Your next 2020 Democratic presidential primary thread: Now we're serious

Omg he's dead?

“Become an elected official and then you can have a say in the party” = we don’t have parties in any meaningful sense.

I, a normal person, have no actual say in the Democratic platform or legislative agenda.

jfc read the link I posted

all you have to do is be a registered Democrat in your District and run in an internal party election.

milo is is saying fuck the noise about running for office, i think

here let me c+p it for you

AD Delegates to the Democratic State Central Committee (DSCC) are responsible for planning and attending informational meetings throughout the region and working with other DSCC delegates throughout California to represent their community.

AD Delegates are elected by voters (to participate in the ADEM you MUST be a registered Democrat in that Assembly District).

AD Delegates vote on behalf of the community they represent at CDP Regional Meetings, the California Democratic Party Convention, and those who are also elected to serve as an Executive Board member are responsible for voting and representing their community at the semi-annual E-Board meetings.

like omg a political party expects you to have the support of members of your party in order to have a say in how the party is run

it's almost as if there's some wilful ignorance going on here

yeah but i think what you're missing is that you can't post an angry tweet fb status or ilx post and thereby change the party platform

the democratic party has about 45 million registered members and every few year they get to vote on things. Sometimes their votes end up choosing the people who are in the room when the platform is drawn up. Don't see what extra power you'd expect as a "normal person"

fwiw anyone can write up a proposal to be voted on and taken to the state convention at the Iowa caucuses. on an election year like this one, you'd probably cultivate the enmity of the mass of people getting impatient, though

Do you guys not have friends who attend your party's state convention, vote for the state Dem party chair, etc.? It is not hard to do and people do it. You don't have to get elected to anything. In Wisconsin you have to pay $25, less if you're a student or elderly.

Yes, covered the ‘elected officials part. Multiple obfuscating layers ensurie that normal people have no direct influence and thus participation is limited primarily to voting every 2-4 years for most people.

This is all in response to the idea that “we have a party, them’s the rules” - how many people here voted for the superdelegate rules?

every state has a Democratic Party, and representatives (delegates, as noted above) from those state parties participate in national conventions, elections, party platforms, the DNC etc. Every state Democratic Party has rules, structures, internal elections, platforms, and resources that are open and available to any registered Democrat in that state.

to suggest otherwise is factually inaccurate and ahistorical. this is not fucking rocket science.

Do you guys not have friends who attend your party's state convention, vote for the state Dem party chair, etc.? It is not hard to do and people do it.

I do have friends/coworkers active in the party at this level. I tried to vote in our last assembly district delegate election because there was a big progressive candidate push but I couldn't even get in the door (the line to the voting hall was around the block, it was raining and I had my kids with me)

xps

Multiple obfuscating layers ensurie that normal people

here let me google that for you

(should probably just be automatically appended to all your dumbshit posts on this topic)

normal people have no direct influence and thus participation is limited primarily to voting every 2-4 years for most people.

based on their observable behavior, most normal people wouldn't want it any other way, but they do like to bitch and moan about politics on the internet. a lot.

I am largely OK with other people having more decision-making power than I do because they do the work and I don't.

jeez, turn the kindness meter up a few notches y'all

Shakey sold his

It really is easy to get involved with Dem politics, you just have to (physically) show up and start volunteering for things. There's usually more work to be done then there are people to do it, and you're likely to have "power" pressed upon you pretty quickly whether you like it or not.

Like, the reason why state and local D parties are dominated by old folks, for example, is that they're the only ones who show up.

that's true!

I know a handful of people who do show up who are in their 30s-40s, regularly attend city council meetings or watch them online, and regularly contact their local representatives

the image of elected representatives only doing what their donors/party want has a bit of truth but for most, they act on issues that are brought to them by concerned parties. sometimes that's a couple persistent letter writers instead of the local union or corporation

you can have direct influence by getting coffee with your city council member if you're in a smaller city!

sorry, I get pretty angry with people that complain about the system and then refuse to do the bare minimum to learn how it works.

Bernie's message of grassroots political revolution must really be resonating with his online proponents lol

your standard is higher than Pelosi's "that's like, five people" i guess

Writing longer versions of what I said isn't really blowing my mind, Shakes. Yes, you can theoretically vote for the guy who votes for the guy who votes for the guy who votes for the guy who votes for the guy who eventually votes for Tom Perez who then nominates a half dozen oil lobbyists to the DNC Executive Committee. Hence 'obfuscating layers.' I know how 'it works.'

so you want, what, direct elections for every Democratic Party decision and office? get ready to vote a lot.

one man's obfuscating layers are another man's delegated responsibility

same

https://thehardtimes.net/opinion/my-brain-says-warren-my-heart-says-sanders-and-my-dick-wont-stop-screaming-jeb-bush/

also am confused as to how you can say all those people voting up the line within an established framework do not constitute a political party

xps

It's definitely impossible to conceive of a system with, say, dues-paying memberships supporting mail and online voting for various 'decisions and offices.'

lol dues-paying gtfo

gonna go out on a limb here and just write off your political opinions as totally asinine

milo is right actually

Organizations with dues, a wild and unheard of concept.

a political party that requires dues paying is a) elitist and b) inherently corrupt

I think that is 100% anti-democratic and totally fucked up and there's no way yr hero Bernie would endorse that

So... the Wisconsin Democratic Party?

It is not hard to do and people do it. You don't have to get elected to anything. In Wisconsin you have to pay $25, less if you're a student or elderly.

you can charge a waivable $12

clearly the existing democratic party, which I believe can accept unlimited donations for party activities, is not corrupt

yup I think that's totally wrong

donations are not dues

xps

I also paid $25 or something to join my local LD Democratic organization a while ago but I forgot to show up to the endorsement meeting for the local election which was my whole motivation to join, I probably won't bother until Kshama Sawant is up for reelection again.

yeah donations can be used to peddle influence unlike dues

Οὖτις in Canada most if not all parties charge an annual fee for membership, and I'm talking low two digits. I suspect this is true of many other countries. The notion that this is "elitist" is ridiculous.

a political party that requires dues paying is a) elitist and b) inherently corrupt

not sure where i stand in this epic debate, but the first thing that comes to mind is how donating money to favored candidates is the standard way to support them. it's not required, no. but it's how you participate in the election. or at least, that's what joe biden eternally asking if he can bum $5 off of you seems to think

i guess that's already been covered, whoops

$12 vs "take a weekend off to travel across the state to the state convention and maybe get to vote on something"

it's elitist in the sense that poor people aren't going to do it for the privilege of weighing in on low-level party functionary elections.

donating to a candidate is a more direct way of saying "I want to vote for this person for elective office", it's a bit more direct

ftr I hate the whole dynamic of candidates having to raise money at all - either from small online donations or PACs or huge donors - I'm basically for publicly-funded elections.

xps