It appears that some members of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) are pushing for pushing to move money and authority from the Democratic Party to the state parties, on the theory that the consultant dominated national party cannot get ot of its own way.
If this sounds familiar, this is probably because it's very close to Howard Dean's tenure as head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) when he instituted the, "50 State Strategy."
The official justification used by Howard Dean was that the party should contest every election, as opposed to writing off whole districts or states, a subtext was that by taking resources from an incompetent and corrupt national office, and giving it to people who actually live where the elections are happening, and who aren't dependent on wasteful spending to fund their kids private school tuition, you get better results. (Of course, Obama's and his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel dismantled this post haste following the 2008 elections)
When one considers the mendacity and incompetence of the Democratic Party inside the DC beltway, this looks to be an attractive option:
Dozens of voting members of the Democratic National Committee met Friday to organize a new voting bloc to push for changes to the internal governance of the national party and send more money to state party groups, according to multiple attendees.
The gathering at the Churchill Hotel in D.C., across the street from the party’s winter meeting, came after months of growing complaints among some rank-and-file voting members. They argue that the top-down structure of the DNC, which is directed by advisers to President Biden, risks undermining changes aimed at empowering the grass roots that went into effect after the 2016 presidential election.
Calling itself “DNC Members for Party Modernization,” the group is pushing for a greater share of the national party budget to be channeled directly to the states, more distributed regional representation in the party leadership teams, greater internal oversight of the party budget and other changes to the party’s governing rules, such as new restrictions on proxy voting.
“This is us saying, ‘We are the DNC and we want the DNC to be more responsive to the states,’” said Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb, one of the organizers. “We have now been through several cycles kicking ourselves and saying we should have organized. So we are organizing ourselves.”
The effort tracks fissures among Democrats that have been endemic for decades, dating most notably to former Vermont governor Howard Dean’s leadership of the party, when he focused after the 2004 election on investing in all state parties. The current DNC leadership has aimed much of its funding at a select number of swing states that are likely to decide Senate control in 2022 and the presidential election in 2024. Several state parties in other parts of the country believe more-local efforts have been left behind.
As I have noted before, (see here, here, here, here, and here) the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) has a problem with corruption.
I do not think that the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) can be mended in the near term, so defunding it is the best course of action.
I would also note that the problems within the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) are a manifest example of the Iron Law of Institutions, that, "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," though one could quote Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles as well, "We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs here, gentlemen!"
0 comments :
Post a Comment