Monday, March 26, 2007

I Wish...

I can't stand all the presidential campaign crap starting so soon! Wait a minute ... did she say Nader up six? Where's my shotgun!


Click on the image for a larger readable version. Actually, I don't have a shotgun. Too messy for politics. But a Taser might be useful...
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

A final word. Don’t you dare try and pull a smoke and mirrors on me. How dare you write under this altruistic, “I want to save the Party” line without acknowledging other controversies. Maybe ones that come from your side? In addition, don’t you dare insult the workhorses. The ones who data entry and make the phone bank calls from some backroom with no windows after eating a cold slice of pizza as their reward. The ones who are happy just to stand 200 feet away from Feingold and watch him speak, getting nothing in return, except more volunteer hours and more doors slammed in their face as they try to convince the surprisingly apathetic UW student body that they need to vote. The kids who worked 30 hours on Election Day to DEFEAT Republicans around the state. Who drive in blizzards to network and make the state of Wisconsin’s liberal base stronger. Who drop lit at 6 in the morning, every day, and as a result get a nice salar- er, no, I mean get in trouble with UW officials, all so students can understand why Tammy Baldwin, or Herb Kohl should get their vote. Who go to New Orleans and clean up W’s failure. The ones who as of a few months ago, played beer pong (since I have a slightly older readership at times, here is an explanation) side-by-side with Progressive Dane leaders (Austin King, the President of Madison’s City Council, played beer pong against a former College Democrats chair and (an underage) current executive board member AT Eli Lewein’s apartment. I was there. I saw it. I saw it. I saw it. Na na na na na na. Again, I can’t prove this with a picture or video, but you’ll just have to take my word. Whatever. I do have witnesses, though. There were even freshmen girls there! Hmm…. Don’t I have the juicy Madison political gossip?) The kids who poured their hearts out to fight tooth and nail for every vote they could against the amendment. Who sat there in the dark, depressed and crying, because while they did their job in getting UW students out against the ban, the rest of the state failed them. Those who drive the Lt. Governor around the state, or stumble around a state assembly office to write constituent responses. The College Democrats who would at the drop of hat skip their classes to organize for their party.

The ones who do it for the love of the game.

3/27/2007 12:25:00 PM
Russell said...

Huh?

Kind of hard to respond to an anonymous rant like that, but I'll give it a shot.

I have enormous respect and admiration for College Dems and all other Democrats who volunteer their time and energy to advance the cause of our party. Unfortunately not all Democrats are that altruistic, and some party leaders are willing to place their own personal goals ahead of those of the party, which in the end hurts both the party and our candidates.

Almost everyone inside the party (present company excluded, of course) has a vested interest in using the party to advance their own agenda. The problem arises when certain individuals or groups become too dominant, and the best interests of the party end up secondary to the interests of those in power.

I believe this is a significant issue in the Dane Dems and the DPW. The solution is to create a more even distribution of power inside the party by bringing in more stakeholders and by putting in place accountability measures that make it harder for anybody to abuse the system. Checks and balances. An added benefit is that doing this would also make the party both bigger and stronger.

Ask yourself why neither the Dane Dems nor the DPW devotes any significant resources to recruiting new party members. We are, after all, membership organizations. The answer will tell you a lot.

It's hard to have a real conversation in a blog comment, but I'd be happy to discuss this with you further via email or in person. Let me know if you're interested. - Russell

3/29/2007 04:46:00 PM
Anonymous said...

"Almost everyone inside the party (present company excluded, of course) has a vested interest in using the party to advance their own agenda. The problem arises when certain individuals or groups become too dominant, and the best interests of the party end up secondary to the interests of those in power."

Kind of hypocrytical Russ when you use your DPDC title to run a witch hunt investigation into candidates, leak it to the press, blame someone else, and then attempt to cover it up in a mass email. No vested interest there in using the party to advance your own agenda, right? Way to "drop a fucking nuclear bomb."

3/30/2007 04:12:00 PM
Russell said...

Your whole understanding of what's going on is kind of ass-backwards. I wasn't conducting an investigation of the candidates who participated in the phone banks. They just took advantage of an opportunity that was presented to them, as any candidate would. Nothing wrong with that.

The person I'm after is the guy who decided to bypass the Dane Dems endorsement process by inviting only certain candidates to participate in the phone banks. That's the issue here. Wayne certainly did his best to prevent me from finding the truth, but I got what I needed.

You may not like it, but the endorsement process is supposed to determine who gets party support. When that process is bypassed, as it was in this case, it reduces the value of party endorsements and damages the party. Why should candidates really care about getting a Dem Party endorsement if they know that party support is really determined by secret back room deals?

If you think that the endorsement process is broken then work to fix it. Seems to me it's kind of shortsighted to subvert the whole institution because a few endorsement votes didn't break your way.

I also didn't leak anything to the press. When a reporter did contact me I refused to comment. I told her that I would talk only after the elections were over because the story might hurt our candidates. And I'd be happy to prove that to you, although I kind of doubt you're actually interested in learning the truth.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is a democracy (well, actually a republic). I believe that we're far more likely to succeed if we respect that fact than if we ignore it. I realize this belief puts me into conflict with many party leaders who feel otherwise, but I'm not in this to make them happy.

I'm not a politician and I don't earn my living from politics. I'm a liberal, but not a radical ideologue by any means. There's essentially nothing in this for me other than the sense of satisfaction I get from doing the right thing. I want Democrats to win, and I believe that making the party bigger and stronger is the key to doing that. I may make mistakes, but compared to most of the other players in this game my motives are a heck a lot purer and simpler.

4/01/2007 01:49:00 AM
Anonymous said...

Russell, as you know I agree with you. The powers in the Dem party are more interested in staying in power than winning elections. Dems do win elections, but that is like the secondary objective. This attitude drove me out. As I told a party leader when asking me why, "I don't want to work in a party who treats people so badly."

While you and have disagreed over the years, I admire your perseverance. Keep it up!

JM

4/06/2007 02:49:00 PM
Cadencia said...

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9/14/2023 10:00:00 PM

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