DNC, Grow the Party and Vote for Keith Ellison

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

21 February 17

n Friday you will be making a critical decision. Your vote on the chair of the Democratic Party could very well decide the direction of our country for decades. We can continue on the path we chose in 1992, when we nominated Bill Clinton and turned control of the Democratic Party over to the Democratic Leadership Council. But the result has been a party that has lost all power and has continued to shrink.

While the percentage of Americans who are registered as Democrat is dropping, so is the membership in the Republican Party. That should tell us something. People don’t want us to be more like the Republicans – they want us to be Democrats again. The “third way” has been a disaster for our party. The focus on making the party more appealing to Southern moderates has created a party less attractive to our base.

We can use the term liberal or progressive, but it is time for our party to return to its roots. It is time for Democrats to represent the working class again. When our party, led by people like Tony Coehlo and Al From, decided to seek corporate cash and represent corporate interests, we lost our soul. We have been trying to be Republican-lite for far too long.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign showed us what the independents who have been leaving our party have been looking for. The political revolution energized progressives and breathed new life into our party. We chose to stick with the failed direction of the “third way” when we nominated Hillary Clinton.

Many of us have been working hard to keep that energy and new blood in the party. Early on in the race for chair, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie came out for Ellison. It seemed as if the party was coming together behind his candidacy. So I have to ask: why was there a need for party insiders to recruit Tom Perez to run?

I am afraid that the message a Perez victory would send to progressives is “We want your vote, but we still know better.” We would be saying that cash from Goldman Sachs is still the blood that runs through the veins of this party.

Think long and hard before you cast your vote. I am afraid that a vote against Keith Ellison would be an invitation to millions of progressives to exit the party. A vote for Keith Ellison will be an invitation to stay and rebuild the party. Do the right thing and grow the party with Keith. Who do we gain or lose with Tom Perez as chair? That’s right, we keep the corporate cash and lose progressive voters. The cash can be replaced; the voters are irreplaceable.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott moved to Des Moines in 2015 to cover the Iowa Caucus.

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