Friends,
I am proud to post the following guest commentary from our friend Luis Moscoso:
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Sisters and Brothers in Democracy -
In the past few years that I have been involved as an officer of the Democrat Party I have seen so-called 'progressives' and Party regulars speak about this issue in terms that can only be described as patronizing. In fact, what I hear the most is that when "you people (of color) get your act together" you can really help the Party to defeat the Republicans. First of all, we must acknowledge is that the Democrat Party is an artifact of white institutional racism even though it has worked hard (at times) to fight racism at large in American culture.
Recently, I have been to a County convention where Platform language that was supposed to have been written for the now very important Immigration Issue was never submitted and a generic position was seen as sufficient. In fact, no one even noticed that this had happened.
I have also been contacted by elected officials and candidates about "talking points" re immigration. I wouldn't mind giving my opinion and concerns to anyone, if they had done some research on their own first. I'd rather help them process their thinking than just give them talking points that they think will resonate with the Latino community or the Party. (Remember: The Latino community is not of one mind about this issue. Just like Democrats.)
Politicos and others readily admit that Pres. Bush is the one who's made Immigration an issue at this time. A WEDGE issue meant to help the Republicans in upcoming elections. If we Democrats don't get our act together, the wedge will be between Democrats of color & their allies with the main body of Democrats (who are passively waiting for us to organize votes to return the Party to power.)
As long as we continue to ignore the "institutional racism" that afflicts our Party as well as our country, we will continue to fail to organize minority populations to join us. After all, what's in it for them/us?
- Luis Moscoso
State Party Secretary
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Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue
Mike's Blog Round Up
48 minutes ago
1 comments:
Amen, Luis! I know what you're talking about. I went to that County Convention as well, and every single radical resolution I got passed in my precinct was strangely absent from consideration. This County party, if not the party nationwide, is totally dysfunctional and doesn't understand that truly passionate activists could actually be right about these issues.
If the party is too weak to consider open-source voting, freedom for all American political prisoners, and a Workers Bill of Rights that would repeal NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO, then it is no wonder to me that they would also be too afraid to do anything of lasting social significance for people of color. I have decided not to go to State Convention for this reason, and will go back to being a Green if Cantwell wins the nomination.
If people of color would exit the DP en masse, then we would see some real changes. Until then, I'm afraid they will continue to be marginalized.
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