Burnt Orange Report

How completely disheartening this entire turn of events here with the Dallas County Democrat Party is! Even if you agree with the planners of tonight's coup d'etat, their incredibly ugly, unappealing and ham-handed tactics are making the party so toxic that it will take us years to recover. Thanks, guys, for the childish shout-downs at precinct meetings. The name-calling and vitriol. The non-stop petitions and telephone banks. Thanks for making it easy for me to keep sending my donations to the DNC and bypass the local party. With sharks like these amongst us, who needs Republicans.

I left the meeting at 8:45. I was told by a friend that precinct chairs would be sworn in, which is why I went in the first place--no other letter from the party mentioned that.

I knew there would be trouble when I was handed two competing agendas as I walked into the meeting. Turns out, there was not a quorum to swear in precinct chairs, so I went for nothing.

Right now, I'm thinking of resigning as Precinct chair--who needs this kind of aggravation?

Well... it happens in every party in which you have two groups that just cannot get along and you say to yourself, "damn why am I here wasiting my fuckin time?!?

Sometimes people just get in there, according to one book on party particpation, is for the social/network/benfits thing, and sometimes that part gets unbalanced from the other reasons. (although I do aggree that this meeting was needed because of what the Chair did). Yet I donot belive that by leaving is a solution.

As a member of the SDEC and as well a Pct. Chair in El Paso County Democratic Party, its just something you have to get used to. What I do, like I had to do when the committee was spilt between two people this past summer. There have been many times where I have said that I want to just leave because its pointless, but I just think of the other stuff you can do with that title, as organizing your neighboorhod, or knowing what really needs to get done to get the party back in line and offering a soulition or assistance, and helping others to get into the party like through young/college dems so they can become the future activist. Also, it does help, especially when you are starting a student organzation at a university, to get supporters and stuff. So you just need to find what you really want to do if you want to be part of the party.

Finally, just stick it out, eventually it will be all over.

Damn, this is what happens when you are doing two things at once and dont notice your errors. I ment to say in my 3rd paragraph:

There have been many times where I have said that I want to just leave because its pointless, like I had to do when the committee was spilt between two people this past summer. I just remind myself and think of the other stuff you can do with that title as: organizing your neighboorhod....

Hopefuly its readable now

I am a pending precinct chair who wasn't sworn in tonight as a result of lacking the quorum to fill vacancies, but I'm not of the opinion that my time was wasted. The events that took place tonight in the CWA Hall were beautiful because the will of the Executive Committee was finally made known, even if certain individuals who will remain unnamed worked hard to quiet it by calling the police, attempting to sign out and break the quorum to conduct business, and subsequently adjourning the meeting because said-individuals felt that they were "outgunned." I hope that the members of the Executive Committee (regardless of whether or not I'll ever actually become one of them) will continue to struggle to make their voices heard. They are the guardians of the Dallas County Democratic Party, and it could really use their help right now.

I had planned on attending last nights Executive Committee meeting to witness the discussion, but at the last minute could not make it, so these comments are made in a vacuum...

Both sides have something to say and both sides have grievances. But I have learned that we use stories to understand and justify our beliefs. Each side has a story. And while I personally agree with parts of each story, I believe that I can be of greater service if I don't take sides.

We are all Democrats. I ask you to stay positive and to band together, so that we might get to the business of winning elections. The "Dallas Area Democrats" is just that. We are A Volunteer Grass-roots Effort Providing Coordination, Communication, Technology, and Resources, Helping Democrats get elected. We will work within the Party structure wherever possible. But we are activists too. We will fill any void that exists and we will get things done.

If you are interested in being a positive force in Dallas County Democratic Politics, please join us tonight (Tuesday March 1st) at the Turley Law Center (6440 N. Central Expressway, Suite 900 at University and Central, just north of Mockingbird) at 6:30pm. We will be describing and discussing our vision, priorities, and committee opportunities. But most importantly, we recognize that nothing can be done without you, local Democrats. And we are meeting to ask for your input and manpower to accomplish important goals.

Our priorities include: development and use of technology, community service projects, bringing progressive media to North Texas, and general coordination (clubs, committees, and precinct chairs). We have also discussed ongoing house parties, messaging/framing, and voter identification phone banking. And we want to encourage people to support the DDF which is bringing an impressive array of speakers to the area.