The State of the Democratic Party - Annual Report, 2008 Convention and Intra-Party Strife
Last week, the Democratic National Committee issued its 2006 Annual Report to the Grassroots, which describes Democratic Party progress over the past year in accomplishing the goals of its six-point plan.
One of the six points is to "Focus on Our Core Values" via a "clear agenda." The DNC has done a top-rate job at identifying five core values that are vital to all Americans, not just liberals and progressives:
1. Honest leadership and open government;
2. Real security (i.e. getting serious about homeland security);
3. Jobs in America that will stay in America;
4. A strong public education system;
5. A health care system that works for everyone.
Take a few minutes to browse this quick-reading Democratic Party 2006 Annual Report to the Grassroots. The report is full of interesting facts, hard realities and great successes of the past year.
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Eleven cities have accepted a DNC invitation to bid for the 2008 Democratic Convention: Anaheim, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, and San Antonio.
The deadline for cities to file a formal bid proposal is May 19, 2006. A 10-member committee, appointed by DNC Chairman Howard Dean, will review the final proposals to determine which cities merit site visits, which will occur in summer 2006. The DNC is expected to announce the 2008 host city by the end of 2006
I'm rooting for Anaheim, since I live just five miles from the Anaheim Convention Center. Chairman Dean, if you're reading this, Anaheim is the perfect family-friendly convention-ready big city for the 2008 Democratic Convention....perfect weather, near the beach and mountains, and, of course, home of Disneyland. And there are many more Democrats here in Orange County than you might imagine.
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The complaint of pundits and voters has been and continues to be that the Democratic Party hasn't communicated a coherent message. (In a country that values diversity and freedom of speech, it baffles me why people care about a single, lock-step message, but apparently they do. So be it.)
Therefore, DNC leadership has taken a few recent steps of party discipline to craft a message and profer candidates easily understood by the American public, and attractive to both centrist and left-leaning voters.
But those necessary steps have ruffled a few feathers in the impassioned far-left wing. In the three intra-party squabbles I describe (below), the angered liberals were placing greater value on a single issue than on achieving overall party success in 2006 and beyond.
Intra-party squabble #1: Activist Cindy Sheehan wanted to run against Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) because, in her view, the senator is not sufficiently opposed to the Iraq War.....
Cindy, we all deeply admire and are grateful for your courage, persistence and passion in fighting this directionless, deadly and failing war. But that alone doesn't qualify you to be a US Senator. Senator Feinstein is a remarkable and well-qualified centrist-leaning liberal leader with sound judgment, valuable seniority and plum committee assignments.
Cindy, you would do great damage to liberal leadership by interfering in the almost-assured reelection of Senator Feinstein. Thank you for deciding to not enter this election.
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Intra-party squabble #2: "Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders," reported the New York Times on February 14, 2006.
"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said to the Times. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."
Seems that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reasoned with Hackett that Representative Sherrod Brown, a 14-year Congressman, has a far better chance than Hackett of defeating Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH). Brown is extraordinarily popular in Ohio, and has already amassed a campaign chest of "$2.37 million, ten times what Mr. Hackett had raised."
Brown is clearly the more pragmatic Democratic choice to run against Senator DeWine in November 2006. For the greater good of progressive influence in Congress, Hackett should graciously step aside. Party leadership urged Paul Hackett to run for a House seat this fall, but in anger, he petulantly declared the end of his political career.
Politics in a democracy are about negotiation and compromise, not Bush/Cheney/Rove-style threats and intimidation. Paul Hackett and his followers are wrong to pout. It's about gaining seats in the Senate and House in the November 2006 elections, not about appeasing passionate new politicians.
Like Cindy, we admire and respect you, Paul. Run for the House this fall, win and make your distinguished mark there. Your time is the US Senate will come. Do good, be patient and keep the faith, Paul
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Intra-party squabble #3 : The Democratic Party 2006 Annual Report to the Grassroots doesn't specifically mention a goal of outreach to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) community....a fact that has outraged some Democrats.
In fact, Jeff Soref, Gay Democrat Party activist and fundraiser, resigned in a huff from the DNC gay caucus over Chairman Howard Dean's decision to eliminate the gay outreach desk, saying that lumping the GLBT in with all other voter groups "would likely result in less attention to the specific concerns of gay Democrats."
Never mind that no specific mention is made of any other sub-groups of liberals.....not women, not various ethnicities, not the disabled or ill, not union members, not Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or atheists.
The new Democratic strategy is aimed at all Americans, regarded equally, and does not favor certain narrowly defined, special-interest groups. And this is for the better, and for the greater good of the Democratic Party in making all people feel welcome to the progressive fold.
Reaction by many GLBT party loyalists in the Democratic Party has been loud and angry. "Demos to homos: recloset yourself" shouts the wonderful blog Pam's House Blend. "The DNC is officially dead. Howard Dean has gone bonkers," fumes commenter Mike Rogers at top-blog GLBT Out for Democracy.The wisest words on all of this issue comes from commenter K at Out for Democracy: "Remember this: The Democratic Party isn't always our friend, but the Republican Party is always our enemy. I'd like to see so very much more out of the DNC, but little or nothing is still so very, very much better than all the RNC efforts to rouse the homophobic rabble.....
Elect Democrats. Try to get them to do the right thing, but don't do anything that hurts Democrats and helps Republicans maintain control of this country!"
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I've been openly critical of DNC Chair Howard Dean this past year, particularly when he sloppily and embarrassingly shoots off his mouth, and sounds more like wingnut Pat Robertson than liberal evangelical Jim Wallis when he generalizes about about white Christians.
But the Democratic Party's 2006 Annual Report to the Grassroots is a great start on a new path inclusive of all Americans, including white middle-class suburbia often ceded to the Republican Party, and aimed at addressing the most significant concerns of our great nation.
I am delightfully surprised, and hopeful for 2006.
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