Night of the Living Dems

by Thomas Gangale
14 May 2008

About 15 years ago, when I was working for a small company in Brisbane, a coworker about ten years my junior laid a pearl of wisdom upon me in a political discussion, making reference to "fascist leftists."

"Pray tell, what is a fascist leftist?"

He drew himself up all self-righteous, "You don't want to save the whales? Fuck you, man!"

In other words, if you aren't with my political agenda, you're not a real progressive.

As a hopefully former member of the Sonoma County Democratic Central Committee (I say "hopefully former" because, against my better judgement, I'm on the ballot seeking another term), I've come to understand the profundity of that apparently flippant characterization by a thirty-something: If you're not with a self-anointed "progressive's" program, you're a DINO (Democrat in name only).

In my nearly two years on the DCC, I have had the misfortune to become acquainted with the most willfully ignorant, narrow-minded rednecks in a supposed liberal bastion. They flatter themselves "progressives" because it's cool to say you're one. A friend of mine from South Carolina refers to them as the lint in the cosmic navel. She may not be able to define rednecks, but she knows them when she sees them.

One night last winter, the chair of the Democratic Central Committee of Marin, a self-described meeting junkie, came to one of our meetings, soon to his regret. He tried to leave the meeting early, only to find several tobacco addicts taking in the adulterated evening air outside the Rattigan Building, who accosted him with tales of past internecine wars on the Sonoma County DCC. I told him the next day, "It's not safe outside of an SCDCC meeting after dark! The next time you come up here, bring some wooden stakes."

Would that I had taken my own advice, for last night was another "Night of the Living Dems."

As a bit of background info, you should know that almost every county in California has a Democratic and a Republican central committee (Alturas is in a different star system). All of them register voters, mount "get out the vote" efforts, and support their local candidates--they all want to win--but what most distinguishes Democratic from Republican central committees is that nearly all Democratic and hardly any Republican committees have policy arms. They may be called Resolutions committees or Issues and Legislation committees, or something like that, but in a nutshell, Democratic party policy begins at the grassroots, while most Republicans are content to receive the revealed word from the state party... or higher.

Last night, the SCDCC took a step to the right. It voted to limit the number of issues that its Issues and Legislation Committee could report to it in any given month, and as far as I know, no other Democratic central committee has such a restriction. This DCC wants to focus on winning elections. Well, what the hell does that matter if the party doesn't stand for issues? No wonder more people are registering as "declines to state." If your only objective is to win, what distinguishes you from any other party... or any sports team? You have made yourself value-neutral. As Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis said, "Just win, baby!" Is that what American politics should be reduced to?

The maker of this motion to limit political speech in the local arm of the Democratic Party is the same guy who, a few years ago, conned the SCDCC into passing a resolution to withhold its support to local Democratic officeholders who appointed non-Democrats to public offices. Forget about their professional qualifications, they had to pass a political litmus test. And they call this "progressive." In contrast, one of my first acts as a member of the Democratic Central Committee was to visit the Republican Central Committee. They told me this guy was the greatest gift that Democrats had ever given Republicans in Sonoma County. Unfortunately, the current local Democratic leadership has chosen to ally itself with him, demonstrating once again that the ends justify the means.

The term "progressive" has been hijacked in Sonoma County, and perhaps elsewhere. It now connotes some narrow, fringe agenda, not only saving the whales these days, but perhaps saving the light brown apple moth as well. In this county's Democratic Central Committee, one can propose an interminable string of resolutions supporting single-payer health care, ending the war, and impeaching the president and vice president, and receive unending praise, but stray outside of those narrow ideological boundaries and the so-called "progressives" go ballistic. The concept of a broad-spectrum progressive is alien. A few months ago, a motion to take positions on a couple of June ballot initiatives was objected to because, as proposed amendments to the state constitution, these were matters too weighty for the DCC to weigh in on. Never mind that any yokel registered voter, high school diploma or not, is going to vote on it. Man, is that leadership or what? Sadly, the maker of this motion tries to lord it over her credulous colleagues on the committee by repeatedly reminding them of her Harvard master's degree. Well, the current President of the United States has one, too. I guess Harvard isn't what it used to be. Glad I went to San Francisco State.