An Open Letter to the Democratic Party

I’ve been a Democrat since I was a child. I watched John F. Kennedy when he was campaigning, and I was impressed that he cared about the poor people that didn’t have a decent home or food to eat. From what I knew, he was a rich man from Massachusetts and rich people didn’t really seem to care what happened to poor people.

I was just a child, but I had seen poverty. I was born on the South Side of Chicago, and I had family and friends in the South. I knew about poor people.

But the fact that this rich man was concerned and wanted to do something to help people was something that touched me. So, I decided I wanted to be like him and the only way I knew to do that was to support his political stand and so, years before I could vote, I became a Democrat.

My parents, both Democrats, were impressed at my decision.

So here I am all these years later. I’m retired and living on the pennies we get from Social Security knowing that it wasn’t intended to be this way. I struggle with medical bills that I shouldn’t have to worry about. I can’t get some of the care I need because some pencil pushers who work for the insurance company I have think I should have physical therapy before getting an MRI to determine exactly what is wrong with me.

I’ve marched, I’ve protested, I’ve written letters, made phone calls, joined groups, participated in events, donated money, posted signs and all those things that involved people do. I even tried to get a job working for the party.

Twenty years ago, when we were living in New Orleans, we went to the Meet Up events and got involved in helping get the vote out. We shared information and made friends and spent a lot of time spreading the word. I thought those meetings were a great idea and I was glad to be a part of it. I wish we still had them.

But nothing was done. Democrats were losing elections they should have won. We got together and tried to figure out what happened. Why did this keep happening? We had good candidates, we had plenty of good ideas and plans, and we were working our butts off. But we kept losing.

I wasn’t convinced at first when Barack Obama ran that he could win. As a Black woman, I knew the level of racism that was right under the surface in this country, and I didn’t think white people would vote for him. In fact, I thought he would probably be killed before the election. I was afraid for him.

I had been supporting another candidate, but I went to a dinner in Tallahassee, and I met Mr. Obama and I was instantly enamored. He spoke to me as if he had known me all my life and he held my hand and smiled at me and answered all my concerns. I quickly changed my focus even if deep inside, I was still afraid for him.

Later in his campaign, I was living in Chicago and a friend accompanied me to his campaign office where we offered our services to help get him elected. The place was running like a well-oiled machine, and they thanked us for the offer but politely told us we were not needed. We bought some merchandise, took the free items they gave us and left, more convinced than ever that he was the right person for the job.

We were in Grant Park that night when he won the election. It was a wonderful, magical night that I will never forget. I cried tears of joy and I wished my parents had been alive to see this miracle, a Black man elected President of the United States. I was never prouder to be a Democrat in my life.

That pride has pretty much gone away since then.

Whenever the Democrats lose, I hear the excuse that enough Black people didn’t get out and vote. They depend on older Black women like me to win elections but why not get out and get engaged with other folks to get their votes? Why not find more people to make up the base? Stop blaming us and do your job.

In 2004, I thought that the administration branch of the Democratic party was not doing enough to help candidates win. All I saw them doing was begging for money from us voters and I knew that wasn’t enough. I had ideas and I wanted to work for the party.

I got a polite thanks but no thanks for my effort.

When we met party executives, we asked them questions and they put us off as if we didn’t know what we were talking about. They didn’t answer us. They tried to shut us up instead of addressing the issues we were concerned with. I remember being furious about that.

The Obama campaign won because they put together an involved, engaged hard working team from top to bottom. They worked hard and worked with people to get the word out. They used social media like no one before them had. We were impressed with the work they did.

And he won.

When Hillary was running, we decided we wanted to get involved. We wanted to get yard signs and we went to the local headquarters. There was one young person there and he didn’t have any signs and the only way we could get merchandise was if we offered to make phone calls and knock on doors.

Or we could go to a location miles away where she was going to speak and we could buy signs and shirts and show our support. That was too far for us to go for something like that. We are a couple of retirees and we had no desire to do either one. Both of us had done it when we were younger, but it wasn’t something we wanted to do now that we were older. I volunteered to be an election watcher. We had done that in the past.

He gave us an address 50 miles away to try to get signs. We went there and they didn’t have any but told us if we paid them, they would have some sent to us. It all seemed so haphazard and sloppy and not well managed that we were put off and we just left. How could she win with a campaign like this?

And of course, she didn’t.

So now we live in Florida, and we are struggling under the DeSantis administration. It’s been clear from the beginning that he had no real thoughts about the people in this state and he saw being governor as a steppingstone to being President. He has pandered to the mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging minority and left the rest of us out in the cold.

Why didn’t the Democrats do more to get someone else elected in 2022? They gave up. Didn’t contribute enough money to the campaigns and no one came to this county or to this area to talk to people. They just left us to suffer. There were people here who would have listened if they had only tried to help us. Maybe they didn’t like Charlie. Why not help find another candidate who could have gotten more votes?

For that matter, why didn’t they help Stacey Abrams? Why not support her program to get voters educated in other states besides Georgia? Why not get out there and meet people and talk to people and spread the truth about what the Republicans are doing?

Why didn’t we fight harder against Donald Trump?

Why did the Democrats let Mitch McConnell cheat us out of a Supreme Court Justice?

Now they are trying to strip away the Voting Rights Act.

They are denying women the right to govern their own bodies.

Look what happened in Louisiana last month. And the mess in Mississippi that got that governor elected again when he shouldn’t even be picking up trash for a living.

How did the Democrats allow this to happen?

I don’t care about having talking heads on news programs. They need to get boots on the ground and get out here and actively work to get candidates elected. More ads on television. Look at all the streaming services and apps now. There are lots of ways to get the word out.

I get dozens of emails and I see posts on Facebook and Instagram urging me to donate money to the party. I don’t even respond to some of the issues because if I sign a petition, the next thing I get is a request for more money.

What do I get for my money?

So, you high paid employees of the Democratic party, you need to get out there and earn your keep. You need to get your Loubotins on the ground and have events and meetings and parties and whatever it takes to get more people concerned and involved. You need to buy more ads on television and online and start getting the word out. You need to find good people who want to be candidates and then you need to support them with lots of hard work. You need to fight the misinformation and you need to spread the truth.

You need to get out here and lead us. You need to help us. You need to support us. You need to stop begging us for money and start showing us why our money matters.

We want to get these Republican liars and thieves out of office. We want people we can trust to be on our side to represent us. We don’t want more of these people who use us to get elected so that they can get rich. We don’t want more embarrassments like Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Bobert and Josh Hawley sitting in Congress making fools of themselves and us. There are good people out there and they would run if they thought they would be supported.

We will fight for you if you fight for us. How about it?

Signed,

A Concerned Democrat