Smells like Leadership

We’re up to day 8 of the screwed up ballot mess. Keith Norman released the following statement:

I have been in contact with Commissioner Mulroy as of about 9PM on Tuesday night and I have left 1 message for him as of 8 AM Wednesday morning. I have charge of the ballots (i.e., with respect to their location) and I am waiting for his team to set the date for the press conference so that any misleading statements regarding the ACTIONS of members of the Party can be clarified.

However if I have not heard from him by a reasonable hour I will proceed with releasing the ballots as they are with a written statement on our position to the media. (h/t WTL)

Apparently, with the SCDP, you only get solutions on their timeframe. If that doesn’t jive with your timeframe, you must be okay with it.

Last night I heard that the ballots have been taken back to the printer to have the offending section blotted out. The kicker is that the SCDP would not pay to have the ballot run through again, someone else had to. Yeah, that’s right, the SCDP didn’t have the sense of responsibility, nor the common decency to correct something that was never approved by the body’s Execom. Smells like Leadership, really bad leadership.

Situations like this throw organizations into some weird finger pointing, groupthink, and “hardening of the attitudes”. These reactions illustrate why there is a growing distrust in this country of political parties. How hard is it to just publicly admit a mistake, work to fix it, and move on…very hard, apparently. This thing still looks like shenanigans, and until there’s some plausible explanation, in the public eye, it is shenanigans.

SCDP, you are a Democratic organization, but democracy (little d democracy) is not the way you operate. There is no transparency anywhere in the SCDP. Information, no matter how benign, is held in strict confidence. A party cannot operate as an exclusive club AND expect regular people to give it money and time.

What big secret has the SCDP been cooking up for the past 18 months that no one could know about? Is this it? What great idea, that if exposed, would damage the future of Democratic candidates, has to be so guarded? Why won’t you even tell your delegates what the heck is going on with your organization? We actually took the time to get selected and all that. It’s not as if we’re not interested. It’s almost as if you don’t want anyone to know you’re not really doing anything!

I know there are a lot of good people who are actually working hard for the SCDP. As much as I want to insulate them from my criticism, I can’t. Objections have been internalized, and summarily pushed under the rug. Where’s the public outrage and indignation? Why are no current members of the SCDP Execom screaming bloody murder publicly at this in the wake of inaction from the Chair? Why is it that, other than some email traffic at the beginning of this screw up, it seems to be just an accepted reality, and that nothing can be done about it?

I guess I’m just naïve, or overly emotional, or any of those other dismissive things that people call people when they get mad at something they have every right to get mad at but it doesn’t suit the agenda of the maker of the mistake, but I’m tired of the SCDP treating Democrats like they’re part of the problem when they get upset with the actions of the SCDP. Remember Ececom members; you’re there to represent us, the Democratic voters of your districts, the Democratic voters of Shelby County. It’s unfortunate that several of you just don’t see it that way.

SCDP, I’ll be glad when this election is over so I can get back to ignoring you again. It’s unfortunate that I feel that way, really. The SCDP has the potential and the general support to be the second biggest and powerful Democratic Party organ in the state. Some of you are so paralyzed by potential success that you just won’t let yourselves, or the party succeed. As we approach the Convention next year, I suggest that those of you who fear success examine whether your involvement in the party has been a net positive or a negative, if you can stomach that kind of close introspection, and give someone else a shot at it. In all honesty, after watching the performance that’s been going on the past 8 days, I doubt you have it in ya.

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