This is the ChatGPT design. This AI mistakenly repeated the subtitle.
At the MCDP Reorganization Meeting to be held in June, I’m hoping that the delegates will focus on coming up with a plan for electing Democrats in districts now controlled by Republicans.
A successful plan, I believe, must be based on the reality that politics has boiled down to two forces: one force is anti-democracy, one force is for-democracy. The anti-democracy side is winning. My suggestion is that Reorganization should focus on democracy — and should offer a plan to upgrade the system, starting in the party itself. The representative democracy we have today empowers only a handful of citizens to meaningfully participate in politics. We need an upgrade to the system so that every interested citizen is empowered to participate. The message from Reorganization should be that the Democratic Party is committed to “advancing participatory democracy.”
My GPT prompt: Create a book cover for a nonfiction political book titled, “The Way Forward For The Democratic Party: Becoming The Participatory Democracy Party” by Michael Bock, featuring an image of a fork in the road showing that continuance on the current path will lead to disappointment and disaster.
I’m advocating that Reorganization ratify a new MCDP Constitution that empowers rank-and-file Democrats to directly electDemocratic Party officers. Currently, in the representative democracy system, the Central Committee elects MCDP officers. Direct election would be a victory for democracy, even as the direct election of US Senators, via the 17th Amendment, was a victory.
The direct election of officers would make the MCDP the one and only county organization in the state, and probably the nation, that gives rank-and-file Democrats this power. I believe this democratization of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County would be a catalyst to greatly increase the membership of the local party organization and hopefully would help inspire the reformation of the state and national Democratic Party organizations.
The way forward for the Democratic Party, I am proposing, is to do everything possible to get voters to see elections as contests about democracy, seeing:
- On one side, a candidate who offers transparency and accountability and a plan to empower rank-and-file citizens to meaningfully participate.
- On the other side, a candidate that defends his or her failure to be transparent and accountable, failure to engage rank-and-file citizens, etc.
In a Democratic candidate’s platform, the big point to make, I believe, is that the proposals for public policies in the platform are not Democratic Party proposals, not the candidate’s proposals, but, reflect what a big majority of Ohio citizens want.
If the public sees elections as contests about democracy, then, I believe that Democratic candidates will start gaining the votes of those citizens who truly are concerned that our system is corrupt, ineffective, and headed for destruction. Of key importance, to influence such citizens, is advocating for a system of participatory democracy where all citizens have a voice, not just Democrats. We need to show that we oppose the “winner takes it all” system practiced by the Republicans, and, instead, that we offer a 21st century system that empowers all interested rank-and-file citizens to meaningfully participate.
A participatory democracy party should offer a vision of a future democracy that the party is working to actualize. I think a vision of a future system of participatory democracy would appeal to a large majority of voters. My goal is to make a detailed proposal in the little book I aspire to write — currently titled, “The Way Forward For The Democratic Party: Becoming The ‘Participatory Democracy Party’ “ — with the hope that this will be the basis for a plan agreed to at Reorganization — a plan for electing Democrats in districts now controlled by Republicans.
