Comment Rescue – Does the Democratic Party Ever Lead on Anything?

This is a question from a new commenter – John D Sykes.  It is a good one and one that we forget to ask:

(O)utside of registration and voting, do the Party leaders activate our rank and file to take public stands on issues such as the state’s climate action plan? I’m thinking of instances such as as DNREC’s public hearings on vehicle emissions that had few folks, other than Caesar Rodney and the GOP, show up for comments. Would not this important issue be one that the state Party would mobilize membership?

The Democratic Party’s staff (that is the small number of people paid by the party) has a job – to get Democrats elected to office.  The Party’s leadership, (that is an informal Committee of Statewide Elected Dems, the 27 voting members of the State Executive Committee, & representatives of subdivisions, and) are the policy side.

So, the short answer is no. The Democratic party leadership does not see its role as trying activate the membership to take action on any issues.  It frames the platform and then freely ignores it.  Sometimes it not only ignores it but works to frustrate efforts to get the platform enacted, as when John Carney sided with republicans and cops to prevent cannabis legalization in spite of the fact that legalization was a stated goal of the party explicitly mentioned in the platform.  

Other than ignoring the platform, from time to time between elections the party issues a press release expressing happiness or sadness about something that happened.   But that’s about it.

Your question suggests that the party infrastructure might be useful for getting people out to hearings and such to counterweight the Republicans who are good at getting people to show up at things – but in my experience, the party has never been used for that.

The leadership has no interest on activating the base around anything other than occasionally getting out to vote.  As I mentioned previously, the Party Leadership (and most incumbent Democrats) view corporations as their primary constituency.  So activating the base to support the state’s “climate action plan” for example, would run headlong into their main objective – currying favor with, and gaining the financial support of polluters.  They also obviously fear what an activated base might get up to once activated.  Looking at the track records of that informal committee of statewide elected Dems, that fear is very well founded.

The exception to all of this inaction occurs when an incumbent has a piece of legislation that they’d really like to see pass.  That incumbent can leverage the party’s infrastructure and take an active role in getting support among rank and file members.   It is rare, but Sarah McBride working directly with voters and meeting with interest groups in each county to build support for Paid Family Leave, is a good example.

But like I said, that is rare.  Mostly it falls to outside interest groups and insurgent primary campaigns to move the ball forward on policy.