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Chairman's
Letter to members, April 2003
April 24, 2003
Dear WDTC Member,
I am writing to invite you to attend an important meeting. On Wednesday, May 21,
2003, we will hold a general membership meeting with our new State Senator,
Cheryl Jacques. The meeting will be at 7:30 pm at the Senior Center at the
Wayland Town Building.
This meeting will be a conversation with Senator Jacques about key issues
affecting our town as well as Massachusetts more generally. This meeting will
not be a “gripe session.” Senator Jacques will give a brief update
on the budget process (the House just released its budget proposal and the
Senate follows right around May 21). Then we would like to focus onwhat insights
and ideas the WDTC and its members can bring to key issues, how we can work with
the Senator, and how the WDTC can become a more “proactive” force
for advancing Democratic policies in Wayland and beyond.
In this regard, I want to report on the activities of the WDTC. As you know, in
December, WDTC elections were held and several new members were elected to the
Executive Committee (execom). The execom now consists of:
Jon Saxton, Chair
Michael Tichnor, Vice Chair
Cathaleen Ashton, Affirmative Action Officer
Dan Goessling, Secretary
Nishith Acharya, Treasurer
Michael Bate, Immediate Past Chair.
The Committee had its first meeting in early January and has met three times
since then. I have to say that this is just a terrific group of people who are
committed to carrying-on the WDTC’s legacy of electioneering activism and
even further strengthening the role of the WDTC in a number
of related areas.
At our first meeting we identified some key consensus overall goals for the WDTC.
These include:
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An active committee;
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A larger base of active democrats;
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A strong committee with strong capabilities;
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Meaningful diversity in membership and issue focus;
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Local strength and focus as base for being more ambitious as a “player”
in town issues and politics;
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A Committee that is fun, engaged, interesting, and useful to the community;
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A strong membership organization;
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An organization with a community service orientation.
From there, besides preparing for and conducting the Democratic Caucus on
February 8, our energies have been focused primarily on how to organize to reach
these goals. We have been developing strategies to increase the capacity of the
WDTC to promote Democratic ideas and support Democratic
candidates in Wayland. Each of our execom members has adopted at least one of
our WDTC focus areas (so that at least two of us can share the work on each
committee), which include:
Electioneering - This is the actual work of supporting
candidates and their campaigns.
Candidate Qualification – Candidate vetting as well as
providing advice and expertise, and resources. Requires developing a database of
information and voting data for Wayland, and work with committees in surrounding
towns to develop, advise and support new candidacies.
Committee Development – This involves strengthening the
resources of the WDTC through enhancing committee activities including
opportunities for, and responsibilities of, members. A special focus is in
developing meaningful membership diversity.
Fundraising – To support WDTC activities and to provide
support to statewide and National candidates, where appropriate.
Issues and Education – Developing and hosting issues-focused
activities and forums in Wayland and in conjunction with other towns, the
Democratic Party of Massachusetts, and other organizations, where appropriate.
I am pleased to report that good progress is being made in planning within each
of these areas. But this planning is simply a prelude to input and engagement by
the larger WDTC membership – YOU! Our major focus for the foreseeable
future will be on activating and energizing our membership. At the May 21
meeting, you will hear a very brief summary of the thinking we are doing in each
of our focus areas; and you will be invited to become involved in improving and
further developing this work.
The execom has already met with Senator Jacques in a “get-to-know-one-another”
meeting, where we discussed a number of ways in which we can work together to
strengthen both the WDTC and serve as an important resource for the Senator.
This was a very productive session, held in an informal setting where we could
discuss a variety of issues and ideas openly and frankly. We all agreed that an
active and engaged WDTC membership was an important focus and our priority.
If you would like more information about the WDTC, including past and planned
activities, and areas in which you can expand your own role in the work of the
WDTC, please go to our web page, at: http://home.comcast.net/~WDTC.
Also, if you have an email address, it would be very helpful if you would
forward that to us so that we can communicate more easily and without the
significant costs and time required for regular post. (But don’t worry,
for those of you who may not have email, we will continue to use the post office.)
Please forward your email address to me at: jonsax@comcast.net.
So, please join us for our WDTC membership meeting on Wednesday, May 21, 7:30pm,
at the Senior Center at the Wayland Town Building. I look forward to seeing you
then. If you have any questions or input in the meantime, don’t hesitate
to contact me or any of the other execom members.
Thanks,
Jon Saxton, Chair
26 Pemberton Rd.
508-650-1497
jonsax@comcast.net
Chairman's
Testimony about our Party
Jon Saxton
(chair,
Wayland Democratic Town Committee)
Testimony Before the
Election and Outreach Committee
of the
Massachusetts
Democratic Party
Sen. Jarrett Barrios,
Sen. Guy Glodis and Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay, Chairs
March 29, 2003
Thank you for the
opportunity to testify concerning the values, missions, messages and direction
of the Massachusetts Democratic Party (MDP). Just a little background: I am a
professional speech writer and communications consultant. I have worked with
politicians, executives, professionals, businesses, universities and
organizations of many kinds to formulate clear and compelling messages that
matter to their constituencies and publics.
Based on my
experience, I believe that the MDP, like the National Democratic Party, suffers
from three basic maladies.
The Party’s (and
often its candidate’s) messaging is inconsistent, overly complex and
unclear.
The Party employs an
outdated grammar that many Massachusetts residents and Americans generally find
hollow, inauthentic and less than compelling.
The Party has fallen
behind in developing and adopting new ideas that can effectively address modern
social, economic and other policy problems.
Since the early 1970s, the Democratic Party has been unsuccessful in developing
new ideas that can build successfully upon the liberal foundation of Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal and the follow-on programs in support of civil,
individual and welfare rights, and a benevolent foreign policy that culminated
in Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs. As many liberal programs began
to experience significant problems (like welfare dependency, the collapse of
public education, and inconsistent foreign policies), “New Democrats”
preached the path of moderation, while their more traditional liberal colleagues,
unable to formulate a coherent new policy framework, defaulted to the defense of
programmatic and constituent interests. Republicans, meanwhile, went on the
offensive, loudly and relentlessly pointing out the failures of big and
bureaucratic liberal ideas, while proposing new ideas like workfare, state and
local control, and market–based initiative.
As a result, the
Democrats’ cross-currents of moderation and defensiveness has spoken
volumes, while the Republicans have had much to shout about in promulgating
rather immoderate ideas and policies. Most importantly, Republicans now have
most Americans convinced that they stand to lose more than they stand to gain
from Democrat-sponsored government intervention. That belief, more than anything
else, suggests that winning back the voters will require not “New
Democrats,” or more moderate policies, but new ideas to build on the New
Deal and Great Society visions -- and a bold program to promulgate and promote
these ideas.
It has been widely
remarked that the world of ideology and politics was vastly altered by the
events of 9/11. I agree. The trauma of 9/11 shook the foundations of norms and
meaning by which people order and construct their lives. People literally “didn’t
know what to think” about what happened and about subsequent events and
about the future. Such widespread, unsettling “cognitive dissonance”
requires a strong leadership response. At times like this, when people are
thrown off balance in such a fundamental way, when people feel the edges of
chaos, leadership is critical. And leaders must provide clear and compelling
direction built on simple and powerful messages.
Bush provided these
simple and powerful messages very well. Before 9/11, Bush’s simple
mindedness was widely parodied as a liability. Because he has been well handled
since 9/11, his capacity for simplicity has become a strength. Notice how he has
provided very simple building-block messages: “Evil doers” will be
punished. America is “united.” It is “them” versus “us.”
And so forth.
Challenge
Now and for the foreseeable future, our people need, and leadership must provide,
simple but powerful organizing and explanatory frameworks and programs of action
that can enable people to understand and order their world, and to regain a new
sense of meaning and normalcy in their lives. Churchill, Roosevelt and many
other successful leaders have understood this need for simple but powerful
building-block concepts at times like these.
Opportunity
The opportunity is for Democrats to show what real and effective leadership is
and should be. Democrats must recast their messages for this new environment and
address the people’s needs for a clear and powerful explanatory agenda.
The usual “laundry list” framework of causes and grievances is
simply too long and complicated. It must be supplanted. Much of the Party’s
grammar and rhetoric now sounds like 20th Century and pre-9/11 special-interest
pleading. It sounds alternately parochial, defensive, whiny, and divisive rather
than unifying, forward-looking and compelling.
Solution
The Democratic Party and its candidates should embrace a simpler, more
compelling and more powerful agenda and vision of the future, one that people
can easily identify with and rally around. I offer one possible vision for the
Democratic Party.
Ever since the
terrorist actions, I believe America has been preoccupied with five main
concerns: Security, opportunity, responsibility, liberty, and community. These
can form the basis of a Democratic agenda:
The Democratic Party
stands for Security: Americans are concerned for national, personal and economic
(Social) security. The Democratic Party believes that American national security,
including the personal and economic security of its people must be strengthened.
The security of allied nations and of world wide commerce, communications and
transportation must also be maintained.
The Democratic Party
stands for Opportunity. Americans must be assured that opportunity is not
diminished by the events of 9/11. Instead opportunities must be strengthened.
Opportunities include employment, education, healthcare, voting rights, clean
elections, and other forms of personal, social and economic, and political
opportunity.
The Democratic Party
stands for Responsibility. Americans have shown and have seen what it means to
take responsibility for yourself and for the safety and security and well being
of others. The Democratic Party believes we are at our best as a Nation and as a
People when we support people and organizations and efforts that take
responsibility for the common well-being. This includes public service as well
as environmental, familial, corporate and other forms of social responsibility.
The Democratic Party
stands for Liberty. America is The Land of Liberty. Americans cherish their
liberties and have fought relentlessly for over two centuries to enlarge and
protect them. The Democratic Party believes, now more than ever, that America
must fight to secure to all its citizens and to people everywhere civil
liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of association, abortion rights, and . . .
[other fundamental rights and liberties].
The Democratic Party
stands for Community. Americans believe in and thrive in strong communities. In
the aftermath of the terrorist actions in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania,
what did Americans do first? They sought the shelter and safety of their
families, their homes and their communities. The strength of our people and of
our nation begins with our communities. Americans understand with a new urgency
the fundamental importance of safe and supportive communities.
Conclusion
9/11 has altered the political landscape. Leadership must articulate and address
the peoples’ concerns. The challenge for the Democratic Party, its
candidates and its activists is to provide and articulate a compelling
leadership agenda. I have provided an example of what the Party can do to frame
its agenda and make its key messages more simple, more compelling and more
powerful.
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