Does this make any sense to you?

[ZombieNixon]

One of our local county Dem coordinators, the guy who took it upon himself to round up candidates for elections, has changed his party registration to Republican and is now working with the local Republican party to field candidates. I know for a fact that his political beliefs are completely antithetical to everything the Republican party stands for, yet he's going to work for them. He said it was because he had too much trouble getting financial support from the Dems. Our local committee, in their infinite wisdom (not), dug in its heels and insisted that the money must go through the three levels of bureaucracy before arriving locally. This guy was young, energetic, ambitious, and just helped our Young Dems group pull off a spectacular fundraiser just a few weeks ago. It's a tremendous loss. While I respect his decision, I find it baffling. Can anyone else may sense of it?

This also highlighted one of the great failures of our local organization. It's completely run by old-guard Democrats who think we'll win by playing nice. They insist in shunting everything through the bureaucratic process and nothing ever gets done; that's why we lose, and that's why we'll continue to lose people who could otherwise be incredible assets.

Rant over.

[Vincardog]

1. We need to succeed in spite of the Fossils in charge.

Pick your candidate or project and work for her/it instead of working for the party.

[haele]

2. What are the republicans in your area like?

Sounds as if this guy is basically a centerist or moderate who's looking to make some "political capitol" for his future; and if the 'pubby party tends moderate, he'll ignore the truth of the national politics for the local ones. I hate to say it, but if this guy was really politically astute and wanting to work with the Democratic Party, he'd have stuck with it. He'll soon find that most Republican party organizations are like church social clubs; not much different than most Democratic party organizations, but usually with more money, media access and social status.

Sounds as if your local Dem organization needs some waking up. It's not a matter of playing nice or not - it's a matter of being "steadfast" - to take back a word from the noise machine - and to the tenats of the party. It's a matter of keeping an eye on the realities of the national situation while working within the local situations.
It's also a matter of bluntly spelling out that people who play big fish in little pond and are in an organizational leadership position for themselves rather than for the organization are hurting the goals of the organization.

BTS, unless you missed a few points in your post, playing nice had nothing to do with the problem this guy faced. The bureaucratic nonsense created by individual power games was the problem. The "fossilization" caused it. Ask your organization - are they basically a social club, or are they honestly trying to do good for their party and their community?

We also have to take back the word "nice". Nice does not mean wimp; it can mean "coercing through making people feel good".

One can still "be nice" and change the organization from within. One just has to realize that "being nice" can mean "selling the idea when pointing out the problems and the possible solutions". Good sales people are "nice". As are many of the most insidious neo-con enablers...the "good cops" to the O'Liely, Weiner, and Limpbutt "bad cops".

Haele

[ZombieNixon]

7. The local Republicans are, in a word,

evil. They tend right of the right wing.

>>It's also a matter of bluntly spelling out that people who play big fish in little pond and are in an organizational leadership position for themselves rather than for the organization are hurting the goals of the organization.

Completely right. Our Young Dems group has great organization and outreach in the community, but since the central committee won't give us any financing, we spend all our time doing fundraising and barely manage to break even. I seriously think these people are just in it for themselves.

>>Nice does not mean wimp; it can mean "coercing through making people feel good".

In that sense, I'm nice, which is why I'm the press outreach guy for the Young Dems.

>>One just has to realize that "being nice" can mean "selling the idea when pointing out the problems and the possible solutions".

Unfortunately, the powers that be don't want to hear about the problems, let alone the solutions, if it means a shakeup in the power structure.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Our local Democratic committee

came to a meeting of anti-Bush people of all political stripes last year, and basically told us there was no sense in supporting any candidate (except maybe Clark), and that they didn't intend to spend any money campaigning because the Repukes always win in our county. They had a group of people willing and eager to help them, and they walked away. Our comments were that if this was how the Democratic Party operates, we'd work outside the party. We raised funds, put pro-Kerry ads and LTTE in the local paper, and held rallies. No local Democrats were elected, of course, and you know what happened to Kerry in Arkansas. But I can't help but wonder if one of the MAIN reasons we lost so many of the 'red' states was because of local committees like this.

Howard Dean says he wants to rebuild the party from the grassroots up. I think this is a good idea, and we need to start with local Committees.

[FtWayneBlue]

6. I wanted to work for Kerry here in the red state of Indiana

and made my first visit to the county Democratic HQ. There I was told that the Kerry people wanted Indiana Democrats to work for re-electing the Democratic incumbent Governor, and forget about the Presidential race. They were all out of Kerry yard signs early on and said they weren't getting any more. I left disgusted and didn't work as hard as I otherwise might have. :(

[ZombieNixon]

8. I think it is the reason.

I'm in New Mexico. It ever there was an example of the Dem leadership failing in a swing state, NM's it. When the Kerry people came down from New Hampshire and set up shop in the Dem HQ. The Central Committee people left in a hissy fit, because the NH higher-ups had the gumption to tell what was going wrong, and they didn't like to hear it.

[Cleita]

9. My local Democratic Party didn't even run a

House of Representatives congressional candidate against the incumbent Republican for two elections already. I'm really getting fed-up with the milquetoasts. That's a seat that could be picked up with the right candidate.

[baldguy]

4. Some people are mercenaries.

[damntexdem]

5. The Dems won't win as GOP wannabees.

But the Old Guard keep trying to make it the Old Guard Party. If we let them, we'll be the OGP all right: the Out of Government Party.

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. I'm not surprised, but it might not be a bad thing.

1. I'm seeing a lot of encouraging signs that the local committees are being wrested away from the "set in their ways" folks and being taken over by younger more activisit democrats. I know that just happened at my DEC. The more local committees we have that happen to, the better off we'll be. So those of you who aren't going to the meetings, go! It can be done.

2. Perhaps the young man you speak of will have some influence in getting the Republican party to field more moderate candidates and weed out some of the extremists. It's a hope anyway.

I've decided that come hell or high water I'm going to be an obnoxious optimist. ;)