With the surprise win of Alvin Greene in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, the result tells us we need to do a better job at paying attention.
A person today made mention that S.C. Democratic supporters are still "stuck on Greene" and implies we should move on. Well, I still believe in doing work for people that 1) I believe in 2) I know they stand on issues that matter to me and 3) know my voice and name is more important to me to just throw it behind a person because they say they are a Democrat.
The Democratic Party in S.C. is splintered. We are not the cohesive unit we need to be. If we were, this nonsense would not happen. We'd not be conceding a general election a day after the primary.
I wish my Party would become more aligned. I wish we'd stand together and take pride in the principles, issues and values we embody.
Instead of taking the base for granted, I wish our candidates would treat people as if they have never even heard of voting before. What's wrong with going door to door in all neighborhoods in the state? What's wrong with developing a state plan to help primary candidates while remaining neutral.
Some issues need to be addressed at the state level, of course. But, the local parties need to do a better job at educating voters - their voters - on who exactly is running for the nominations they seek. People need to be more vocal and pay more attention.
The Alvin Greene win means we Dems have a problem. Like it or not, something has to be gutted. Something has to be examined and the results may not be pretty, but it has to be exposed in order to fix.
If not, we'll continue to beat our heads against wall, thinking we're on one page when really we're volumes apart.
I suggest Dem leaders across the state make the effort to organize better. Because if they don't, we can buy permanent Red paint for this state.
2 comments:
We did door to door in our precinct before the election with door hanger bags with literature for all the active candidates. Vic out polled Green 3 to 1. However, it was a big effort. We got to about 10 houses per volunteer hour. We shook hands and talked to people. I warned them about Greene.
I also worked an information tent at Gay pride day for the Democratic party, phone banked and worked at other events. So did a lot of other people at a lot of other events.
However, the adjacent precinct wasn't organized and we simply couldn't cover it.
I'm not capable of "just moving on." I'm attempting to deal with this positively. I was prepared to fight to the end in November and possibly lose. However, this is different. I can't accept it, even if I should.
They need to dump the Progressives from the party quickly, and really get back to the principals of helping people, not trying to enslave them. That would be a smart first step. Untill that happens, the party is pretty much doomed; state wide and nationaly.
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