This is the book cover that ChatGPT designed — the book title that it suggested.
Every four years, Ohio law requires political parties to hold elections and “reorganize.” The 2026 MCDP Reorganization Meeting will be held in June. Leaders will be chosen and a new Montgomery County Democratic Party Constitution ratified. Democrats who care about the future of the Democratic Party are urged to participate. You can help determine the path forward for the party. The deadline to register is February 4.
Today is January 6 — a date that will live in infamy. We are constantly reminded that our republic is in crisis. The hard truth is that the only way to push back against Trump is to take away one of his votes in the US House. Flipping this congressional district, OH-10, of course, will not be easy. Our Republican congressman, Mike Turner, has been consistently re-elected since 2002.
This sounds impossible, but I believe the big goal of Reorganization must be to find a feasible plan to flip OH-10, and to agree to use the resources of the party to make the plan work. The good news is that of the ten Republican controlled districts in Ohio, OH-10 is rated among the three most competitive. There are many more Democratic Party leaning voters in this district than in most districts — Jim Jordan’s, for example.
Turner maintains his hold not because he has been such a wonderful representative. He stays in power because of the polarization of the electorate into R v D hostile groups. On the partisan battle field, the Democratic candidate is disadvantaged — doomed by the “D” next to his or her name. To flip this congressional district the party needs to re-brand itself so that more and more voters are attracted to what the party stand for. As it is now, the party has been branded by those who hate us.
The brand the party should seek to build, I believe, should respond to the biggest issue of our time — the wretched state of our democracy. Without intervention, our republic is headed for destruction. We are moving quickly to become an authoritarian state and the coming destruction of our republic concerns not only Democrats, it troubles every citizen who has any sense.
Right now, the unspoken mission of the Democratic Party is simply to win elections — feeding the R v D polarization that dooms Democratic candidates. I’m proposing that coming out of Reorganization there should be agreement and a resolution that the mission of the Democratic Party is to “advance participatory democracy.”
This is the title I started with. I’ve got to admit that the title “Reorganize To Win” that ChatGPT suggested is probably a better title.
Focusing resources to advance “participatory democracy,” I believe is key to victory. Here is the simple fact: if democracy in OH-10 was strong, citizens would be well-informed and they would not tolerate Turner’s anti-democracy style of representation — no town halls, no dialogue with the rank-and-file, no transparency. They would demand change.
These two facts then — that democracy is the biggest issue and, that a strong democracy would reject Turner — is the foundation for a long-term plan to retire Turner that I am proposing.
“Participatory democracy” is loosely defined as the empowerment of rank-and-file citizens to meaningfully participate. Democratic candidates should run on “participatory democracy” platforms spelling out, when elected, how rank-and-file citizens will be empowered. For example, a candidate for congress might show a plan for weekly on-line town hall meetings inviting input and participation, might show a plan for accountability, etc.
The goal for the party to be branded, “the participatory democracy party” was established in the Preamble of the MCDP Constitution in the 2018 Reorganization: “We the Representatives of the Democrats living in Montgomery County — in order to form a strong party organization that empowers representative democracy within our party and throughout the county —do establish the Montgomery County Democratic Party Constitution.”
The Preamble, affirmed in 2022, currently uses the term “representative democracy.” I’m proposing the new Constitution change this to “participatory democracy.”
This is the title I chose for this article. “reorganize to WIN” still seems a better title
One big change that is proposed, a change that would make the MCDP unique in the Democratic Party world, is to empower rank-and-file Democrats to directly participate in the election of the MCDP officers. This would be a big breakthrough and good example for the whole Democratic Party, to change the MCDP Constitution so that at future Reorganizations the MCDP leadership will be directly elected by the MCDP membership. (Currently, MCDP leaders are chosen by the Central Committee.)
The proposal is to schedule the next Reorganization in two years, rather than four, as provided by state law, and spend the next two years building up the MCDP membership to at least 5% of the 42,000 Democrats registered in this county. The long-term vision for victory is that 2100 Democrats will not just be names in a drawer constantly being dunned for more contributions, but that these 2100 will be meaningfully and regularly engaged in advancing participatory democracy in their own jurisdictions.
Wow. I know this sounds like a dream — that somehow hundreds and thousands of rank-and-file Democrats will become engaged, but, I truly believe that the crisis of our times is motivating Democrats. What is needed is a vision and a plan, the opportunity to be part of a movement doing something meaningful. The idea is to implement a “participatory democracy” strategy in 2026 and to use the next two years to build a participatory democracy infrastructure throughout the 32 jurisdictions in OH-10.
To be clear, the motive to make “participatory democracy” the mission of the MCDP is to win elections. The proposed mission for the MCDP can be compared to an automobile company with a mission of making quality cars at low prices. The auto company makes money by having a positive brand that attracts customer and by producing cars that customers like. The Democratic Party can win elections by having a positive brand and by producing candidates that the voters like — candidates “of the people” committed to empowering rank-and-file citizens to meaningfully participate.
The big thing to realize is that the Democratic Party by itself, however hard it tries, will not be able to flip OH-10. We win this district by rank-and-file Democrats doing the hard work of building a non-partisan infrastructure that at present does not exist. To envision victory in OH-10 is to envision a very different strategy than the failing strategies of the last 24 years. The strategy I’m proposing if for Democrats to lead a “for-democracy” grassroots movement that is non-partisan, educational and community building. The winning Democratic candidate, I believe, is one who will emerge from leadership of a non-partisan participatory democracy movement.
Wow. There is a lot to think through. The devil is in the details. I am determine to put these ideas together as best I can in a little book whose title I keep changing.
The goal is to develop dialogue among Democrats who might attend and vote at Reorganization. To make the big changes in the MCDP organization necessary to flip OH-10 will require building consensus long before the June meeting. Please contact me if you’d like to discuss the ideas in this article.
Sincerely, Mike Bock. mcbock@daytonos.com
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I was elected to the Central Committee the first time in 2006 — motivated by a surprise call from my old social studies teacher, David Greismeyer, urging me to become involved with the local party. (I graduated from Northridge High School in 1965.) I was then elected in 2010, 2018, and 2022. In 2007 I started writing on DaytonOS and this web-site has a good search function. Searching “MCDP” or “democracy” or “education” brings up multiple articles that will show what has been on my mind the last twenty years.
I’ve been wonderfully consistent in expressing some views. This is from my very first post in 2007: The Ascending Issue In Our Democracy Is Democracy Itself
“… increasingly the electorate is disgusted with a political process that, time and again, fails to advance the public good. The irony of our effort to build democracy in Iraq is the fact that our own democracy is barely functioning and is in need of a building effort itself. A consensus view is growing that ours is a very weak democracy and that our government is a far cry from one that is “of the people, for the people.” The ascending issue in our democracy, in my judgment, is democracy itself. …
I would like to think that the grassroots, ordinary citizens, will demand more of their political parties, and will reward at the voting booth the political party that most thoroughly empowers citizens to meaningfully participate in their own democracy. The idea of democracy, itself, I believe, will increasingly drive our politics, and increasingly the idea of democracy will be the benchmark used for evaluating the actions and the merit of political parties.”
