Let's Open Up the Democratic Party to Public Participation

[ashling]

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35878-let-s-open-up-the-democratic-party-to-public-participation

Sometime between now and the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, there will almost certainly be a deal between the Sanders forces and the Clinton forces. The $64,000 question is: What are the forces of progress going to get out of the deal?

Here's what I hope will be in the deal: a set of agreements to make the Democratic Party more democratic -- in particular, to make the party more transparent and accountable to the public.

As should be obvious to everyone by now, there's a set of parallel questions for the Republican Party, and the two influence each other: the anti-democratic attributes of the one are invoked as an excuse for the anti-democratic features of the other, and efforts to overturn the anti-democratic features of the one embolden efforts to overturn the anti-democratic features of the other. We now live, for better and for worse, in a two-party system, a legally mandated duopoly, in which a person who wants to fully participate in US democracy has to choose one of the two parties to participate in; and that means that each of the two parties has a quasi-governmental character, and therefore that the public has the right to expect that the two parties will not be allowed to function like private clubs.

[underthematrix]

1. It's a political party which is not a quasi-governmental entity

and I don't want it to be just because one of the losers is a really really sore loser.

[blm]

2. How do you get all 50 states to agree to that mandate? Each state runs its

own election process by their chosen process and each party's voters vote for the process they want their party to follow within the election laws of each state.

[Gman]

3. You do that and

You open it up to The right wing.

It's much better to have a closed shut primary where you must declare as a Democrat and no one but Democrats vote.

[LisaM]

4. It is open to public participation. I've participated in it most of my life.

No one's ever tried to stop or discourage me from doing so, so I am not sure I understand the premise of the OP. We've also historically been the open tent party, which necessarily means that the liberal and conservative wings - and everyone in the middle - respects each others' position. I've always considered myself on the liberal side, but I understand that people I know who live in places like North Carolina or Kansas face a different world around them than I do living in Seattle and that while I don't always agree with them, I need to respect the differences.

The problem with the Republican party right now is that they've completely alienated the so-called liberal wing and they're pecking away at the centrists. What do they have left? The old-school hacks like Boehner and the tea baggers. Their party is being broken apart by the absolute lack of the ability to compromise and all the warning signals are there for this to happen to the Democrats if we can't get a base that sees that we're faced a very wide range of issues and that many of them are pretty nuanced.

We live in a world of moving targets and goalposts and we need to stop being at each others' throats. Of course the Democratic party needs a breath of fresh air. Most organizations do. But it doesn't mean you scoff at and denigrate and chip away at all the people who kept it going through good times and bad over the last 50 years. That is divisive and we don't need it.

[hfojvt]

5. in-duh-pendents are complaining

because they have to give up their virginity to vote in a Democratic Primary. It is just shocking to their moral purity and moral superiority to have to register as part of that corrupt political party.

[PDittie]

6. Debbie doesn't want that.

"I believe that the party's nominee should be chosen — this is Debbie Wasserman Schultz's opinion — that the party's nominee should be chosen by members of the party"

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/278469-dnc-chairwoman-if-up-to-me-id-exclude-independents-from

[Hortensis]

7. Public participation? It's a political party.

You want to participate, you join the party. Bernie wants to stack the party to make it easier for people like him to win against Democrats. As a result of this election season, I've gone from myself wanting a more open process to wanting them all closed.

Transparency and increased democratization WITHIN our party is a different matter, but there would be nothing "public" about it at all. Outsiders would have no power to subvert our choices.

[Squinch]

8. This is dumb on about twelve levels.

[gratuitous]

9. Here's how you can participate

Join the Democratic party. Fill out a voter registration card and where it says "Party," you put "Democrat" or check the little box next to "Democrat."

Find out where in your area Democratic party meetings are held. You can do this by contacting your office for the party. Then, attend those meetings. Get to know other Democrats in your area. Talk to them about what you'd like the party to stand for and do. Listen to them about what they want the party to stand for and do. Negotiate positions where you disagree, confirm issues and policies where you do agree. Depending on the structure of the Democratic party in your state, look into running as a precinct person for the party. Attend more meetings, talk to more people, listen to more people. Invest your time and talent with the local party, and learn why it functions the way it does. If it doesn't suit you, work with some of those people you've been talking and listening to, and change the way things are.

I can assure you that simply crashing a meeting with a list of demands for transparency and accountability in hand won't work. Really. Don't waste your time trying that.