June 6, 2004
Democrats and democrats
Next Friday night, several hundred delegates to the Democratic Convention will gather in Appleton to hear four hours of speeches from Russ Feingold, Ron Kind, Tammy Baldwin, Jim Doyle, a Kerry surrogate, and several others before heading for the hospitality suites where they can support a candidate for some office or eat cream puffs with Herb Kohl.
They will hear that W. is very bad (as if they didn't know), that Republicans in the Legislature are worse, that Governor Doyle's vetoes are all that stand between civilization and anarchy. What they will not hear is an explanation of why the governor has done absolutely nothing on campaign reform while raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars from big business; why the two Democrats on the Elections Board lost their nerve and took a pass on regulation of so-called "independent" expenditures; or why the governor has enacted WMC's environmental program.
There will be no discussion of the loopy idea from the governor's education task force headed by an attorney for school districts that we should raise the sales tax to fund education or why schools are cutting out many programs that are needed for a well-rounded education.
They will be told to focus on the presidential race and someone will condemn Nader while conservative WisPolitics.com conducts a poll on who the vice-presidential candidate should be (as if John Kerry is just waiting to hear).
Applause, laughter, but no meaningful discussion of what the party stands for. Few incumbent legislators or cabinet members will attend, sending a signal that they do not have to listen to delegates. This will be a Democratic convention but not a democratic gathering. Too bad. It is time for a task force to democratize the Democrats.
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