Convention-al Wisdom
Sunday Evening
I’m still up in Sacramento, where the California Democratic Convention has just concluded. I decided not to live blog any of it because it is hard to animate what is, at its core, a deadening experience.
Not wholly unexpected, the convention officially endorsed state Treasurer Phil Angelides as gubernatorial candidate. The vote came on the same day that at L.A. Times poll showed his rival, Steve Westly, to be far out in front – particularly in the all-important match-up with incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger. More on the horse race later in the week.
The gubernatorial endorsement was the only element of suspense during the three day event. The rest is a dreary, if sometimes unintentionally funny, reminder of just how sclerotic the Democratic Party is (just the GOP). It’s worthwhile coming to one of these conventions now and then just to be reminded of such realities.
As the convention was breaking up today, I couldn’t help but chuckle –partly in sympathy partly in amazement—at the loud laments from some of the self-proclaimed progressives (like Progressive Democrats of America) who just couldn’t believe that the party voted down most of all its last minute proposals.
These folks seem to forget that in party conventions, the delegates are merely unpaid extras. Republican delegates seem to know this and just don’t care. But Democrats keep trying to convince themselves that this is really their party and therefore the non-stop yammering about taking it back, turning it around, taking it over etc. etc. etc. I’ve been watching this particular kabuki for my entire adulthood (stretching back to McGovern ’72) and nothing, really, seems to change. The entire script of these events are written in advance and good, little delegates are supposed to sit there and applaud and waive placards.
Therein resides some of the real fun in these official party gatherings – the yawning Grand Canyon of a gap between the rhetoric from the podium and the reality on the floor, or at least behind the curtain. “Promises Kept†is this year’s official convention slogan? But promises to whom?
Apart from the ubiquitous teachers’ and public employees’ unions, the official sponsors of this year’s convention of the party little guy include: Verizon, AT&T, Mercury Insurance and a handful of Indian gambling tribes. Among them are the two most virulently anti-labor tribes in the state: the Morongos and the Agua Caliente. The latter, known among its critics as the Wal-Mart tribe, has been spending millions to defeat an organizing drive by the hotel workers union and is notorious for paying low wages and offering scant to no health care. But they do indeed “sponsor†a crew full of Democratic pols with millions in political contributions.
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The Speaker of the California Assembly, Fabian Nunez, who should have had a prominent presence at the convention was basically a no-show. He was tied up a few hours west of here at the ultra-posh Pebble Beach gold resort where he was being feted by all the little guys over at AT&T. And why not? Nunez has been fighting hard for the interests of the telecommunications giant who stands to make billions in a fight with the cable industry.
Party Chair Art Torres has been waylaid by a bout of cancer. His replacement to chair the convention was none other than the legendary Willie Brown – the longest-serving Speaker of the Assembly in state history and the recent former mayor of San Francisco.
At the podium, decked out in one of his signature Brioni suits, the charismatic Brown lapped up the adulatory applause and humbly described himself as a simple “talk-show host.†It’s true that Da Mayor is holding down a seat in front of the mikes in the Bay Area. But he forgot to mention that his day job is that of corporate lobbyist. During last fall’s special election cycle in California, Brown pocketed several hundred thousand dollars as a strategist for Big Pharma – hired to head off a ballot prop that would have provided cheaper prescription drugs. “I’m feeling great, wonderful, never better,†Willie told us as he approached the podium on opening night.
April 30th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Too many of them are whores…but Brown? Brown is a pimp.
April 30th, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Sorry you had to go through that Marc, but I guess it comes with the territory. Is there any platform light at all?
April 30th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Come on, Marc, I wanted to see you type really fast and long with your thumbs!
April 30th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Marc, it looks like you figured it out. What you might consider is that Phil Angelides was Willie Brown’s hired gun back in the early ’90s, and a lot of people in the party (at least in the southern part of the state) still don’t like him as a result. It is a little surprising that the party faithful went for Angelides, but that shows how unrepresentative the whole thing is. The people who go to the convention have nothing to do with the large mass of people who will vote in the primary.
May 1st, 2006 at 12:09 am
I guess one would have to say “ironically”, here’s a Democrat who’s actually worth paying attention to sounding the alarm on issue far more critical than U.S. immigration “reform” and the rest of the interest-group politics-as-usual:
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/TW-Clooney-Darfu.mov
May 1st, 2006 at 2:46 am
I guess I’m weird. I enjoyed the convention–but then maybe because I stayed away from most of the speeches and had a good time talking to folks in the hallways.
I too worked for McGovern in half a dozen states in 1972, and I agree with you that there’s much to be changed in the Democratic Party, and the politics in Sacramento ain’t pretty much of the time.
There was a lot of energy at the convention. Maybe, probably, most of it was tilting at windmills. But I think many of those folks will be working hard in June and more importantly in November.
I bumped into you at the Angelides press conference. Love to talk with you the next time we are at some event. Loved your comments. There are many facets of this party and the convention, and you’ve painted part of the picture that we all have to look at.
May 1st, 2006 at 11:22 am
it would seem that after the powers that be got scared sh*tless at the 1972 convention, there are whole legions of people who work to develop a lot of rules to make sure anything “random” does not happen at these things.
personally I felt the whole thing was more like Comic-Con or a Star Trek Convention but with less interesting “stars.”
I don’t know if I should be glad or scared that scores of young people would be willing to scream their lungs out for…WESTLY and ANGELIDES?
May 1st, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Mike Strimling was at the Progressive Democrat’s meet-and-greet Saturday night –
All that you really saw at the convention otherwise were that Angelides and Westly are just empty focus-tested phrases. You can only fool SOME of the people SOME of the time. Mike Strimling, Democrat for Governor, takes some real positions on the issues. People are fed up with all the silly positioning of Westly and Angelides — Westly as center-right and Angelides as just a single-hair to the left of him, at what anyone in Europe, England, Canada, Australia or New Zealand would still call right wing.
We need some real Democrats and progressives to run and get votes – for peace, health, privacy, justice and taxing corporations – or we are just engaging in the Republicans’ conversation and playing their game on their turf. Looking for substance or specifics with Westly or Angelides? Good luck. Waiting for them to come out for peace or single-payer? Waiting for either to mention 3-strikes, the death penalty, or Proposition 13? Waiting for them to mention Bush’s wiretaps? Think about it: neither of them have a record in any office voting on any of those issues, and their money is all corporate and big developers. Angelides is just trying to position himself slightly to the left of Westly to get endorsements of the party activists, but he is pro-death penalty and won’t breathe a word about the very right wing drift of California. People in the South get better social services. The Republican governor of Massachusetts signed a health care bill that is way to the left of anything Westly or Angelides supports. Westly already sided with Schwarzenegger to pass debt to our children rather than tax the rich or luxury cars. Neither seems to have any concept of how Prop 13 lets corporations get away with paying less and less taxes and shifting taxes to the poor and homeowners – locking the State and its schools in a downward spiral. Look at the website of Mike Strimling — http://www.michaelstrimling.com
Just like Marcy Winograd for Representative, there IS a truly Progressive ALTERNATIVE in the race for Governor – Mike Strimling. Please check us out! Unless there someone with a real Progressive program running and getting votes, then we just elect a Harman or a Westly and let them drift so far to the right that we might as well have elected a Republican. We can coalesce around the winner of the Primary, after it is done, but how can you vote for a right-wing candidate? http://www.michaelstrimling.com
May 4th, 2006 at 11:01 am
Marc, while I don’t necessarily disagree with your tone re: the Dem party establishment, I have at least two bones to pick with you. First, the progressive caucus in the party is gaining momentum and will be a force to be reckoned with, whether that manifests itself in the convention or, or course more importantly, in the voting booth, in the neighborhoods where people are walking precincts knocking on doors, and in meeting places around at least the progressive areas of this state.
Second, with respect to the endorsement fight over Winograd vs. Harman, in your LA Weekly piece, you got the details wrong. Contrary to what you reported — and I don’t know what convention you were attending that you could say this — the Winograd/Harman contest was not decided on a voice vote. In fact, to his credit, Brown first took a voice vote, decided it was too close to call based on decibels, and then had the delegates stand and be counted. Unfortunately, there were apparently more Harmanites in the room standing for the status quo than Winogradsters wanting to end the war and Harman’s support for the Bush administration.
Finally, I would agree with you, though it is not much of an astute observation, that the party remains stodgy, corporate, fundamentally conservative and difficult, if not impervious, to change. It is going to kowtow to those of its members who have enjoyed power for years, who have built up a favor (and money) bank; those people are hard to turn out. But it can be done. And in Harman’s case, the stars and demographics are well-aligned, so don’t give up hope for a transformation there from the grassroots.
May 4th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
I agree with the start of the above comment. How can you say that there was no physical vote? If you were there, you would have seen the delay for the count, which was 678 to 244 in favor of Harmon.
Different from the endorsing caucus of the district delegates which went 42 to 6 in favor of Harmon.
The main thought was not that Harmon was great but that the concept of taking back Congress could be as close as one vote.
The local delegates like Marcy but know she could not win that district should she defeat Harmon and that a pro- choice Republican could easily do so if the Democratic winner is damaged goods.
May 9th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
“The local delegates like Marcy but know she could not win that district should she defeat Harmon and that a pro- choice Republican could easily do so if the Democratic winner is damaged goods.”
First of all, it’s HARMAN. Secondly, that is blatantly not true. Whoever wins that district in the primary will take the seat come November. I don’t know where you get your information, but its wrong.
May 9th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
oh, and mr. gottlieb forgot to mention in his comments that he is marcy winograd’s husband.
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Vertical windmills…
Vertical windmills aren’t such a recent concept. In fact, despite that we are accustomed to seeing horizontal axis windmills, the first windmills invented were the vertical ones…
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