Dear Democratic Party Member:
The weeks since the election have been challenging. We have weathered the resignation of our state Party Chair in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Since then, there has been a great deal of anxiety and other difficulties as Party leaders and activists have tried to come to terms with what happened and how to assure that our Party is a safe place for whistleblowers and persons, especially employees, who feel victimized–all while trying to conduct our reorganization for the 2019-2020 cycle. As the veteran of more than a few internal Party disputes, I would like to remind everyone that if we want to replicate–and build on–our victories this past November, what unites us must be greater than what divides us. We must remember that retaking more state legislatures, more state houses, the US Senate and the White House must be our guiding star even as we engage in some much-needed introspection and some difficult conversations. In other words, we must focus on how to emerge from these current difficulties united, stronger and more able to focus on our mutual goals–not weaker and more divided, with our differences highlighted and our commonalities diminished.
That brings me to another post-election challenge. What the press is calling a data war at the national level. Here’s a sample article. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/06/democratic-national-committee-voters-data-1045995
With money and perceived power at stake, the dialogue has been unfortunately divisive. However, the goal–sharing data gathered by Democrats at the national, state and local level with labor and our other progressive allies and sharing these allies’ data with our Party committees and candidates–is of vital importance to our taming the Trumpian menace in 2020. So, I urge you to join with me on calling on state and national Party leaders to find a way to tone down the rhetoric and work out their differences. I remain hopeful that one or more Party elder(s) with respect on all sides will step up and help everyone see their way to turn this into a win-win.
Having discussed our difficulties, I want to end by both wishing you and yours a happy, health and prosperous new year and by sharing the relevant parts of a memorandum of DNC Chair Tom Perez discussing how Democrats brought about our great victories in November. That memo (slightly edited for length) is after my signature line.
Democratically yours and with warmest wishes for a very blue 2019,
Laurence Zakson
Member, Democratic National Committee (CA)
Secretary, DNC LGBT Caucus
Co-Chair, CDP Rules Committee
