"What the Democrats ought to do..." [View all]

I hear this line all the time. It’s good to know that people have opinions and want to help, but too often I hear this from people who’ve never done anything more than Monday morning quarterbacking in politics. Yesterday I attended a party sponsored coffee at one of our local resident’s homes. A man was there doing the same thing he did at the last such event: Mansplaining to the hard working women that dominate and hold up the local party. (Where are you men?) This man has never been to a single party meeting, nor any other event besides this coffee one other time. The women he was lecturing to, on the other hand, brought this party from a dead shell, with an absent chair and sleeping executive committee to a thriving, growing force in the community. The women he was lecturing are responsible for quadrupling the number of precinct chairs in the county, for tripling voter participation in the midterms, for hosting almost a dozen fundraisers in the last year for candidates and for the local party, and for filling the meetings with so many participants we’ve had to move locations TWICE. They can take credit for coordinating a dozen protests in the community as well as participating in more than a dozen voter drives and public events across the county in the last year alone. Yet this man found it appropriate to mansplain personally to more than one of the mature women volunteers that has been working to hold up this party for decades.

Not only is that kind of behavior arrogant and condescending, it’s detrimental to the morale and the goals these “Helpful Hannahs” claim they support. And it makes them look like assholes. If you truly want to help build this blue wave, show some respect and appreciation for all the hard work people have donated to support democracy. ASK what you can do to help. If a policy or practice doesn’t make sense to you, ASK someone to explain its purpose.

The work that volunteers do isn’t easy and it’s thankless enough without people who’ve never been in the trenches criticizing and critiquing. Further, don’t assume that former practices are the only ones being implemented in the current election cycle. Big changes are happening in Texas, for one thing, and I can bet similar seismic shifts are going on across the nation. Texas has a new state chair and the DNC has a new chair. You may not like everything about these people, but you shouldn’t assume they can’t bring much needed change to the party. If you want to see change, roll up your sleeves, stand beside these volunteers and get to work.

If you live in Texas and you want to help, call your local party office and find out who your precinct chair is. Your precinct is the US representative district in which you live—it’s on your voter’s card. Ask your local office how to get in touch with your precinct chair. Offer your precinct chair help for block walking, post card writing, making calls, holding or helping with events to bring together voters in your precinct. Your precinct chair will have very specific tasks that need to be done and instructions for carrying them out. Become a volunteer voter registrar and attend voter registration drives. ASK what you can do to help the local party and precinct chairs. This is the only way we will build a solid blue wall of change.

I know that a lot of the criticism comes from a sense of powerlessness and frustration. But there is MUCH you can do that is far more effective and empowering for you AND your community if you will offer your help instead of merely your critique.