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From State Convention to National Convention The California Democratic Party Platform Becomes the National Democratic Platform |
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| The California Democratic Party Platform Story and Photographs by Rick Parrott |
“I sometimes have activists say they’ve given up on Obama because they tried the electoral process and it didn’t work. Politics only works for people who show up again and again.” – Michelle Goldberg, columnist, The New Republic, Rolling Stone, Salon.com
Many Democrats look at the political landscape with disappointment, frustration and alarm. Some feel President Obama “hasn’t done enough” on jobs and health care reform. He didn’t adequately punish Wall Street for its greed.
Some can’t believe that the Republicans have successfully convinced their base, and a large number of others, that the president wasn’t born in America, that he’s a Muslim, or a Kenyan socialist. They’re dismayed at being outspent by the GOP money machine engineered by the Koch Brothers and other billionaires--a machine that funds vicious attacks through Super-PA
CS.
They wonder how the voices of the middle class, union members, teachers, students, public safety workers, the poor and gay rights activists can ever be heard over the roar of the Republican fire hose.
So it may come as a surprise to these disenchanted Democrats that there is a place where activists are heard and their ideas are injected directly into the bloodstream of the Democratic Party—shaping its DNA, its heart, its head, its backbone, its soul and its identity. That place is the Platform Committee of the California Democratic Party. The Platform Committee revises and shapes the Democratic agenda and what the party stands for every two years.
The scene is the Platform Committee Hearing at the California State Democratic Party Convention in San Diego. In a large conference room, 25 Platform Committee members listen to testimony from a dozen activists seeking official party backing for their political ideas and agendas. It sometimes takes years for these activists to get here. They’ve developed issues and mission statements first at their local clubs, then with central committees and state executive board members. They’ve navigated their content through a maze of regional and state hearings. Read More
 Interview with California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton on Platforms and what lies ahead for Democrats in November.
Story and Photography by Rick Parrott At
the convention’s Platform Hearings, various activists actually got
their views, stands on issues incorporated into the official Democratic
Party platform. But there was cynicism about whether the candidates will
actually follow it. What’s the impact of the platform and what does it
stand for in this day and age? Democrats sometimes struggle with a waffling image—John Kerry was for it, then he was against it. Wouldn’t the platform be the best way of saying I am a Democrat and this is what I believe, revitalizing the process? It’s up to the guy running. They all get afraid of things. If I was running and there was something in the platform I really strongly disagreed with, and someone else said what about this issue that’s in the platform, I’d say that’s what they think, this is what I think. What an elected official will think is different than the activist that’s not running for office. But I do think it reflects the party’s values. It’s an important document. |
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Besides the importance of platforms, what’s at stake for California Democrats and the nation this November? Obama will win California if Democrats are all asleep in bed. U.S. Senator (Dianne) Feinstein is going to win. Picking up Democratic Congressional seats is important to help get back a Democratic House of Representatives. Of course the Governor’s (Jerry Brown’s) tax bill is important to get the state equalized financially so we can start going growing again. It’s also important to defeat the corporate power grab that’s out there to weaken people who work for a living. What would you like to say to Democrats to get them motivated—be afraid? Be positive? If they’re unhappy which they should be, they ought to get off their ass and do something about it. Everybody’s concerned their kid can’t get into a college or university, my local school sucks, they’re closing state parks, they’re cutting back in home support services. Well, get off your ass!! Vote for those taxes to allow things to stabilize, no further cuts. Then the economy picks up and we go forward. So the ground game of putting out the word, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood will get it done? Yeah. It's the phone banking, knocking on doors that will do it --Absolutely |
 Photo by Rick Parrott
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SACRAMENTO – In a move that will shrink the state’s environmental
footprint and save millions of taxpayer dollars, Governor Edmund G.
Brown Jr. issued a sweeping executive order today directing agencies and
departments to take immediate steps to green the state’s buildings,
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency. Read More |
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