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A Blueprint
for Taking Back the Democratic Party
May
2001
by TygrBright
Part
Five: Learn From the Opposition
We didn't lose our Party overnight. It wasn't the action
of one person, or even one small group. And we won't re-take
our Party quickly or easily. It will take years, numbers,
and persistence.
We can learn from another recent episode in American political
history—the takeover of the GOP by fundamentalist "Christian"
fruitbats. Those of us with long enough memories remember
the start of this most recent infestation (they're a perennial
specimen in the political zoo, alternating periods of semi-hibernation
with periods of intense predation.)
While the various causes were complex and multifarious (backlash
against civil rights, the 60's social revolution and the anti-war
movement, the growing feminist consciousness, etc.,) what
really crystallized the supersaturated solution of conservative
"Christianity" was Roe v. Wade. After the Supreme
Court confirmed American women's right to make certain health
care choices in private, the Bibles really started to throb
like jungle drums.
I remember it vividly because in my state, they made the
Democratic Party their first target, rendering every post-Roe
caucus and convention a hideous nightmare of serial filibustering
until the meetings were deserted by everyone except for those
who cared passionately one way or the other on that issue,
and that issue only.
I'm proud of my Party, though—they got nowhere with us, and
eventually they sought out the more congenial habitat of the
GOP. (Although they left plenty of scorched earth behind them.)
By that time, too, they had taken the time to plan a co-ordinated,
long-term strategy that was to reap them great benefits.
It's got to be easier, of course, when you can cite Divine
authority for getting people to attend meeting after meeting,
run endless campaigns for apparently penny-ante local office,
volunteer long hours in the trenches, man phone trees 24 hours/day,
write countless Letters to the Editor, show up at the Capitol
steps at the drop of a hat, etc. I admit to a twinge of envy—but
then I look at the Sacred Thought Police and know that we're
better off without them, regardless of the loss of efficiency.
How did they do it?
Beginning in the 70's, this comparatively small group of
dedicated ideologues carried out a relentless bottom-up program
of taking over the GOP, based on the long-established but
little-publicized political truism that the Party is run
by those who show up.
It's that simple. In a democracy, money only goes so far.
(Though it's going farther every day—a warning sign that we
ignore to our peril.) Political parties are still composed
of living, breathing human beings, who attend meetings, vote
on decisions, and carry out the Party's business.
Our blueprint for taking back the Democratic Party, then,
begins with just that: showing up.
Here's a warning, though: The people who are already there
are not going to a) hail you as a savior and sage the instant
you walk in the door; or b) instantly resign the power they've
been exercising over the past 20 years to your newly-impassioned,
energetic hands. You will have to pay dues. It's not a quick
process, but, on the other hand, considering how desperately
short of personpower the Party is these days, the timeline
is shortening all the time.
The money and the special interests are far too firmly entrenched
at the national level to be vulnerable to any direct action.
They control the propaganda machine, such as it is, and they
have established the quids-pro-quo with our elected pols and
high-profile leaders. They are only vulnerable to the ultimate
threat—change from within, from below, from the grass roots.
That is how we can do it.
ON
TO PART SIX »
Inspiration
and Perspiration
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