Stand on two feet

One of the frustrations that I've had over the last 4 years has been the attitude that the membership door is a one way valve. That if you're not doing what the party organization is doing that you're not really helping the Party. That if you're not attending the meetings, you're not really a Democrat. It goes to the perception that the "Democratic Party" is a election machine, and nothing else. That perception is not held by people on the inside, but it is often what we hear from people who feel like they are on the outside.

I want the Democratic Party to be able to say that we support Democracy. Democracy stands on two feet. The first is political, and we have responsibilities as an organization to fulfill our responsibilities to provide a place for candidates and campaigns to get endorsements and report their successes and needs, as well as a responsibility to provide a way for our members to get access to our elected officials.

But the other "foot" is economic. Job security, economic security, etc. That's what we're all striving for, and any organization that ignores this for political posturing is not going to be a strong organization for long. We've started over the last 5 years to regain a picture of what we lost in the 1990's when the party in King County started focusing on finding candidates instead of recovering the support of the voters, but we haven't regained it yet. I think we can, and I want to empower people with ideas so we might get closer to that.

Meetings are twice a month for the executive board, and once a month for members who don't want to attend the eboard meetings. 2-4 hours isn't enough time to get anything done, but it is enough time to talk about and report on what we do outside the meetings. Let's turn the Democrats back into a Community Organization, rather than just an Electoral Machine.