Al Alessi November 21, 2023
If you read last week’s entry, and you’re now convinced that you must get involved in this rapidly approaching election (November 5 2024!), let me share with you a primer on how party politics is designed to work in an actual grassroots democracy. At this point we are still a true democracy. Please ignore the “We’re a Republic, not a Democracy” foolishness. We are both, in the same way that an apple and an orange are both fruit. Ignore as well that we are in the grip of a secret cabal of oligarchs, even if that risk seems close. We are a democracy. A democracy requires all of us to be involved with the political process. If we abdicate, autocrats of one kind or another are always standing ready to fill the vacuum.
Level 1: There are 5 levels to a political party in the US, starting with you. You must personally recognize, at some point, in some way, that you align with a specific political party. Hopefully it’s the Democratic Party, the only sane political party that is committed to democratic principles. That alignment can happen in a lot of different ways, including being persuaded by candidates that you respect and admire, but also by reviewing the Party Platforms, both National and State. Go to the national Democratic Party platform here https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/ and to the Vermont Democratic Party platform here https://www.vtdemocrats.org/platform. I know, from personal experience, that the words in the VDP platform were crafted by Vermont volunteers who are involved in the Democratic Party on some level. I was involved in one of the earlier platforms, perhaps 6 years ago, which culminated over two days in Barre, but started many weeks earlier in local discussions and debates where everyone had an opportunity to express their opinions.
Level 2: Once you know you’re a Democrat, check to see if there is a Democratic Town (or City, though there are no cities in my County) Committee where you live. In Vermont there must be at least 3 people to create a Town Committee. The Rules are all here: https://sos.vermont.gov/elections/election-info-resources/parties. In Windsor County there are 21 towns and 16 with organized Democratic committees. Each Committee needs a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary, although someone can have 2 titles if there are really only 3 people. Some towns are very active, like Springfield, Hartford, Rochester and Windsor, some are less active but have a solid membership, and some are just hanging on. If you live in a town with no organized Town Committee, take steps to find at least 2 others and create your Committee. This is where you want to start out. It never needs to go further than this, but get involved in your Town at the very least. Show up! Share your opinions. Ask your questions. See how you can help make the presence of the Democratic Party better in your town.
Level 3: Each organized town then sends a set number of delegates (proportionally based on election voting totals from the last election) to the Windsor County Democratic Committee. The WCDC meets monthly, for both the mundane (who would like to work on the website?) and the exciting, like online and/or live sessions with candidates, or on issues like gun safety, health and more. One additional and critical step for the County is to vote for members of the County Committee to represent Windsor County at the Vermont Democratic Committee.
Level 4: Each of our 14 Vermont Counties send delegates to the Vermont Democratic Party, so our VDP has a few dozen members from all over the State. Windsor County sends 3, plus it selects 3 Alternates if any Delegates can’t make a session. The VDP works on fundraising for state-wide positions as well as local races, helping focus on key issues within the State, finding the best candidates to run, and organizing events like the VDP Platform on election years. Fortunately The VDP has some paid staff to help stay organized and moving forward.
Level 5: Our State Democratic Committee then selects members from the County delegates to send to the DNC – the Democratic National Committee. The DNC again covers things both mundane and exciting, except now it is with members from all 50 states, DC and territories. THIS IS GRASS ROOTS, FROM EACH INDIVIDUAL ON UP. No one can buy themselves into the VDP or the DNC. There are no secret string-pullers. The rules as established by the State of Vermont preclude anything but the process of Town Committees electing County Committee delegates, plus officers, and the County delegates electing State Committee delegates. There are no back doors. To end up included in the Democratic National Committee, and/or the Vermont Democratic Committee, and/or the Windsor County Democratic Committee, or your Town Committee YOU MUST SHOW UP.
You work, volunteer, ask questions, promote your issues, spend a weekend working on the State Platform (if you’re drawn to that), meet our State Reps, State Senators, and state-wide candidates, ask them lots of questions, and you (and we) work to get them elected, and keep them elected. You even might run for School Board, and other local offices, or even State Representative or State Senate. We all donate as best we are able, but it’s a shoestring budget.
Last point for this article. I’ve talked with some younger folks (20 to 50?) who complain about the Democrats. They’re too old. Perhaps they don’t like the positions on this issue or that. Democrats are out of step. They hate the other guys, but it’s hard, for one reason or the other, to get involved with the Democrats. Here is how you solve that: YOU SHOW UP.
If you want to move this party in some direction or other, SHOW UP. Be the name someone remembers. Share your opinions at a meeting, so that we might consider this instead of that. And learn to accept short term defeats in the context of long-term success, since not everyone may agree with you quite yet. The success is that you show up, you care, and, in a Democracy, if you (and we) don’t show up, we get Trump or worse, and Democracy ends.
Replace us in your local Town Democratic Committee, and in the Windsor County Democratic Committee, and at the State and National levels as well. I’m 73 as I tap this out. Replace me, please, but first SHOW UP. Engage in the dialogue. We’re effectively in a 2 Party system. The other party is crazy and currently lying all the time. The Democratic Party is, at this point in time, the path back to normalcy. From my vantage point the Democratic Party has been incredibly successful in my lifetime, despite many factors that worked to undermine that success. Engage, learn to discuss differences, accept some degree of compromise, sell your points, convince the majority that this is better than that, so that when you’re 73 you can write that, from your vantage point, the Democratic Party has been incredibly successful in your lifetime.
