Blog for Democracy

They are Democrats and they won.

I’ve grown tired of the hand-wringing;  quzzical looks;  whiney remarks.  To quote a good friend: focus, people!  Alvin Greene and Kesha Rogers won their Democratic primaries.   Sure, we can be outraged that it happened, and try to shun them or ignore them.

It’s easy to cast blame on the seemingly unworthy candidates.  The hard part is to take a long hard look at the Democratic party structure in these two states.  How can it be that a unknown candidate can overwhelm a allegedly well-known Democrat in a state-wide primary?  How can a political activist who spearheaded a movement to impeach our Democratic President, win a Democratic primary?

These occurrences are the best argument for a 254 County Strategy in Texas and a 46 County Strategy in South Carolina.  And, fellow Georgians, if we don’t want a similar thing to happen in our beloved state, we need a 159 County Strategy here.  Of course, a 50 State Strategy might help, too.

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37 responses to “They are Democrats and they won.”

  1. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    Hmm. I can see a V for Vendetta or Alice’s Restaurant type protest movement developing.

  2. Princess Avatar
    Princess

    Oh Jerry, you shouldn’t have put that thought in my head – now I’m going to lift my shirt and show my belly button before I cast my ballot. Ya’ll know I am doing it. I already yell “I WIN” after I cast my ballot cause the voting machine reminds me of a slot machine in Vegas.

  3. griftdrift Avatar
    griftdrift

    That should have been 4000 people. It’s small but it ain’t that small. Poor swampers.

  4. griftdrift Avatar
    griftdrift

    Joke people. Joke.

    Echols is Georgia’s smallest county with about 400 people and the only county where the seat is unincorporated. It’s 3/4 swamp and is infamous because Dekalb used to exile child molesters there (court order that is was the only county in Georgia where they could live). True story!

    Also with that fancy map Catherine posted the other day, you can see that the poor people of Echols never immigrate further than the big city lights of Valdosta.

    And now we three have given more facts about Echols County than anyone has heard outside of the most nerdish Georgia history course.

  5. Catherine Avatar
    Catherine

    JMP. You are NOT HELPING this argument.

  6. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Yes, that’s where the handy 1-2 disenfranchisement punch/attempts come in too. Karen Handel’s job (taking a page from the infamous Katherine Harris of Fl yore) was to ‘double check’ the existing voter registration data base and just ‘chuck’ any Voting record that had any sort of variance or discrepancy with either their Social Security record or their Driving License record. It would have been sweet if it worked too. In my county? That was almost about 10% of the entire voting database. The County Registrar’s office were just issued requirements that they check for such discrepancies, and issue letters to each & everyone who the computer ‘search’ so identified, and ask for a formal clarification. I made certain that our registrar put in those letters that 1.) This would not affect their ability to vote and 2.) Those requested ‘clarifications’ from voters, Almost all certainly due to the usual ‘clerical errors’ of one sort or another, were required by law for their internal records only, but again would not affect their ability to vote. Had it been otherwise? I would have sued. And oh BTW? Those ‘discrepancies’ affected a goodly portion of my membership & myself & my wife too. So very effective, had the original disenfranchisement plan been allowed to proceed in all it’s bureaucratic Rethug glory. So, not just the poor & elderly either. They win with Less Voters voting. Almost Always. When only the landed property owning & leisured gentry vote or have access to the courts? You get Haitian political scene as one natural consequence. JMP

  7. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    Apparently in the legal sense it’s not an unreasonable infringement because it’s still the law, but I am not going to be on the side of going along with bullshit like this just because I’m not directly affected by it. It has the same legitimacy as if they passed a law that said you have to show your belly button to vote. Everyone can do it, it’s free, and it has nothing to do with being an eligible voter.

    The most aggravating part of it is that pretty much the only possibly affected people are eligible voters who are elderly enough to have never needed the ID and infirm or poor enough to have avoided getting it. It’s just sad to possibly affect those people, some of whom may have had friends who died trying to secure their right to vote, just so that some corrupt Republicans can pretend to have protected us from evil immigrants.

  8. Catherine Avatar
    Catherine

    We do have to provide photo ID when we REGISTER to vote. The whole idea of requiring photo ID to VOTE, indicates a lack of confidence in the registration process.

    I had a photo taken in 1999 for my license. I renewed in 2008 or 2009 without a new photo. No renewal until 2018. That’s 19 years. Of course I’m not a good example because I WILL NOT AGE, but what about all those other people who will? Do the poll workers have training in identifying people from photos?

    It’s all kinds of fail.

  9. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    And oh yeah, ONLY CERTAIN KINDS OF ID are accepted here. And if you do all this through your County Registrar? Better make sure it’s Months ahead of an election, as the paper work & travel time required might takes days out of your schedule. If you show up on the day of an election, thinking you as a 95 yo pensioner who’s been voting in the same place for 50 years might be able to vote? Well you’re outta luck sonny! That’s happened too. You’d need a Birth record for ultimate documentation. And at 90+? Actually quite a few folks do not have them, were Never issued them, or they were lost in subsequent Courthouse/home fires or moves. And writing to the state you were born asking for an actual piece of paper from 80-90+ years ago? Try it some times. You’ll be unsurprised at the lack of success. So yeah, I agree complete BS reasons. But never let reality get in the way of your essential purpose, which we agree was disenfranchisement. Which is? Which Means? JMP

  10. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Please for the love of God write something that can be read when I’m not on my lunch break.

  11. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    Listen Jerry, I have no doubt that this is a just a political ploy by the Republicans.

    The question is: Is this an unreasonable infringement on one’s right to vote?

    And I think the answer is No. You need an identification card for nearly everything these days. The reasons suggested by JMP were bullshit. “Oh, they’re elderly and sick and don’t drive..” They still need IDs to cash checks, make withdrawals from the bank and obtain health care in this country. I agree that perhaps my Dad wasn’t the best example, but he fit all of those characteristics (except elderly).

  12. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    That’s really a bad way to justify a position though Jen. My Dad can do it therefore everybody else should be able to do it?

    I am confident someone has been disenfranchised by this , but they haven’t stepped forward yet, but those are just the emotional, photo-op reasons anyway.

    It’s a crass political grandstanding move meant to play on peoples fear of immigrants, and the people who designed it thought that if a few poor, old Dems get screwed in the process, well that’s a bonus.
    So;
    – it reinforces the fantasy that illegal immigrants are able to vote by impersonation
    – it creates a false sense of satisfaction that something has been fixed
    – it might make it harder for some currently eligible voters to vote

    So why even take the chance of disenfranchising some voters when you haven’t solved any problem in the process?
    I could go on.

    There is just nothing to like about it.

  13. The Ed Avatar
    The Ed

    There are dudes living in monasteries who have IDs.

  14. The Ed Avatar
    The Ed

    And to rent a DVD from Blockbuster FFS.

  15. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    “..now forcing everyone to supply such an ID despite being elderly, sick, non driving or simply too poor to afford a car.”

    I know this isn’t popular in Dem circles, but I don’t really understand these arguments against a photo identification requirement. My Dad is a sick non-driver and he has an ID because it’s required by doctor office’s, pharmacies and the bank.

  16. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    If anything, a good lesson that a couple of robocalls aren’t going to bail you out if you don’t do any real communicating.

  17. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Well there’s plenty to unpack here, but there’s also several separate issues too. Some meta issues, some local, some historical, and a few philosophical too. I’ll try to do as much as I can with bullet points as they’re easier to read. Sorry in advance for the length, Please don’t read it if you’re not interested.

    1.) County Chairs Are listed on the DPG Website:
    http://democraticpartyofgeorgia.org/county_chairs

    That’s been there for awhile. It’s not particularly difficult to find either. Be that as it may? While they might not be the ‘biggest, best or baddest’ Dems in your county? Contacting your county parties is a good place to start. Me? I’m listed & the County Registrar also has my contact numbers on his front desk. I can’t tell you the number of ‘cold calls’ I field morning, noon & night sometimes. During ‘Obama’ time? It was pretty constant, despite him losing my county quite handily. During the depths of the economic ‘crisis’ when the banks were in free fall? I also got a very strange phone call from someone who was a likely John Bircher too. (Young-ins might want to google that and note the name that appears on the I-75 up here of Cong. Larry McDonald who was yes, a nominal Dem too).

    Despite that, we can not be all things to all people. As I tell our members, we’re just not only a ‘social aid & pleasure club’, we exist to help Democrats get elected. And we’ll raise & spend money to do so. Further, we’re focused mainly on Local & state elections first.

    2.) I’m sorry, but candidates of or aligned with the Larouche movement:
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaRouche_movement

    are not now, and have never really been Democrats. It was just a ploy to gain easier ballot access in order to scam more people for his crazed, megalomaniacal, and yes criminal ends:

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaRouche_criminal_trials

    Now, no one who’s not run up against them in the distant past might know all this history. But reading just some of their ‘stuff’ will easily aquatint anyone with the deeper & unfriendly end of their criminally insane world.

    3.) Still, I’m strongly in favor of easier ballot access for everyone. And I’m always amazed by the myriad of ways, legal, quasi-legal & sometimes outright criminal, that All Parties use to limit this basic political right. This goes to Mary Norwood’s printed Fulton’s to the more criminal purging of voter rolls of some 200K voters in Fl before the 2000 election (See Greg Palast on that score).

    4.) Given the ‘gaming’ of the system we’ve seen in the above gambits, we need to be aware of outright fraud in the elections system and we desperately need to safeguard against this. But reality needs to be accommodated here too. There is virtually no fraud that’s being prevented by the onerous Ga. Photo ID law that we’re aware of presently. This should not mean to demand that such requirements are now forcing everyone to supply such an ID despite being elderly, sick, non driving or simply too poor to afford a car. Again, that’s another special case of ‘gaming’ the system by subtly disenfranchising whole blocks of the population that would normally be discouraged from voting if such strictures were strictly or foolishly enforced. (Which it has been, BTW). Sort of like a new ‘poll tax’, which Did in fact discriminate quite effectively against poor whites & Blacks in the South for a generation or more. The USSC might not be quite finished here either, I guess. This goes especially for ‘traditional’ Felony Disenfranchisement too BTW. That’s decimating communities around the nation & not just in the South.

    5.) Mr. Greene is a complicated mess at the moment. I still strongly suspect that some ‘deal’ was made to pay his entrance/qualifying fee, and perhaps this really needs to be explicitly & specifically disallowed by NON Party Functionaries in the future. Presently, financial disclosure should really be a strict requirement, and anyone lying about same needs to forfeit their ballot slot and/or face a fine. It remains uncertain what sanctions Mr. Greene might be facing, but SC does have a history of prosecuting such fraud. I’m not going to speak to the suggestions of the vote totals.

    6.) Mr Rawls Did in fact campaign, did do quite a few ‘robo-calls’ and was known to the Democratic community. Several things might have ‘gone wrong’ but I’ll speak to the most obvious one. Could he have been better known? Perhaps. (Yes, I know his ‘favorables’ were not great too). Like I said, on a different thread we’ve documented that he did actively campaign in the state. Why was he not better known? He did not have the money to use for both the primary & the General (which is part of the game, BTW). Now we’re all adults here. Some will naturally demand why did he not spend what was needed to become better known? Well why was this suddenly Required of him? How did that come about? That’s the story of the Hidden 4 Billion dollars.

    It’s no big secret, that’s how much the MSM will Gain this election season by candidates spending on mass media alone. And it’s a crime & the central shame of our Democracy. Nothing moves w/o money. But water will flow uphill to it. Why was Rawls ‘lesser known’? One reason was no one’s covering local politics like they used to. It does not pay. It Really pays to extort the candidates for whatever little air time they can BUY rather than actually diligently Covering politics & candidates like the important issues & stories they are. Newsrooms have been cut back perhaps 80%+ since the late 1980’s. And it’s a self perpetuating failure. Cut back on news delivery, and get less readers. Cut back on the news production & coverage, and garner fewer subscribers as they turn to other sources. A self fulfilling prophecy of distain for your newspaper readers and the inevitable decline in readership. And the inevitable consequences of a shriveled and distorted political culture that relies nearly 100% on campaign & party finances to fund any sort of messaging in or out of the media. In that system? Where we’re at presently? Only the plutocrats win, and win they will. And the MSM? They’re mainly good with that. No objections as long as they get their money. They’ll mostly laugh all the way to the bank too.

    7.) People reading to the end here (I’m guessing one besides myself) will ask if I’m just being cynical. And as Lilly Tomlin notes, no matter how cynical I get, it’s really hard to keep up!
    JMP

  18. Steve Golden Avatar
    Steve Golden

    When push comes to shove, in half of the counties in Georgia, it would be difficult to establish any sort of party structure. I can’t blame the party for that, it’s the political landscape, really. I’m pretty sure in Jeff Davis County we don’t really stand a chance, anyways.

  19. MouthoftheSouth Avatar
    MouthoftheSouth

    Reps priorities begin and end at their district lines. We need to help candidates within their districts and help challengers within those districts.

    Of course, resdistricting is going to make that difficult by creating minority districts and defining our party along racial lines. Evans talks about this all the time btw.

  20. Jason Avatar
    Jason

    Somewhat agreed. I’m convinced that half the counties in the state shouldn’t even exist anyways, and only remain as a legacy of a long-abandoned electoral system that disproportionally favored rural Georgia both here and in Washington.

    Honestly, I think a regional approach is the best for party organization, especially in southern Georgia. When you have counties that are sub-4000 people, I think it’s best to focus party efforts and resources elsewhere. Webster County is close enough to Columbus that I don’t think that it necessitates it’s own county party organization.

  21. Mel Avatar
    Mel

    It shouldn’t. I don’t think anyone is being critical. This is a really hard problem to solve. If it weren’t, it would have happened a long time ago.

  22. Kimberly Smith Avatar
    Kimberly Smith

    Oh dear a thread like this, will get us all in the DPG Dog house..

  23. Mel Avatar
    Mel

    Actually, when Grift mentioned Echols, I thought he meant Colquitt, aka Saxby’s home base in Moultrie. Looking at the map, Echols sits right next to Lowndes, home of super Dem Dennis Marks and DPG Secretary Laverne Gaskins. So yes, I’d say the DPG has more than “reliable contacts” there, or at least in the vicinity.

    But volunteering for the party is a thankless job that sucks the life out of you, no matter who or where you are. I know how difficult it can sometimes be in Metro, so can only imagine what the rural Dems must go through.

    The chair of Montgomery is a good example. The guy is probably a great Democrat who’s been working hard for years in his area. But all his hours of volunteer time counted for nothing when he got his hand slapped by the DPG for speaking out against DINO John Barrow. Maybe he did violate the “by-laws”, but there are much more egregious violations right here in Metro that have gone unchecked.

    Again, no one’s fault really. The DPG is doing the best they can with what they have. The problems are structural.

  24. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    To play Devil’s Advocate here for a second, whose to say in South Carolina that the party establishment on the local level didn’t have a hand in this outcome? As far as I can tell, no one really knew anything about either candidate, and Vincent Shaheen (who is white) was on his way towards a big 50%+ victory in the primary for Governor.

    Is it really impossible to believe that some local party officials in a choice between two then unknowns could have had a preference to balance the top of the ticket racially? I can’t imagine anyone thought either candidate had a chance against DeMint, so if you’re picking between two sacrificial lambs, I’m sure some people thought Greene (knowing nothing about him but his picture) may have been the more desirable choice, particularly since a picture of Rawl might have been the only info they had about him.

    In theory, South Carolina SHOULD have a highly functioning party because they are a hugely important presidential primary state and those states tend to have higher profile parties. To me, that means that if Rawl had made his case, there should have been plenty of reinforcement coming down from the state and local parties. Maybe none came down because the power brokers thought we’re losing this race anyway and we don’t care who gets it since no one told us about one of the candidates being unacceptable.

    Overall, we’ve nominated a couple of fringe candidates throughout the country like those mentioned here, and maybe in that WV Congressional but then again the incumbent had loads of ethical baggage. I think it’s interesting that we assume the Republicans have a stronger party organization, and even in super competitive races their party hierarchy hasn’t been able to convince the grassroots into choosing moderate candidates and in many cases they’ve nominated almost sure losers to what could be a competitive race.

    Honestly, the price we pay for Democracy is sometimes the voters choose total whackjobs to represent them in general elections and in office.

  25. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Neither party has a local chairman or organization listed on their website. McCain and Saxby romped in this county but the Sheriff and Commissioners appear to be all Democrats. My guess is the local D’s aren’t super eager to associate publicly with the state or national D’s.

    It’s all about power, and the state parties (D or R) have very little to offer a place like Echols county. Local power brokers in a place like this have an incentive to keep it local until a really profitable political opportunity comes along. Obama got less than 20% of the vote in this small county where everyone likely knows everyone. If you were a politically active and Democratic leaning citizen – maybe even an elected official here – do you really want to be known as the guy that’s enthusiastically with the team that sometimes gets fewer than 1 in 5 votes? Even though national Republicans romp here, I bet they also think it’s weird if locally you’re too enthusiastic about being a Republican as my guess is the local Democratic power structure has served people just fine in a place like this.

    In my opinion, building a field organization (for the DPG the most visible part of this is county chairs and precinct captains) in a place like this doesn’t necessarily mean having someone who wants to be the county chair and identified as so on a website. It means having one or more reliable contacts in the area who can be a source of political intelligence both flowing to the party and from the party. Someone who can tell the party or a candidate what’s up and also be used to disseminate appropriate intelligence to the locals with credibility.

    I doubt anyone living in Echols County is going to search google to see who the DPG’s county chair is – they are just going to ask the person they know who is political who the top Democratic person in the county is to talk to if they want to know what’s up.

    So the real question is, outside of the strict structure of county chairs – does the DPG have a person like this in Echols? If not do they have a person in a neighboring county or city who knows what’s going on and can hook them up on short notice with someone there? Honestly the real organization building opportunity here is for candidates, either statewide or for the legislature who have a decent chance of winning and being in power who would then be able to help out the local electeds in their jobs.

    Look forward to debate on this.

  26. Mel Avatar
    Mel

    The Republicans do.

  27. griftdrift Avatar
    griftdrift

    Eh, nobody cares about Echols County anyway.

  28. Mel Avatar
    Mel

    I’ve come to believe a 159 county strategy is impossible in Georgia. The closest thing we’ve seen to a unified strategy, and probably will ever see in this state and elsewhere, was the last two months of the Obama campaign.

    The entire Democratic Party structure is inherently dysfunctional. It’s no one’s fault. It’s the nature of our party and our people. It’s ironic that the party claiming to have a “big tent” is actually very fragmented and insular. It’s composed of hundreds of little fiefdoms, all looking inward.

    It’s a dynamic that makes it easier for “upstart” candidate to break out. Yes, there are a few success stories sprinkled around the state, but at the end of the day we’re worse off electorally than we were 4 years ago. I don’t see that changing soon.

  29. Catherine Avatar
    Catherine

    Can’t argue with you Chris, completely agree that the candidate is ultimately responsible. Clearly, Mr Rawls did not expect Mr Greene to get any traction.

    My point really is that with a fully functional and dynamic state and/or local party, these candidates would probably not even bother attempting to run as Democrats. Sure, like Ed says, “Freak election results will happen regardless of what strategy is in place.” but I doubt it would be as common as it seems to be this cycle.

    Maybe OFA’s strategy is better, but I haven’t heard word one from OFA like I did during the 50-State Strategy, so I’ll need some convincing.

  30. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    In the case of Alvin Greene, lay the blame on Vic Rawl. For $150k, he could have a very good statewide television buy that says this is how great I am and btw my opponent is under arrest for pornography. If the state party was worried, I’m sure they could have impressed on their donors in casual conversation how important it was to help Rawl get the money to fund this ad in.

    I can think of at least one case in Georgia where there is an undesirable candidate running in a contested primary for a legislative seat, where I personally advised the other candidate to not take any chances and raise the money needed to communicate the difference in the race. Should the local party and grassroots people do their part? Absolutely (assuming they agree with my assessment). But the candidate is the ultimate decision maker and person responsible for their election, and they have to be prepared to do what it takes to win.

  31. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    Start small and build up MOTS, I think the field program DPG is putting into place this year is working off that same model. It’s regional, focused on education and turnout.
    A full-blown plan would prob require about 3-4million to run (it’s a BIG state people), but i’m sure the DPG will do what they can with the resources they have this year and try to set us up for a bigger plan in 2012.

    If you come to the state convention in Athens on Aug 14th, you’ll get more information than my limited brain can tell you about it.

  32. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    That’s not really my view of a “50 state strategy”. I suppose you do want some general principles but we already have those. I think the strategy is just one of strengthening the local parties so that they can better fend for themselves.

  33. MouthoftheSouth Avatar
    MouthoftheSouth

    A 159 county strategy sounds great but to do it you need a lot of money, way more than it is possible for us to get. To do it now would mean taking money away from areas that we can win to areas where we currently cannot.

    The other issue is that people have different views in different areas of the country, and one set of positions will not work universally. You have to be able to be flexible in what it means to be a Democrat to have candidates that can win in conservative areas. Sounds okay, but we either cannot or will not allow it. Barrow is getting primaried with help from the Majority Whip. The Majority Whip! Will Clyburn be removed because of it? No, of course not. Jim Marshall has a +12 Republican district and Democrats kill him for many of his votes. He may very well lose this year. Childers is definitely going down due to Democratic stances that do not play in his district.

    So, what does this mean, well if you want to have a strategy that plays in 159 counties or 50 states, then you cannot have iron-clad political positions. And if you don’t have universal policies, then what is the point of electing people who aren’t going to vote with you?

    We could do both of course, but we’d have to behave in a different way. We’d have to harness the power of being not in power. But most members of this party and others are unwilling to do that, so here we are and here we shall stay.

  34. Jen B. Avatar
    Jen B.

    “I’ve grown tired of the hand-wringing; quzzical looks; whiney remarks.”

    I SAY THAT BACK TO THEM!

  35. Steve Golden Avatar
    Steve Golden

    This year is an odd one, and it concerns me to no end that spineless Democrats won’t do anything about it. Sorry, fellow Dems. We are spineless folk. Sorry to break the news.

  36. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    OFA has a 50 state strategy. Dean’s program was a lot less effectual than what OFA is doing. Freak election results will happen regardless of what strategy is in place.

    We no longer live in a world where parties can control the electorate like they used to. I’m too lazy to make that make more sense.

  37. Jules Avatar
    Jules

    Hey don’t forget this guy

    http://www.blogfordemocracy.org/2010/05/weird_sad_or_teachable_moment.html

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