I served from 1994 through June 2010 as chairman
of the Delaware County Democratic Party. Upon my retirement from that office I
chose to refrain from using my blog entries to analyze or criticize Democratic
Party activities in Delaware County or Pennsylvania as I preferred to give my
successor four years without me nipping at his heals. He has now been
re-elected and four years have gone by.
I no longer intend to remain mute when I see my party moving in the
wrong direction.
The
political party structure in the United States is an anachronistic
irrelevancy. The party structure as
modeled differently by both parties is based on precinct, municipal,
county, and state committees with
boundaries often drawn in the 19th century based on rivers and streams and the
ability of a horse drawn carriage to reach the central meeting place in
sufficient time to allow a meeting. It
was created by most states before the inception of the direct primary in which
the people chose the party candidates.
It has now become a group of permanently involved party activists who
meet to choose officers and delegates to larger meetings who meet to choose
officers. This act of self preservation
occurs two or four years, as the party and the jurisdiction require, and as
shown in the recent PA state committee reorganization the primary concern of
this structure is not who will lead the people but who will run the party. Our
former Governor Ed Rendell has pronounced the verdict on the state party
structure: “They have no significance, no political power, no punch.”
[The
Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee turned down the proposed party chairman
suggested by the state’s Gubernatorial candidate, Tom Wolf, because rather than
unite the party by selecting one of the competing primary candidates as state
chair along with a prominent African American legislator (as Vice Chair) the
party bosses preferred to keep their friend, the current chair, in office. In 2002, after a bitter primary, the State Comm.
accepted as Chair and Vice Chair, for six months, the choices of the two
candidates Rendell and Casey - Rendell went on to win and after the six months
the State Committee could go back to business as usual and elect a loyal
trooper to the Chair position. It only took four years of Republican control of
Harrisburg for the Democratic State Committee to drop decades of party
tradition and put their personal interests above the interests of the people of
the Commonwealth.]
This
anachronistic structure modified by the direct primary at the turn of the 20th
century is out of step in every way in the 21st century. A system designed shortly after Alexander
Graham Bell invented the telephone has no structural relevancy to a society
that communicates using smart phones, the Internet, instagram and varying and
always developing modes of social media.
Today’s generations are more open to political discussion in chat rooms
than following the dictates of bosses meeting in back rooms.
The
party structure proves its irrelevance in almost every primary. In the Republican contests tea party grass
roots movements continue to topple long time incumbents backed by the party
structure. In the Democratic Party the
same is often true of populist and independent candidates. Here in PA Tom Wolf
defeated the party structure in the state primary with well over 50% of the
vote in a four way contest with two long time opponents who had the support of
over 95% of the party structure.
Whether
this country continues as a two party democracy, or a multi party democracy, it
must find a way to prevent the oligarchs from creating a plutocracy. And, the only way to do that is to create a
21st century party modality. That party
infrastructure must be based not on geography (when our population is so mobile
that few live in the same precinct or even municipality more than a half dozen
years) nor on single issues. It must be
based on a general sharing of political values - liberal, conservative,
centrist, socialist, Green, Libertarian et. al.
It must be grass roots in its membership - open to all and funded by
all. And it must rally behind candidates
that reflect its values -- not seek to
anoint those candidates who cater to them nor destroy their opponents but to
encourage candidates who want to serve the public and educate those opponents
to the positive aspects of the party’s values.
I
would say we need a new political structure but nothing in history is new.
Before the Civil War our political parties were much less structures and often
consisted of rallies and county conventions of like minded folk. Our
politicians practiced a politics of civility when in office and governing and
hardball on the campaign trail. And of
course we all know there was a time when politics stopped at the water’s
edge. Since 1994 and the Gingrich
revolution and the advent of Fox News we have become a nation of the politics
of personal destruction. All actions are
reactions. All politics instead of being
local is now just mean and nasty.
My
generation may be too old to bring back the American democratic system and
revise the party system that made the governing system work. And my generation’s children may be too
cynical after Watergate and Iraq to care enough about politics to do what needs
to be done. But my grandchildren’s
generation - growing up now seeing an America that accepts its diversity and
leads for peace in the World may reclaim the Democracy which our founding
fathers gave us and make it work again.
22 June 2014
