should have people on hand to get out the word. We need to make our party more democratic. I know we really want to win in 2016. But process matters as much as outcome. We can do it Ms Schultz. I know most of us love Hillary, but we should be listening to Bernie. His plank expresses a common theme. If I can help I will.

I guess we Dems are going to have to fight to get our plank out there. For now I'm taking Bernie's plank as a starting point. Please consider adopting it as the Dem Plank. We'll be following your efforts and whether you (and Hillary) do.

Further Reading

http://www.democrats.org/the-latest
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/17/1403055/-DNC-Accused-of-Rigging-Debate-Schedule-to-Benefit-Hillary-Clinton#

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