Although a genetic democrat, after a few years of living in MA, I opted to ‘un-enroll’- my reasons for doing that could easily be the subject of another diary.
The point of this diary, for those who aren’t up for a lengthy journey, is this: if you want to see change, sea-change- then you start at the bottom and work up. And we need a sea-change. Dean was right. And Mitch McConnell and the Koch Brothers know he was right, because they took his brilliant 50 state blueprint, flushed it full of money, low standards, and self-deluding ideologues, and proved it works- last night.
Bear with me- the doc says I should write this story down- it’ll be therapeutic in the long winter ahead. If you want to avoid the whole story about why I know from running for office as a Green party member that ground up is better than top down, jump to the last three or so paragraphs. Those with a stronger stomach, read on.
Fourteen years ago, when I finally put my money where my mouth was, and ran for local office- (and I mean that in every sense, five elections, four wins, and I’ve never taken a penny from anyone to mount a campaign)- I decided to run as a member of the local Green Party.
To be sure, here in MA, party affiliation is not a very relevant detail when you run locally. Everyone knows where you stand by what you say and believe. So, given that a lot of what I believe occupies that place in the Venn diagram where the Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party meets the environmental focus of the Green Party, I opted to promote those values openly.
It didn’t really matter to the community. I squeaked in the first time; when I ran a second time (School Committee), I went to the most conservative wards in the city to knock on doors. I got my most important lesson in politics from a curmudgeonly old townie in Ward 6.
When I introduced myself, he shook his head and said, “I know who you are. I seen ya on cable TV at those School Committee meetings. I don’t often agree with you.”
I offered to discuss those areas of disagreement with him, but he waved me off.
“No, we don’t need to talk about that. I’ve seen you at those meetings. You work hard and you do your homework. You ask tough questions. And you never let those bastards get away with anything. You’ll get my vote.”
Ask tough questions. Never let the bastards get away with anything. Do your homework. Work hard.
After two terms on the School Committee, I quit the Green Party over a philosophical difference with the national Greens. Most people don’t realize that there is, or was no formal connection between the national and local Green parties. The national party pursues a failed policy of top down political strategery, where they run candidates for federal office hoping to meet the 5% threshold for viability as a legitimate party in the eyes of the Secretaries of States. They pushed no money down to the local Greens, and certainly didn’t coordinate messaging. And they actively pursued ‘self-funding’ candidates, people willing to run as Greens for federal office who could pay for their own campaigns. What could go wrong with that?
Pennsylvania, 2006 was what could go wrong. Most people remember Rick Santorum getting his head handed to him by a suddenly wide-awake electorate. I remember Carl Romanelli showing up at Green Headquarters with about $100,000 in “walkin’ ‘round” money to run for Senate in PA as the Green endorsed candidate. Quite a story. Turns out the money was traced to Blackwater founder Eric Prince and his wife, and a bunch or far right funders in California, as part of a barely coordinated campaign on Santorum’s behalf to siphon Casey votes.
I called the national Greens and blew up. How could they take that money in exchange for a nomination, without vetting the candidate? Why defend him, and such a bad decision?
And why wouldn’t they fork over the dollars to support the much less expensive races at a state level, races Greens were winning with increasing frequency- races where $1,500 was the difference between a seat on the City Council, or on the Town Council?
I still have the email- they called me a “sunshine patriot,” said I didn’t understand how important it was that the Greens establish themselves on the national level. In turn, I said they were naïve and incompetent, that having a cadre of local elected officials who had been able to break through, learn to legislate and administer polices and community life, and had gotten the community used to the idea of voting for a third party should be our collective objective.
I told them they were ruining the brand. And quit the party, went back to un-enrolled.
That’s the long way around to get to this.
Howard Dean was so f’ing right. All politics is local. If we had stuck with the plan, if we had contested every race in every town in every state, we would have maintained better parity in legislatures across the country and made a lot more noise about gerrymandering. We would have forced the Koch army to spend in places they would not have wanted to spend, leaving them less to spend nationally on federal races. We would have created better candidates, identified better issues and articulated a better message, one tried and tested in every state in the union.
Dean was right. He was so right. His 50 State Plan plan was brilliant and it worked. It worked. How do I know?
Because when we dumped it and him six years ago, the Republicans went through our garbage, pulled out the plan, and implemented it. Last night was the ultimate proof that the plan works.
We had the map, and gave it away, and are now wondering where the hell we are. And how we got here.