Answer #2 to "Why a political party?"

My second answer to my question I posted on the Nebraska Democratic Party CD3 Facebook page of "why does a political party exist?" 

#2 (with more to follow): A political party exists to serve its membership by providing up-to-date information and all means of support that its membership requires.

 A political party should provide a useful service that is attuned to the needs of its adherents. This means that all documents, policies, rules, etc. that delineate the rights and responsibilities of the various officers and members are kept up to date and made readily available to all of its members at all times. It should be responsible for doing all it can to assist its constituents in the sharing of ideas and following their wishes in how the party is governed. It should serve as a hub for the free flow of communication and sharing of ideas and opinions. What we currently have within the NDP is an office in Lincoln that serves to suck money out of every Nebraska Democrat that it can, a center that disseminates propaganda generated by a very few "authorized" spokesmen of the party, a leader that continues a policy of censorship against any party members that hold heretical thoughts, and an absolute dearth of current, necessary information. 

A county chair or committee that exists outside of Lincoln or Omaha has practically no influence over the guidance of our party. They also have practically no access to the tools that they actually need. The are given a Vote Builder that may be helpful in the cities, but is absolutely worthless in the rural areas. Help that does come is usually late and inappropriate. I remember getting a packet of materials for our county fair two weeks after it was over, mostly consisting of flyers to sign up and send your dollars to the state office. This did nothing to help us in my county. 

The NDP website is a disgrace. The current NDP Constitution and Bylaws has not been updated. The one displayed, if you can find it, was approved by the 2010 State Convention. The lists of officers, county chairs, SCC and SEC members, committee members, etc. is all outdated. The website serves only to put out propaganda from the hierarchy. There is nowhere on there that a common registered Democrat can have his/her voice heard. And as far as I am concerned, the common registered Democrat in this state is our party's "most important Democrat." 

We have an excellent opportunity to place a Democrat in the Governor's Mansion and to send three Democratic Representatives and one Senator to Washington in 2014. We need to find valid candidates for the Unicameral and all of the open statewide offices as well. But if a common Democrat in this state can't even find the information of how to go about it, what good has our party done them? Most Nebraska Democrats only know the party as that pain-in-the-ass that keeps begging them for money.

Answer #1 to "Why a political party?"

My first answer to my question I posed on the Nebraska Democratic Party CD3 Facebook page of "why does a political party exist?"

#1 (with more to follow): A political party exists to advance the philosophies, ideals and principles of its membership.

A political party should use its resources to educate the voting populace about the things its adherents collectively have agreed upon, as embodied in its Constitution, its Bylaws, its Platform, and its Resolutions.

The Nebraska Democratic Party has become an organization that follows the will of what some of its "leaders" have called its "most important Democrats," i.e. its elected politicians or its candidates. Rather than selecting candidates that subscribe to what the party's legally elected delegates have debated and agreed to, the party hierarchy has subjugated the will of the party members to the whims of the candidates. They have put the cart before the horse.

Our party has a roadmap to the future, but if those holding the reins fail to follow it, they then bear the blame for straying from the road and leading the team off the cliff. Those members who were elected by their counties to represent them at our State Conventions, then go there just to hobnob with the bigwigs, listen to speakers while clapping mindlessly, eat the free donuts and fill a seat only to rubber stamp the will of others, are guilty of having allowed our party to decay into its present state of irrelevance. Those who were elected to fill the positions as members of the State Central Committee but merely sit on their hands without ever questioning anything, nor advancing any fresh ideas are guilty of abandoning the duties they were entrusted with. Those who were chosen to sit on the State Executive Committee but then feel they have the authority to usurp the power of the SCC or the State Convention are traitors to our party. Those who use their offices for the mere exercise of their "power" over others are nothing but egomaniacal cancers within our party.

Being elected to an office means having to serve others, not having them serve you. Anyone that has made promises to win a position within our party, and then not attempted to succeed in fulfilling those promises is just a liar and a thief. They lied to get the job, then have stolen the opportunity from someone else might have had the wherewithal to actually serve their constituents.

I am no longer willing to hold my tongue, acerbic as it may be, because there is too much at stake for me to remain silent. The woman that kept interrupting me at the meeting in G.I. once told be to take my copy of the NDP Constitution and throw it in the wastepaper basket because I insisted that we should be following it. And yet, she continues to pretend to be a "leader" of this party. People like her serve only themselves, NOT the registered Democratic voters of this state. It is time we elected people to the roles of leadership within our party that are willing to do the hard work of advancing the causes that Nebraska's Democrats have collectively decided to support.

If we are to become a party that WINS elections in this state, then we must become a party that is willing to FIGHT. Sometimes, that will mean having to fight amongst ourselves. If we can't do that, then we deserve to lose.

Question: Why a political party?

(This is a post I recently wrote on the Nebraska Democrats CD3 Facebook page)

At our last CDO3 meeting, just before lunch, hoping that it would create at least a modicum of debate, perhaps some thought, perhaps some introspection: I asked, "What is the purpose of a political party?"

My query was greeted as though I had asked everyone to swallow a turd. Did anyone take me up on it? Nobody approached me with their thoughts on the topic. Not one person indicated that they had given it the slightest consideration.

Because of this kind of response, I am given to thinking that perhaps none of those present really cares about questioning what the true purpose of our party is. I am often told that it is to "elect Democrats." Well ... we have been failing quite miserably at that, haven't we?

There is currently not a single federal or statewide elected official from our party. Can anyone honestly tell me that what we have been doing is being done right? If so, where is the evidence? I sure as hell don't see it.

Later, at the same meeting, I queried a representative of the state party why my thoughts are still censored from the NDP Facebook page. I was given the usual, "We'll look into it." Well, I'm still blocked from participating there.

While I was discussing this, one person from Hastings rudely interrupted me, as she does to practically anyone who dares to disagree with her. Another woman, from Grand Island, invited me to "Take it outside."

Honestly, I ask each of you, is THIS the kind of party we have become, one in which you either toe the ideological line set by a few, or get the hell out? Do we hold the moral authority to use the word "Democratic" in our name when debate is stifled and those with diverse views are ostracized and marginalized from our party? Are we nothing but sheeple - gutless followers of those who dictate the direction our party takes without ever having achieved any kind of consensus from us?

I'm going to ask you all again, "What is the purpose of a political party?" If I receive no replies, then I'll have to assume that you all haven't a clue.

I posted this on NE Watchdog today, in response to a letter sent by NDP Chair, Vince Powers, to Senator Mike Johanns. Powers suggested that Sen. Johanns become an Independent and caucus with the Congressional Democrats.

As it stands, things are even worse for the NDP than I had predicted. We now have absolutely NO federal or statewide offices occupied by a Democrat. We have a new State Chair that has been running around pulling hare-brained stunts rather than leading the NDP into a brighter future.

I think I'm going to have to come out of my self-imposed hiatus from politics and renew my assault on the powers that be, hopefully resulting in a NDP that stands for what its people want, and not just what the oligarchs in Lincoln and Omaha demand.

I will be updating the information posted on my previous blog with the results of the 2012 election as I find the time.

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Harrassing Mark Fahleson the other day in a parking lot, now coming up with this hare-brained scheme - what Vince Powers needs to do is quit coming up with these kinds of antics and start listening to what Nebraska's Democrats want from our party. He wouldn't have to go very far to find it, all he'd have to do is actually read, and heed, the party's Platform and Resolutions.

The real voices of our political parties should be those of the people elected at the local level; that would be the delegates to the party state conventions, elected within their counties by their neighbors. These are the people that are truly attuned to what Nebraskans want. They are the ones burdened with honing their parties' guiding documents, they are the ones whose will should be considered the direction their party takes.

As it stands, apparently both the NDP and the NEGOP go where the horses, rather than their riders, would lead them.

I attended three NDP state conventions as a state convention delegate and was elected three times as a delegate to the NDP's State Central Committee. For a time, I even served on the NDP State Executive Committee as Associate Chair of the 3rd CD. What I witnessed sickened me. The people who were supposed to lead the party, the delegates, were mere sheeple that willingly allowed themselves to be led around by the sheeple dogs - the chairs of various caucuses, committees, and officers of the party. Those sitting on the raised platform at the front of the room were supposed to do the bidding of those that sat in the chairs on the floor, but it was always the other way around.

My incessant exhortations to the flock to rise up and do their duty resulted only in my being labeled a pariah of the party. By expecting my party to behave as its foundation documents - its Constitution and Bylaws, and its Platform and Resolutions - dictated, I was seen as a threat to the same old bunch of oligarchs that have "led" the party despite whoever sat in the chairs.

I have a suggestion for Vince Powers. HE should join the Democratic Party. The best thing he could do would be to spend more time listening, and less time talking. He should heed the will of Nebraska's Democrats and they would lead the NDP into a new era of significance, something that hasn't happened since before Ben Nelson got a stranglehold on the party.

There are a lot of good Democrats in this state - more than the NEGOP would like to admit. If they would just work to advance the ideals that they have always set for the party, rather than demurring to the will of whatever "leader" they were willing to follow, the NDP could rise from the ashes like a Phoenix.

Here are some FACTS to consider. The data in the graphs and charts below are derived from records provided on the Nebraska Secretary of State's website and from the Nebraska Legislature's Blue Books.

The Nebraska Democratic Party has been in a steady decline for the past thirty-plus years, as is readily visible in the two graphs. The real difference can be seen when one compares metropolitan (RMLO) vs. rural Nebraska. While rural Nebraska has nearly as many Democrats as Douglas and Lancaster counties combined, the party has been dominated by a series of metropolitan oligarchs that, for the most part, ignore the rural membership, causing it to lose ever more ground.

Obviously, continuing to run the party in the same way that it has been for the past thirty years will result only in further decline and even more marginalization of Nebraska's rural Democrats. It is time for a Revolution. It is time for Nebraska's rural Democrats to say, "Enough is enough. We will either be recognized as having an equal share in the NDP, or we should consider the formation of a Farmer & Labor Party, as the marginalized Democrats in Minnesota did many years ago." (Hubert Humphrey was one of the more prominent F&L Party leaders) Such a party could attract many of the centrist and liberal segments of Nebraska's Republican Party, as many of them are feeling disaffected by its leadership.

The NDP will be holding a state convention this week and NOW is the time to get people armed with knowledge and valid information so that they may fight for their rights. It is NOT time for calls for everyone to "just get along" and have warm fuzzy feelings for one another. It is, rather, a time to call for a radical reinvention of our party, a time to throw off the dusty, ineffective leadership of the past and forge a new coalition capable of advancing the Democratic cause in this state. Our choice is to either revolutionize the party, rendering us a party capable of electing statewide and federal candidates, or surrender to the inevitable decline of all but one Congressional District that can deliver a solitary electoral vote for a presidential candidate, and  possibly fill the mayoral seats in Lincoln and Omaha.