The NCDP's Jonestown moment
Published February 5, 2015
by Thomas Mills, Politics NC, February 2, 2015.
In his column this weekend, the News & Observer’s Ned Barnett wrote, “The Democrats have been vanquished, undone by their disorganization and lack of conviction and gerrymandered into irrelevance.” The backdrop to that statement is a race for chair of the Democratic Party that’s just disheartening. The race is not to lead the state’s Democrats. The race is to elect someone who can make the party relevant again.
The past two chairs, Randy Voller and David Parker, have run the party into the ground, making it a laughingstock and leaving it deeply in debt. They alienated “the electeds,” as they call them, and lost the trust and confidence of the big donors, the national party, and the campaign professionals. Instead, they surround themselves with people who don’t understand that without the support of the elected officials who run on the Democratic ticket, the state party has no power or influence at all.
There are a number of candidates running for chair, but former State Representative Patsy Keever is the only candidate with the experience, connections, and clout to turn the party around–and it won’t be an easy task for her. However, unlike either of the past two chairs or the people surrounding them, she knows what real campaigns look like and she has raised real money. She’s also served in the General Assembly, was party chair of Buncombe County and serves as first vice-chair of the state party.
Given her background and experience, Keever should be a shoe-in, but with the dysfunctional state of the party, she’s being attacked by conspiracy theorists and the left’s version of the Tea Party. They’re more interested in controlling the mechanics of the party than making it relevant to the political landscape. They don’t understand that the people who organize, run, and fund campaigns have already set up their own networks to work around the state party if necessary. The party was marginalized in 2014 and will have even less of a role in 2016 if the voting members don’t install competent leadership.
This is the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Jonestown moment. On Saturday, the state executive committee can continue on the road to oblivion or they can take steps to re-emerge from the wilderness and re-enter the political fray. Don’t drink the Kool-aid.
February 5, 2015 at 10:45 am
Norm Kelly says:
Let's take a view of the NCDP from the outside. I'll give advice to libs from a conservative, just like libs ALWAYS give advice on how to get things done properly when Republicans are in charge. The difference is that libs fail and give the same failing advice to Republicans as they use themselves. By providing failing advice, libs hope that Republicans come to the same failure as they themselves did and therefore voters give power/control back to the libs.
It seems rather logical that the Demoncrat Party has taken it's own advice and therefore failed. (i know. since it's logical, there's no way the demons have figured this out or will believe my words.) Demons believe that everyone is equal in every way. There is no difference between competent leaders and incompetent leaders. According to demons, Sarah Palin was unqualified to be Vice President, second place, because she had only been a governor. Just remember that governors lead the state, don't play second fiddle. Libs blame McCrory for everything cuz he's the leader, not second in command. (i know. libs would blame him anyway just because he's a racist republican!) On the other hand, socialists believed that the community organizer was qualified to be President, in first place, because he's black, he wanted to fundamentally transform the nation, he has the same socialist philosophy of the party leaders, some other bogus reason. Since libs believe in equality on every level except skin color, by their definition the least qualified candidate became the most qualified. The state Demoncrat Party appears to have put unqualified leaders in place TWICE now. Seems a pattern with libs! What did unqualified leadership do to the state party? Drove it to irrelevancy. What is the advice from Politics NC? Stop promoting unqualified people, and put in someone who knows what they are doing. Except this is contrary to EVERYTHING the entire Demon Party stands for; not just in our state but across the country. In order for the state demon party to prove it's philosophy of everyone being equal, the party MUST elect a completely unqualified leader. The party will then succeed, by their own standards of course, and prove to the masses that they are 100% correct. If the new unqualified leader fails, the party members can then do what they always do: blame Republicans, blame conservatives, and blame racists. Either way the demon party wins.
My advice to demon party leadership: stick to your guns. Continue to elect a leader who meets your qualifications of simply breathing, and let the chips fall where they may. If the unqualified person manages to do something good, perhaps it's because the masses will feel sorry for the individual, realize that incompetence was once again promoted beyond their level of competence, and the masses will relate by supporting the unqualified leader. Isn't this the entire demon party philosophy in a nutshell? Yes, but they will refuse to admit it. Bet I'm called a racist real quick! The entire demon party runs on emotions/feelings.
