The primary is the period in which we get to
think about and hear new leaders and new ideas and at the national level.
We need a discussion in our Democratic Party about how we respond to the Republican greed and angry, selfish nonsense especially to the absurd libertarian challenges to American values.
But we will not have that if our primary is merely a coronation and not an opportunity to hear a number of voices.
The problem is, as Bernie Sanders and others have pointed out: it takes so much money to get TV access, to buy ads, to get media attention, to organize, to rent a headquarters, etc. and run a campaign.
That is the problem for candidates with new and progressive views that should get attention from voters. Same for candidates who might be better alternatives to the appointed and anointed. (Not just talking about Hillary here. Progressives need to organize at the state and local levels first where are many similar candidates who are viewed as inevitable and aren't necessarily the strongest candidates. It isn't their fault that they rise to the top. Sometimes no one else steps up who can do the work required to get elected. I explain this below.)
Working in the Democratic Party at the local level (with always, always wonderful people, I must add), I have observed that, usually, appointing and anointing candidates is a process carried out by party activists who have a lot of other things on their minds. Some are thinking about their own chances at re-election, their jobs or some specific community project or problem or maybe not offending someone in their social group or the Party. Some are just social butterflies who love to be in on the action.
Many, many of the party activists are worried about how the Party is going to pay for the campaign. All of them are dedicated to getting Democrats into office. That is the priority, and while the specific ideas of the candidate are important when there is a choice, that is not always the first concern of those who decide which potential candidate the Party will back. Money and the ability to get it may top ideology and for good reason.
People at the local level have to get along so there is always some concern about personality clashes. Who is a team player? Who is reliable? Who will work well with others? Who has that smile on his/her face? Who is good with numbers? Who can type? Who has the ability to connect on the phone? These are just some of the important questions that must be dealt with when organizing a campaign.
You cannot have a successful campaign if the volunteers are a ll a bunch of egotistical individualists who can't work with others. A brilliant person with great ideas who can't get along with others is pretty useless in a campaign. Sorry, but that is just the fact.
Then a big question is which candidate will draw the most financial support? There is no campaign unless you have that wonderful and self-sacrificing accountant somewhere at the level of your county party or campaign who crunches the numbers and stretches the resources so that Democrats can afford some sort of candidate, some sort of campaign. And remember, there is not much pay for doing that thankless job for progressive candidates.
The legal compliance reporting can also be a time-consuming and thankless job. But it too has to be done. So the people who volunteer to do those jobs or who are paid very little to do them deserve to be rewarded with as much love as everyone can give them.
Think of the costs. You have to rent a headquarters. The phone bill will be huge. You need banks of phones. You have to pay for the hand-outs. You have to sell tee-shirts and buttons, etc. Who can be trusted to handle the small change? A question that has to be asked.
Somebody has to run a voter registration drive which means traveling around with a table and reaching out to voters. Takes a patient personality, people who don't get riled by smart alecs who disagree with them. People who can be very kind to the confused and ignorant. People who are gentle and persuasive but down-to-earth and capable of getting the job done. Direct voter contact takes more than just conviction and dedication to a political platform.
Someone else has to do the secretarial work, generate computer lists, coordinate with the local voter registrar to get lists that identify specifically voters you want to target -- let's say voters who are registered as Democrats and vote regularly.
Then there is organizing and feeding volunteers. Getting folks to walk precincts especially in the get-out-the-vote days right before the election.
The workload is huge. And the rewards are not glorious. In 2008, when Obama was elected, I had been up since 4:30 a.m., didn’t get back from the polls until late in the evening, and then I just fell into bed. One of my daughters called and woke me and said Obama had won. I never expected a result that soon. You work on a campaign (and I was just a volunteer) and you work to exhaustion.
So the party leadership naturally wants a candidate who brings understanding of and facility in dealing with the organization and funding of a campaign. The candidate also has to charm volunteers. Patience can be more important to those who work with a candidate at nitty-gritty time than ideological purity.
We Progressives often eliminate ourselves from the selection and campaing process because we can't be bothered to volunteer at the campaign level during and before campaigns and do the work that is required to run a campaign. Lots of us do volunteer, but too many of us are just talk and maybe marching.
If we Progressives want attention and respect for our ideas, we have to get organized.
While marching and carrying signs are manifestations and the results of a certain kind of organization, they will not get our candidates nominated or elected. They will not get our ideas adopted. They may draw attention and attract people who are unhappy with the status quo, people like us, but they will not change much if they are not backed up with the kind of work I am describing here.
We have to do the tedious and less exciting job of getting our candidates nominated and elected. And if we don't want corporate money to dominate our elections, then we have to put our money and most of all our time, effort and focus on winning elections.
It's time for Progressives to work and not just kind of gather and march and feel good together. Our planet needs us. Our children need us. Our country needs us.
So pick your candidate and your agenda and volunteer. It's the only way we can change anything. And remember, the first person you need to change is yourself.
So far, I have volunteered to help Bernie Sanders. As everyone knows, I like both Bernie and Elizabeth Warren. But Bernie seems more likely to run than Warren. We shall see whether we Progressives can grow up enough to get a candidate who speaks for us.
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