Tag: DNC

Worked this morning, but spent the entire afternoon working on / paying attention to the Democratic National Committee. I started by submitting my two main amendment proposals to the Rules Committee, Expanding Democracy by Requiring Government-Run Primaries and Expanding Democracy by Increasing Voter Participation (the deadline was this afternoon). And then at 1pm the DNC Platform Committee meeting began. My initial observations:

• “This platform meeting is a farce”
• “The camps pre-determined speakers and you can’t make motions”
• “The proposal sponsor is only given 2 minutes for their argument (with only 8 mins. total per proposal, including the introduction and opposition)
• Members’ votes are visible to other members (not a secret ballot)
• During voting they keep saying, “remember, these ballots are not secret… ,” which appears to be an intimidation tactic
• Almost every person speaking says “I enthusiastically support Joe Biden for President!” at the beginning (and sometimes throughout) their time (making me think that they are using this as a bargaining tool to ensure a member is given time, or that it is a dogwhistle so Biden supporters know which way to vote)
• This is definitely coordinated
• The first amendment was from the Chair, and it contained over 200 amendments (which passed). No one described what they were, and you could only see the text in the portal if you are on the Platform Committee (curious as to how members were able to read 200+ amendments during the first 15 mins. of the meeting)

The low-light of the afternoon was when inclusion of Medicare for All into the Democratic platform was resoundingly rejected (36 yes, 125 no, 3 abstain). I had to go for a walk after that to cool off.

Things I am concerned about now that I have seen how the meeting was run:

• I think Bernie’s campaign failed to organize/whip votes in order to stay out of the way of Biden’s camp
• The people who spoke from Bernie’s camp seemed to be well-knowns… not many “regular people” (they were national surrogates, elected officials, etc.)
• The campaigns are selecting which proposals are heard (if you submitted a proposal it isn’t guaranteed that it will be covered)
• I saw more than one instance of the proposal presenter/speaker not being the person who wrote the proposal (the proposal sponsor), making me think there is little chance that I will get to speak even if they like my proposals

But… I am going to work on my argument right now, in case I end up speaking on behalf of my proposal(s) at the Rules Committee meeting this Thursday.

This morning, as I hurriedly entered gifts into our donor database (for my day job), I listened to Michael Moore’s podcast “Rumble.” As he introduced today’s topic of discussion, he recounted his experience campaigning for Bernie Sanders in Iowa earlier this year:

”…back when we were on the trail with Bernie Sanders in January and February we found ourselves in the state of Iowa for the Iowa Caucus… you remember the Iowa Caucus don’t you? The brilliant… brilliantly managed Iowa Caucus? [laughs] We’ll never do one of those again, right folks? Yeah, that’s right. Now remember this was pre-pandemic so all… you’re making the list, right… of all the things we’re never gonna do again? Where we’re just saying, ‘Fuck that. That’s the end of that’? Okay, that’s one of them, right? We all agree on that, right? No more Iowa Caucuses… it has to be a real primary, run by the state. Everybody votes. Everybody has a chance to vote. Every vote is counted — a novel idea.”

I perked up… because this is exactly the proposal I am making as a representative of the Bernie Sanders campaign on the 2020 DNC Rules Committee! In fact, me and my colleague Maggie are hosting the first grassroots organizing meeting tonight! The reason this issue became so important to me is that I was a precinct captain in Iowa during the caucus in February and saw first-hand how mismanaged the election was. I think it is crucial that we make this reform because of how easily an election can be manipulated by the Democratic Party (the state party runs the caucus, rather than an independent entity), and how detrimental the outcome can be, particularly for anti-establishment candidates.

This got me thinking about how people like Michael Moore (and other well-known pro-democracy advocates) might get involved in this process (or perhaps just lend their very large megaphone). More to come…

Had a full day today… work was a bit stressful and had to prepare for a DNC Rules Committee organizing call pre-meeting afterwards (the actual call will be this Thursday evening). We made a lot of progress though, and I feel like I have a better grasp of my duties-to-come over the next month. I was thinking I would use this blog as a place to sort of cover (and process) some of the action taking place behind the scenes… stay tuned!