Perhaps Mr. Shove could enlighten us as to who the "power-brokers at the top"
are and how they "foist" their choices upon us. I've been involved in the
DFL party for a few years and I've never met an honest to God "power-broker"
and I have yet to be "foisted" upon. Apparently, I have years of missed
kow-towing opportunities to make up for!
Seriously, though, the parties are composed of nothing more than people who
show up to be involved. The parties' caucus/convention/endorsement process
is open to anyone who takes the time to attend. (The amount of time it takes
to be involved is a fair criticism and an issue on which all parties should
keep working.) If a candidate can muster 60% support among those who attend,
they get the party endorsement. At least in the DFL party where caucus
attendees tend to be extremely indpendently minded, "power-brokers," if there
are such folks, have very little sway.
I suspect that what Mr. Shove is really against is the fact that the parties
tend to want their members, especially those who benefit from endorsement, to
support candidates who are endorsed in this fair and open process. I have
been on both the winning and losing sides of endorsement contests. In either
case, I did not fault party leaders who did their job and tried to rally
party members to support endorsed candidates. I'm not sure how that results
in "lame endorsements" for "lame reasons" or "lame motives." If there is a
better process for endorsing candidates, I'm happy to learn more about it.
Scott Benson
5th Congressional District DFL Chair
In a message dated 11/1/00 2:53:52 AM Central Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Party politics generates lame endorsements with lame reasons and lame
motives. We know it is political suicide for any elected or
elected-wannabe DFLer not to endorse whoever the power-brokers at the top
foist upon them. Kow-tow or find the party machinery arrayed against you
next election.
So it has to be hard to know what the real opinion of elected party people
is. Everyone knows what they MUST say. After a while it hardly matters
what their own private opinion is...
--David Shove
>>
