UPDATE: I've received some email about Martin Frost and did some more research. He had a pretty good voting record on a number of liberal issues, including gay rights and reproductive rights for women, and that's good. I still remain concerned about a guy who ran for re-election by touting his closeness to President Bush and hiding the fact he was a Democrat. Sure, maybe that's how Dems get elected in Texas (maybe), but it's not the kind of thinking we need for the national party. Heads need to roll in Washington. We need new thinking and new blood, not someone who's proud of his love of George Bush.
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The DNC is, by all reports, in quite some danger of picking an establishment candidate as the next party chair. Why? Because they're freaked out that Howard Dean actually has a chance at becoming the next head of the party, and the old-time do-nothing Red-state-loving Republican wing of the Democrat party can't fathom the possibility of our party finally being headed by someone who actually embraces the ideals and policy that the party stands for. The top candidate for the Dean-haters? Martin Frost, a Texan who ran for election on the platform that he was a friend of Bush AND he refuses to mention that he was a Democrat in his TV ads or on his campaign signs.
I will be writing more on this shortly, but I want to know what you folks think of us all pledging NOW that we won't give a dime to the Democratic party if they pick a new party chair who reflects the ideals and the guts (or lack thereof) of old-time Democrats?
I'm serious about this. They are getting very close to screwing us all over. This party has not had the catharsis it needed after the election. Where was the discussion of what went wrong? The REAL discussion? Nowhere. The party is moving ahead like all is well. The progressive nonprofits, were they to blame? No discussion. The DNC and the DLC? No discussion. John Kerry? No discussion. People like Martin Frost who are afraid to admit they're Democrats and who feel the need to publicly suck up to George Bush? No discussion.
The same thing happened 4 years ago when Al Gore - all the talk about the party figuring out what went wrong, it all ended in nothing being discussed and nothing being changed. We need a revolution in this party. The old consultants, the party leaders, the leaders in Congress, the heads of the liberal non-proits, ALL of them need to justify their paychecks or get out of town. There's a new and empowered generation of Democrats out here, and we're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
The party elects Martin Frost or some similar clone as party head, and it's all over. And before someone in a closed room tells us we have nowhere to go even if they do pick someone who isn't a reformer, think about how it's going to effect we if we don't give you a dime of money or one scintilla of support over the next 4 years, not to mention bashing you every step of the way. Yeah, we'll vote for the Democratic candidate next time (maybe), but you see how successful you are when we boycott all your fundraising and publicly malign you.
