Why the Democratic Party Fails

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Mike the Mad Biologist says something that I have been saying for years that the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is more interested in corruption and self dealing than they are in winning or governing:

To follow up on yesterday’s post about Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s decision to tank Senate bill S1, making it highly unlikely Democrats will hold either the House or the Senate in 2022, there is one way to still win elections. That is to massively increase voter turnout through organizing.

The problem is that the consultants picked by the Democratic Party leadership–and which are forced on Democratic candidates–have no incentive to do this. They don’t want to give ‘their money’ to a bunch of local and state organizers, who are typically unaffiliated with specific candidates or even the Democratic Party. That’s not the business model–the business model is running TV ads (sometimes online ads too) and getting a cut of the expenditure. Meanwhile the people on the ground who bang on doors are shortchanged.

With a Chief Justice on the Supreme Court who has dedicated his entire career to making sure that n*****s don’t vote, the old ways are not going to cut it.

Howard Dean’s 50 State Strategy, which devolved power and resources to state and local party groups, worked, but he was unceremoniously dumped by that avatar of establishment thinking Barack Obama, and everything went back to the dysfunctional normal.

The Democratic Party needs to:

  • Have a 24/7/365 get out the vote and registration effort.
  • Recognize that the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) is DC is dysfunctional and incompetent and:
    • Move critical party infrastructure from private firms like NGP VAN to internal personnel.
    • Move as much of the power and money in the party to state and local party organizations.
  • Stop trying to choose candidates in state and local races. 
  • Rein in expensive and incompetent consultants.

It would also be nice if they could stop being afraid of their own shadows, but that’s probably too much to ask.  

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