Monday, June 2, 2008

The 2008 DNC Rules & Bylaws

Fannie Lou Hamer, the 1964 DNC heroine.

I don’t care how old folks get or how many degrees we earn or how many kids we raise, some of us still act like children on the playground! If the game ain’t being played the way you think it should be played, pull the rules book out of your hip pocket and show everybody where you are correct. But, if you know you can’t, shut-up, get out of the way and let the game continue!

I’m probably not saying anything new here, but it’s good to reiterate an important principal: before you play the game, understand the rules, especially, if you had a hand in developing the rules. If all the players/candidates understand the rules that govern this process, why did we go through the exercise?

The 2008 Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting took place, almost, in my backyard. I was going to walk over there to the hotel and check it out, but after the rain and all of the Hillary/Florida supporters clogging the sidewalks, I decided to just watch it on CSPAN.

The 2008 Democratic primaries are unlike the pre-1964 Democratic primaries that intimidated black folks and other minorities with the imposition of illegal taxes and tests. No, b.s. like that didn’t take place because every Democratic candidate and delegate from every strata of this party had a say in developing these rules. I’ll be damned if the likes of Everett Ward and Donna Brazile will allow fairness to be abrogated in this process during these primaries because they remember their mommas and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Harold Ickes, you can take Hillary’s cause to the DNC Convention and wage your floor fight if you like, but just remember that you’ll be doing it at the expense of destroying what most of us want and I’ll remind you, again: to go to the convention in unity and defeat the Republican Party in the fall! And while you’re thinking on that, remind your peeps that if unity is not their objective, they stand to have Roe v. Wade challenged, pro-choice obliterated and an imbalance on the Supreme Court for at least two generations to come!

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