(A version of this story originally appeared on my blog, Rum, Romanism and Rebellion)
A bit of a followup to something I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. At this weekend's DNC meeting, Young Democrats of America. The YDA, which officially has three at-large members on the DNC, has been demanding that state parties be directed to recognize goals for recruiting young delegates, just as they are directed to set "affirmative action" goals for other groups. Arguments that this demand is unreasonable or unnecessary would be easier to swallow if the DNC's own charter didn't call for it. (Article 8, sections 3 and 4.)
Last Thursday, the Rules and Bylaws committee met. The DNC reiterated their argument that any charter language mentioning "youth" was obviated by a later resolution that didn't mention youth. The dubiousness of this argument was pointed out by Mark Brewer, Chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, who said that it is ironic for DNC members to scold the President for ignoring the Constitution when it becomes inconvienient, but the DNC ignores it's constitution when it suits them.
Harold Ickes, long time Democratic magnate, was astonished by arguments that DNC staff was making that esentially said that the committee was powerless to enforce the DNC's own rules. Further, he wondered why if the "youth" language was such a problem, why was no move made to remove it from the charter?
A call was made for a motion to support the DNC position, an ineffectual version of what the YDA wanted. No member of the committee was willing to make a motion to present the resolution. Then, one committee member made a motion to discuss the YDA's resolution, and the chair ruled the motion out of order.
Later, action moved to the floor of the full commitee, where YDA members were told that they could not have signs on the floor. The signs, by the way, merely had the language from the DNC charter. Signs were actually against the rules, but the rule seemed to be selectively enforced. Chis Gallaway, YDA president and a DNC member, was told by a staffer that he could not hand out a letter to other DNC members. Gallaway wanted to know what rule he was violating and got an excuse rather than an answer. Gallaway smartly called for a ruling from DNC counsel on this. The counsel said that, yes, a DNC member is allowed to hand out materials to other DNC members.
This was typical of staff paranoia about the YDA. There were DNC staff members who seemed to be assigned to YDA members to keep an eye on them (complete with radios), worried about what they might be planning.
I wrote before that this was the "party establishment" versus YDA. But with the support of Ickes and Brewer (who also heads the Association of State Democratic Chairs), it is obvious that there are large parts of the Democratic establishment that support what Gallaway and the YDA are doing. Observers at the meeting think that had the resolution been allowed to get a vote, then it would have passed.
The opposition seems to be coming from the upper echelon of DNC officers and the DNC staff. The DNC officers are of the generation that the charter language, written in 1974, was written for. They kicked the door down, but now they want to make sure that it is carefully latched behind them. It is bizarre that a DNC led by Howard Dean, who got to where he is on the sweat of twenty-somethings, would treat the concerns of young activists this way. By the way, the first major party organization to support Dean for chair? You guessed it, the Young Democrats of America.
Another big irony is that the staff members who have been involved in the opposition to this are also young. A gripe from one of our Arizona National Committee Members, Janice Brunson, is that Dean has hired "too many young people." This obviously hasn't translated into a hyper-concern for the needs of youth in the party. As a matter of fact, the twenty-something staff members have been known to refer to the twenty-something YDA members as "whiny kids."
This may also be tied in with some other problems within the DNC. There are moves by staff to decrease the influence of the DNC members from the various states, including plans to reduce the number of meetings of the executive committee. If your attitude is that the membership has too much influence, the last thing you are going to want is a group that is outside of your control, like the YDA, having any influence whatsoever.
As I said, the YDA managed to get support from many DNC members and State Chairs. One person who signed on was my own State Chair, Arizona's newly reelected David Waid. Waid has also pledged to put language to include youth in the state's delegate "affirmative action plan."