When Democrats Listen

I live in a bubble.  When I get together with my friends, we share the latest Trump horror stories.  We talk about our addiction to television news, from Morning Joe to Lawrence O'Donnell.  We complain about the commentators, as though they are family we love but are so close to that all their annoying tics have gotten under our skin.

When I went to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend for a family get-together, I was surprised to find that the dozen or so family members, mostly liberals, spent little time talking about the orange-haired idiot.  We talked about food, restaurants and cooking.  We talked about our gardens.  We talked about music and movies.  We talked about vacations.

We also talked about the weather, jobs, health care, traffic, educational plans, and communities.  Which is as close to politics as we got.  Health insurance and global warming were the two actual political conversations I recall, and both were about our personal experiences, and were animated.  And by the way, Chicago was not burning; it was lovely and had experienced a warm winter and early spring.  Which fact led to the talk about concerns for climate change.

When I got home and began to get re-acclimated to my political environment, I learned that I had missed a couple of items, like the Trump shove, but the situation hadn't changed much.  The Trump family is still getting richer from his presidency, he continues to insult and alarm world leaders, Paul Ryan still spends his nights dreaming of a day when only the rich get tax breaks and government entitlements, and MSNBC still spends the entire day talking about Russia and Jim Comey, and nobody really knows what is happening politically in our fifty states.  Meanwhile, most Americans are trying to decide whether to pay for that home repair or their blood pressure meds this month.

The bucket of cold water on my return home was the interview I saw on one of the talk shows (entertainment as opposed to political) with our new DNC chair, Tom Perez.  As usual, neither he nor I could barely stay awake for his interview.  I tried reciting his canned lines along with him, but honestly couldn't care less.  Those actual people he talked about -- a popular go-to with Democratic politicians these days that is supposed to prove their relevance -- seemed to have less substance than Colbert's "cartoon Trump."

Which is a damned shame, because real people are hurting in America.  They may be watching Colbert, but I guarantee it is more for the host's comedic barbs than anything new and exciting Perez might say.  And if I sit there getting angry at Perez, what do you think those non-activist voters feel?

And that in a nutshell is what is wrong with the Democratic Party.

We are the party that is afraid of passion.  We tiptoe around anger.  We equivocate when asked if the Trump administration has committed crimes, or if the family has broken laws in its business dealings.  We are the party of "let's wait and see where the investigation leads."

Elizabeth Warren and Al Franken scare party leaders.  There aren't even words to express how badly the party handled Bernie Sanders' run for the presidency.  Keith Ellison, not a socialist but a progressive, and a Muslim for-gods-sake, could not win the DNC chair because he was too way out there for our party.

I think the labels are all wrong.  The Democratic Party is the party of conservatives, those who are stuck in the way things are and are afraid to suggest change.  We all love Bill Clinton, but he compromised our values all over the place.  Barack Obama had the country eating out of his hands when he took office, but from Timothy Geithner to the Affordable Care Act he refused to entertain radical ideas.  He neither held criminals on Wall Street to account for their ruin of so many lives, nor did he even bring up the idea of single-payer health insurance.

Typical Americans don't get into the weeds on what is going on in government.  They mostly work, run errands, try to spend time with family, and when they can, escape with TV or social media.  They only have time left for the headlines.  Which is why there was the vague but persistent attitude that Hillary could not be trusted -- republicans had made her a villain for thirty years, and nobody had time to wonder why all this time under the magnifying glass had produced no crime.  All the republicans had to do is repeat "Benghazi" and "emails" daily, hold investigations and hearings that came up with nothing, and never ever have to prove a thing.

The thing about Trump is that, stupid as he is, he is unafraid.  The other thing about Trump is that, stupid as he is, he has a paranoid, narcissistic ability to target fears and weaknesses in others.  The sixth-grade bully that called me fat grew up to be Donald Trump.  He knew how to attack and then flatter those who might otherwise have threatened him.  And the third thing about Trump is that, under it all, he is a common man.

Donald Trump looks at his adoring audience and really (honestly) sees himself.  That's how he connects.  He feels picked on and mistreated.  He believes that he is the victim.  He doesn't have big ideas, he just thinks he does.  But it turns out that that is enough for most people.  The ones who only have time for the headlines.

Where does that leave Democrats?  How do we win the contest against the lying bully?

We listen.

When candidates spend all that time and energy knocking on doors, don't tell people what you plan on doing for them.  Ask them what is important to them.  Learn how to talk in simple statements.  It comes naturally to Donald Trump, not so much to you and me.  Smart people don't necessarily know big words, and mostly they don't talk in big words.  They don't talk theory.  They honestly don't care about who made deals with Russia, and they would be happy to let the Trump family own America, if only they can have job security and health care.  Maybe enough money to take a vacation.

The challenge is in bringing the horrors that are going on in Washington home to people.  The successful Democrats, Elizabeth Warren and Keith Ellison, are able to do that.  They do it because they really understand.  If Perez understands, it is in a theoretical way, and that shows.  Elizabeth Warren seems to really know what it is like to have to wrestle with the bills that come in non-stop.  And she is passionate about fighting for us.  For her, it is not theoretical.  She has seen and heard the way we live.

I know people get exhausted with their daily email barrage.  Every now and then, when I send out my blog, I will tell people to let me know if they want to be removed from my list.  The last time I did this, one of the two people who made the request was a leader in the Democratic Party.  Yes, I have been a pain in the ass about the party.  And I imagine some of my criticisms may be unwarranted.  But it seems to me that a party leader could be not just more tolerant of criticism, but could actually be curious about a critique by a fellow Dem.  Y'all know I attack you because I love you.  I really believe that we are the party that could represent the people and make the country better.

My point being that the easiest part of engaging voters (and that IS what we all say we are trying to do) is by responding to them when they speak.

Jim Clyburn made a half-hearted attempt before the last election to make it sound like he wanted to hear from us, through email and social media.  Turns out he didn't.  He wants donations and he wants us to vote for him, the latter which he is pretty sure is going to happen anyway.  He was once a hero, now he is a politician, and a lackluster one at that.

Anybody running for office, or working for the Democratic Party, or holding office, needs to respond to every contact by a constituent, with the possible exception of the obvious crackpot.  Find a literate and caring volunteer who can send a simple but intelligent reply to an email or Facebook message.  Return calls.  Return calls.  Return calls.

We voters don't want a ten-year-plan.  We don't need a complicated theoretical rationale for your stand on the issues.  We need to primarily know that you hear and understand what our concerns are.  Then we need to know what is going on right now that is working or not working (and jeez, don't forget to tell us who is responsible).  And finally, what you will do to ease our concerns.

Dems are currently throwing numbers around about how many people will lose their health insurance in ten years.  Republicans know that all they have to do is make their damage happen gradually enough that they will still get elected next time around.  With the aid of the insurance industry, premiums might even go down a few dollars for a couple of years before they start their inevitable climb.  And before you know it, by 2026, 23 million will have lost their coverage.  And to prove my earlier point, how many of you actually clicked on that link to read about the numbers?

Politicians talk.  They send out fund-raising emails telling us that terrible things will happen if we don't vote for them.  Those emails mostly go into the trash folder.

Candidates knock on doors and make phone calls.  Most of us are polite and even say they plan on voting for them, and then we do what we were going to do anyway.

What can change a vote is if you take the time to listen.  What is extraordinary from my point of view is when a candidate sends a personal email.  And what has happened to me a couple of times in the early days of an election cycle, and I can tell you is a game-changer, is when a candidate calls in response to my email, and listens to me, and seems to share my concerns.

Being a life-long Democrat, believing we share common goals, witnessing the destructive acts of the other party, I have to assume that those conversations should be a piece of cake.  If you really, passionately, actively listen to us.

Letting Women In

Nikki Haley was no doubt appointed to be UN ambassador because the idiot who had been elected saw the UN as irrelevant.  But, as we here in South Carolina know, Nikki is smart.  And as I said after Hurricane Matthew, give her a task that isn't partisan, and she may well shine.  So here we have this woman who seems to be one of the very few decisions Trump has done right.  With the added bonus of getting her out of our hair, and out of partisan politics.

Meanwhile, with all the incredibly stupid things being said by Trump's minions, I wonder why it is only Kellyanne Conway who appears to be confined to the White House basement where she continues to carry the title of counselor to the president without actually having to be in his face.  If she were a man, like say, Sean Spicer, maybe she would continue to be welcome at all the questionable goings-on, and the dumb things she says publicly could actually be traced back to the dumb decisions being made by her boss.  And let us not forget that, after managing to step up and reign the batshit crazy candidate in to the point where he was actually elected, Trump had the nerve to offer her the position of press secretary, rather than a role with substance.

What to do with the women?  Party Democrats don't seem to be having any better time with this problem.  The party that claims to represent the American people just keep choosing what they believe is the safe option.  Elizabeth Warren scares them.  They couldn't ignore Hillary the second time around, but their lukewarm support conveyed to voters, who walked away in droves shaking their heads saying, "I don't know what it is about her, but I just don't trust her."  You could barely see the excitement from the party regulars.

And yet these are both incredibly smart, competent women.

Now this weekend, here in South Carolina, our state Democratic Party apparently is having their convention.  I am in the position where I tend to know more than the typical voter, but have kept a cautious distance from official political organizations.  So if I speak out of ignorance, you can imagine that most voters know even less about what is going on.  And yet they make decisions about who to vote for, and possibly even more important, whether to vote at all, based pretty much not from what they are hearing from us, but what they hear from our more powerful and ballsy opponents.

It disturbs me that the Democratic Party, state and national, keeps banging their heads against the wall hoping that this time they won't end up with a headache.  Tom Perez instead of Keith Ellison for national party chair, for example.  The result of this being the awkward pairing of Perez with Bernie Sanders in a nationwide tour that is trying to convince voters that they need to get excited about being Democrats.

Here in SC, the Democratic Party is about to begin their convention.  They will be voting for party leaders.  I am hearing of support by party members for a candidate for party chair that they are bringing back to SC from Oklahoma, where he headed the state party from 2011 to 2015.  Trav Robertson seems to be a safe candidate, with experience, who has led a center-conservative Democratic Party to very little success.  Oh, and he managed Vincent Sheheen's first unsuccessful big for governor in 2010.  And let me point out the obvious:  he is a man.

Also running is:  a woman.  Susan Yarbrough Smith has been an activist since her college days.  She has operated on the grassroots and Party level, and has the kind of brains, dedication and energy that I can only envy.  And yet, what I have heard, is that Robertson is being more seriously considered because of his experience.  And I have also heard it said that "he is originally from here."

I don't know if y'all who are supporting a man instead of an extremely qualified woman can hear yourselves, but what I am hearing is the sound of being afraid to make waves.

And just as in the upcoming primary special election in SC's fifth district, people in the party, people who should know better, are throwing their support -- and their money -- behind the shiny object that is a white, male, former senior advisor at Goldman Sachs.  Rather than a smart young woman who actually lives and works among the middle class in her community.  The reason?  You guessed it:  she is too young and inexperienced (unlike the yahoos that are running Congress into the ground on the republican side these days, but please don't get me started...).

So, as I take a deep breath and attempt to regain my composure, I would like all you Dems and liberals out there to seriously think about your commitment to moving women forward.  We aren't going to get experienced women unless you are willing to actually trust women to be in positions to get experience.  And there are plenty of smart women to choose from.  What it will take is to stop making excuses.

And here is the thing.  You can keep throwing your support behind the safe guy, and you can keep coming up with the same outcome.  Or you can get really excited about someone who is different.  Someone who talks like a Democrat and really understands the people she would be working for.  And then maybe they would actually be motivated to come out and vote.

Where Are the Democrats? - Special Election Edition

I've been wondering, as I often do these days, when the Democratic National Committee is going to get their act together and start helping out in the struggle to save democracy.  Actually, we really should be wondering when they are going to take charge, not just help out.

Look at the republicans.  They had a new chair weeks ago.  When there was a race for a Senate seat in December, both Pence and Trump showed up.  The Democratic Party was nowhere to be found.

They are still fighting among themselves to determine who should chair the damn party.  Progressives are squabbling over who is the more progressive.  They are even fighting over who failed the team by supporting Hillary.  Somewhere in the back of their minds, they must be aware that Trump is attacking the Constitution from one side while congressional republicans are ripping out the throat of our individual rights on the other.

Apparently, the battle for party chair is coming down to two contenders.  Keith Ellison has been in the US House of Representatives since 2007, and is backed by John Lewis, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.  He truly is progressive, on the side of minorities, farmers, women, unions... need I go on?  On the other hand, and I really believe this is the elephant in the room (there is always an elephant in the room, striking fear into the hearts of Democrats and causing them to crawl back to the center), Ellison is not just African American but a Muslim.  Oh my gods.

On the other hand, Tom Perez, while also progressive, could be considered a safer minority.  He is also a safer Democrat, having come from the beloved Barack Obama's cabinet as Secretary of Labor.  He, too, checks off all the right boxes when it comes to his stand on issues.  But, again, this is my opinion, he might be less scary, being a Catholic and all.

Part of my frustration, besides Democrats who are afraid to be exposed for supporting a democratic agenda, is that Ellison threw his hat into the ring months before Perez.  We actually may have had a strong consensus candidate. Then, in mid-December, along comes Perez.  Because we couldn't just go with a strong national figure, get the election over with, and then proceed to fight the real war.

This election, that nobody but the Democratic Party gives a damn about, will be happening in two weeks.  But there is another, more important election coming up on April 18.

When Tom Price became the Trump cabinet deplorable running the HHS, he left vacant his seat in the House of Representatives for District 6, an Atlanta suburb.  This district, conservative and traditionally republican, voted for Romney in 2012 with a 24% margin.  But in 2016, the anti-Trump vote brought the lead to one percent:  48-47.

The strategically placed republican running for this seat is African American Trump surrogate Bruce LeVell.

That's right, the republican party chose LeVell hoping that black voters wouldn't notice that he is a Trump-man.  Well, that is the Trump campaign, isn't it?  Assuming African Americans would vote the color and ignore the racist policies behind the candidate.

But on the Democratic side is Jon Ossoff.  Jon has been fighting for justice and civil liberties throughout his professional life.  He has investigated and uncovered corruption and crime, and worked in national security as a senior staffer.  Jon has been protesting the unAmerican policies of the Trump administration...



...and he has the endorsement of Civil Rights leader John Lewis:

“Jon is committed to progress and justice and he knows how to fight the good fight. We should unite behind Jon and send a clear message that Donald Trump doesn’t represent our values.”

– Congressman John Lewis

I know those of us reading this blog care passionately about the travesties that the Trump administration is committing and the republicans in Congress who are aiding and abetting his crimes.  We understand that this election in Atlanta is critical, and not just in moving Congress closer to representing our values.  The turnout in this election will send a message to the rest of the country -- that we are here and we are fighting for them.  It will tell the republicans who are trammeling our democracy with abandon that they are, as Trump likes to put it, "on notice."

The Trump cabal knows this election is important.  I guarantee they will be throwing buckets of money into ads, and they will be showing up.

Our Democratic Party needs to be there.  We need their commitment, their money, their bodies, their voices.

Here in SC, we need US Representative Jim Clyburn to get out and shout with John Lewis.  And we need Jamie Harrison and our state Democratic Party to extend a hand to our partners and friends in Georgia.  This is not a time to be self-absorbed, to be concerned with the party.  America is watching.

And Democrats are marching, are writing, are going to town halls, are shouting.  This is truly the time for the party to stand up and lead, without fear.  Put a good Muslim progressive at the helm on February 23, and send out a real message of fearlessness and belief in our values to the rest of the country.  And then get out and fight like you mean it for Jon Ossoff on April 18.