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It would ironically be better if the Dem Party *did* run like a big corporation. Big corporations get input from local division leaders who report up the chain and influence decision-making! Successful local leaders get promoted!
No such organizational capacity exists. /16
No such organizational capacity exists. /16
So you get a bunch of extremely talented local activists who help win elections, promote progressive values, and get elected to positions that functionally serve as window dressing for the real power players--and get paid nothing!!
Those folks usually burn out. /17
Those folks usually burn out. /17
Occasionally they get connected and get a plum gig, in exchange for playing the game and staying quiet. But then the only people who can make a living in the game are the careerists and brown-nosers.
Everyone else burns out or works doing what they can unpaid for decades./18
Everyone else burns out or works doing what they can unpaid for decades./18
For instance, in California in the entire Dem Party structure the only people who get paid are the State Chair and staff. Plus consultants and whatever affiliate orgs do.
No one else makes a dime. Not the state Exec Board. Not the Regional Directors. Not the County Chairs. /19
No one else makes a dime. Not the state Exec Board. Not the Regional Directors. Not the County Chairs. /19
So you have national orgs raking in literally billions of dollars, working with shoestring staff most of the time, ramping up armies of part-time and mostly volunteer workers in election season, directed by unelected consultants making big bank. That's it. /20
For everyone with a conspiracy theory about "the DNC" this or that, please note that these organizations can barely manage a meeting--if they keep a lid on all the members. They couldn't organize a conspiracy if their lives depended on it. /21
And there are legions of talented activists with nowhere to go and nothing to do but organize however they can in their free time, unpaid, usually at the local level.
If they want to work in politics they have to pay the toll. And usually OUTSIDE of the party apparatus! /22
If they want to work in politics they have to pay the toll. And usually OUTSIDE of the party apparatus! /22
In short, if you want this to improve, ironically the political parties need to actually be bigger, more consolidated, more powerful, have more permanent employees and be more directly accountable.
Right now it's the worst of both worlds: too much $, too little structure. /23
Right now it's the worst of both worlds: too much $, too little structure. /23
And that doesn't even get into culture. For instance, both Biden and Obama have brands that are broadly "anti-partisan." Work with anything, "one america" and such.
But they also appoint and control the DNC, an explicitly partisan organization! This leads to problems. /24
But they also appoint and control the DNC, an explicitly partisan organization! This leads to problems. /24
The DNC needs to be bigger, more powerful, more active year-round, and much more explicitly partisan and strategic. It needs to meddle less in primaries. And it needs to have much more opportunity for talented activists to help make decisions.
Same goes for DCCC/DSCC. /end
Same goes for DCCC/DSCC. /end
Oh...and I should mention: doing things this way incentivizes pure careerism, which in turn incentivizes gerontocracy.
It is not accident the average age of a dem party leader is over 70 years old--20 years older than for the GOP.
Even though we're the party favored by youth.
It is not accident the average age of a dem party leader is over 70 years old--20 years older than for the GOP.
Even though we're the party favored by youth.
