And the Dems Draw a Target on Their Shoes and Take Careful Aim

Across the country, College Democrat chapters are boycotting the DCCC over the blacklist of consultants who work for primary challengers:

DCCC to meet with progressives over controversial ‘blacklist’ policy:

Young Democrats at more than 30 colleges nationwide plan to boycott the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in protest of a new policy critics say is intended to freeze out challengers to incumbent representatives.

The policy, launched in late March, would require consultants and strategists to pledge not to work for candidates challenging a sitting Democratic member of Congress or be left off a list of vendors approved to work with the DCCC.

The Harvard College Democrats are leading the coalition, which initially featured 26 chapters nationwide but which Harvard Democrats President Hank Sparks confirmed to The Hill currently stands at 42. Participants include groups based at Arizona State University, Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, Rutgers University-Newark, University of Virginia and Spelman College.

“Primary challengers are essential to ensure that the Democratic Party is continually held accountable to the needs of our constituents. This blacklist policy is undemocratic and antithetical to our values of inclusion and diversity,” the Harvard Democrats said in a letter Wednesday. “Challengers to incumbents have been essential to making the Democratic Party an institution that truly reflects the progressive values and diverse identities of the people it claims to represent.”

The DCCC's policy is stupid and counter-productive, but the goal is not to create success, it is designed to ensure that those who control the party remain in control, even if it harms the party.

It is the Iron Law of Institutions writ small and petty:

The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to "succeed" if that requires them to lose power within the institution.

HOnestly, these groups should not be calling for a reversal of the policy, they should be calling for DCCC head Cheri Bustos.

Otherwise, the policy will continue on the down low.