A DDN article today, “Public Workers’ Political Activity Limited,” tells that one-fourth of the 186 members of the Central Committee of the Montgomery County Democratic Party (MCDP) are employed as Montgomery County government workers, and one-tenth of the 278 members of the Central Committee of the Montgomery County Republican Party (MCRP) are county government workers.

Amazing that the Republican Party, in having a significantly larger number of members of their Central Committee, appear to be more “democratic,” than the Democratic Party. Both parties fall short, since all 360 precincts in the county are eligible to be represented on each party’s Central Committee. But, the Democrats have only 52% of the precincts represented on their Central Committee, while the Republicans have 77% represented.

Interesting that of the small number of active members of MCDP, such a large portion are local government workers. The article explains that Ohio law prohibits “classified” county workers from being members of a political party’s Central Committee, but the law permits “unclassified workers” to be members. A “classified employee” is protected by civil service rules, while an “unclassified” employee “works at the will of elected officials.” The fact that 45 or more members of the Central Committee owe their jobs to Democratic elected officials and have no civil service protection explains a lot about the local party. If employees feel there’s favoritism in the workplace, they can reach out to employment law professionals in Washington DC or any other state or district.

The next biggest bloc in the MCDP are Democratic elected officials, themselves. I don’t know how many, but, I’m guessing a dozen, or more (When I get that data I’ll update this post.) The Party Chair, Mark Owens, is an elected official — appointed as Clerk of Dayton Municipal Court in 1991 and regularly reelected. And, the Executive Committee Vice Chair, Karl L. Keith, also, is an elected official — appointed Montgomery County Auditor in December 2000 and reelected ever since.

The inside clique of the local party actively suppresses participation of Democrats in primaries, preferring to hand pick candidates. They suppress membership in the Central Committee — refusing to advertise to uninformed Democrats the opportunity to be part of the Reorganization Meeting that happens every four years. .

I’ve been a member of the MCDP Central Committee since 2006, and have met many wonderful, dedicated, and well meaning people in the Party. But, the problem is, too many practices of the Party are antidemocratic, and, the result is, the Party is failing to attract young people to meaningful leadership, failing to generate strong Democratic candidates, failing to articulate a progressive vision that would inspire and unite citizens into active participation.

The Party cannot expect to achieve its potential, so long as it clings to its antidemocratic practices. It seems one big factor, making these practices difficult to change, is the fact that the MCDP is essentially controlled by members, who, because of their employment or elected office status, have a personal economic interest in maintaining the status quo.

Special Interests Controlling Montgomery County Democratic Party Suppress Expansion Of Participation

January 22nd, 2010

The leadership of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, it appears, is really not much interested in expanding the Party’s membership. It is all about control. It is all about maintaining the status of special interests.

Last night I attended the January meeting of the Montgomery County Democratic Party. I asked our chairperson, Mark Owens, about publicity for the upcoming Reorganization Meeting. …

At the December meeting, I made a motion that the Party spend $500 in advertising to attempt to inform Montgomery County Democrats about our big Reorganization Meeting this Spring. My motion went nowhere, but Mark, at that time, indicated that he would take action to publicize this important event. But, nothing.

The deadline for potential delegates to the Reorganization Meeting to file with the Board of Elections is soon upon us — February 18.

I pointed out to Mark that information about this deadline is not even on the Party’s local web-site. Mark indicated, however, that he intended on putting a notice on the web-site very soon. Yesterday, I posted, “To Reform Our ‘Political Class’ System, We Need A Grassroots Movement To Reform Our Political Parties.” The current leadership of the Montgomery County Democratic Party shows no interest in motivating such a grassroots movement.

At the start of the Central Committee Meeting, as people were milling about, I pointed out to Gary Steiger (since deceased) that, likely, most of those present were earning their personal income via their political efforts. There was an unusual number of elected officials in attendance — because the all important Screening Committee, of which they are members, had met prior to the Central Committee Meeting.

Those who might be thought of as “regular Democrats,” last night, I’m guessing, were outnumbered by Democratic elected officials and Democrats who earn their income via patronage jobs provided by the Party. These vested Democrats control the local Democratic party. …

The Democrats who control the local Democratic Party organization, it seems, are in one of two special interest groups:

1. Individuals who make their income via their political connection, with the chair, Mark Owens, the model for this group.
2. Individuals who feel that because of their longevity and service to the Party, they are entitled to special privilege.

Individuals in both groups are likable and well meaning. But they are mistaken, because they have no interest in the Party operating democratically, no interest in expanding the group to include a lot of “regular Democrats.”

Mark defends the policies and practices of the current leadership and asserts that a majority of Montgomery County Democrats agree with the current leadership. I believe, absolutely, he is wrong. Mark is not taking a chance. He is not using the opportunity of the coming Reorganization Meeting to invite “regular Democrats” to meaningful participation within the local party.

The antidemocratic policies of the current party leadership, that focuses on advancing the special interests of the current leadership, mean that it is impossible for the Party to do a good job. The inertia of the group is overwhelming. The group is stuck in the old ways — including topdown boss management — from 50 years ago.

The internet makes it possible to form active meaningful communities in which individuals are empowered with shared information and empowered to make meaningful participation. But empowering regular Democrats to full participation in the Party seems risky to those individual who already enjoy special privileges — so the Montgomery County Democratic Party falls far short of accomplishing what it should and could accomplish. …

The only hope for the Party’s future is that the Party begin to act as a meaningful democratic community — infused with new blood, new ideas, new commitment. The requirement written into state law that political parties must organized according to democratic principles, through free elections, is very wise. We simply need to see that this law is effectively followed — regardless that the special interests are now in control of the local party.

Political parties are essential to our democracy. For our democracy to have any chance of working, political parties must themselves be democratic. We now have less than four weeks to alert and involve Montgomery County Democrats — before the February 18 deadline.

Previous posts on this topic:

• Proposal To Stop Democratic Primary Endorsements in Montgomery County Quashed At Reorganization Meeting, June 3rd, 2010
• At MCDP Reorganization Meeting I Will Propose A Change In By-Laws To Prohibit Primary Endorsements, June 2nd, 2010
• Reorganization Meeting For Montgomery County Democrats Unlikely To Bring Any ImprovementBy Mike Bock, on May 13th, 2010
• Mark Owens Says Most Montgomery Dems Approve The Party’s Suppression Of Primary Participation
• The Montgomery Democrats Decide to Suppress Democracy — Just Like the Republicans By Mike Bock, on December 14th, 2007
• The Mission of the Democratic Party Should Be to Empower Democracy to Work By Mike Bock, on October 26th, 2007
• Victor Harris: Surprised That Local Democratic Party Wanted To Suppress Primary CompetitionBy Mike Bock, on February 25th, 2008

This 24.5 feet 3 ton twisted steel structure was once part of the World Trade Center destroyed on September 1, 2001 and is now in a memorial park in Beavercreek, Ohio. War memorials are generally sedate and thoughtful. The idea they should contain wreckage must be something different. But the war on terrorism is a different war than America has ever fought, because after 10 years it is on-going. Imagine WW2 going on interminably -- maybe, after ten years, communities would have displayed some of the awesome wreckage caused by the December 7, 1941 attack, as a memorial to those who lost their lives, but, also, as a constant reminder of the motivation for continuing war.

Sunday, Beavercreek dedicated a memorial — a 3 ton 24.5-foot high piece of rusted and twisted steel — in remembrance of 9-11. The DDN today published a large portion of the remarks given at the dedication from the featured speaker, Mark Marderosian,  “Freedoms That We Share Are Priceless.”

Mr. Marderosian started with the familiar quote from George Santayana, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” and said, “Every American has a sacred obligation to remember history and to teach their children that history.” He asserted that for Americans “most important of all, we have freedom,” and said that those who attacked the Twin Trade Towers were “determined enemies of those freedoms … cowards so contemptuous of free thought and open debate, so frightened by the innate yearning of the human spirit, that they would rather die than live in the world where some disagrees with them.”

A key part of learning form history, of course, is understanding the motivating forces in history. It’s an important question: “Why were we attacked?”

Marderosian seems to take a view of history that is the same as Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, who in the last debate (see you-tube below) said, “We were attacked because we have a civilization that is antithetical to the civilization of the jihadists. And they want to kill us because of who we are and what we stand for, and what we stand for is American Exceptionalism. We stand for freedom and opportunity for everyone around the world, and I am not ashamed to do that.”

A very different view of history was given by Ron Paul’s response to Santorum: “As long as this country follows that idea, we are going to be under a lot of danger. This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this and they are attacking us because we are free and prosperous, that is just not true. Osama bin Ladin and al Qaeda have been explicit. They have been explicit. And they wrote and said that we attacked America because you had bases on our holy land in Saudi Arabia, you do not give Palestinians a fair treatment, you have been bombing … [loud audience boos] … I didn’t say that, I am trying to get you to understand what the motive was behind the bombing….  We had been bombing and killing hundreds and thousands of Iraqis for 10 years. Would you be annoyed? If you are not annoyed, then there is some problem!”

In a post on his web-site, “Learning Nothing from 9/11,” Paul quoted former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit Michael Scheuer as saying, “Our growing number of Islamist enemies are motivated to attack us because of what the U.S. government does in the Muslim world and not because of how Americans live and think here at home.”

Yes, it is important that Americans understand history, but history is not as simplistic as Marderosian and Santorum would have us believe. They offer comforting thoughts, but give a view of history that refuses to hold us accountable for any consequences of our own bad actions or our one-sided and unwise policies.

I agree that in this dangerous and crucial time, it is of key importance that Americans must learn from history. The question is, “whose view of history?” If we are not willing to study history to find authentic answers to difficult questions, according to the insight of George Santayana, we are “doomed.”