Dem shakeup blame game
DNC rank-and-file tossed
The new chairman of the embattled Democratic National Committee has reportedly demanded the resignations of all the party’s current staffers in a major shakeup one local progressive activist says fails to fix the real grievances of disaffected Dems.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez, who was elected in February, has asked for the resignations of all rank-and-employees by next month, according to NBC News. The party is still reeling from the humiliating loss by Hillary Clinton, the collapse of its bluecollar base and lingering anger over the party’s efforts to push the former secretary of state over Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary.
“It sounds good if you’re looking for change, but it’s not what people were clamoring for,” said Arnie Arnesen, a liberal New Hampshire radio host who held an early campaign event for Sanders.
“They weren’t angry at the people working within the base of the Democratic party. They were furious with the leadership. I’m not sure that gets us to the goal,” Arnesen said. “I think it hurts a lot of little people. Is that what the Democratic Party is supposed to be known for?”
The massive ousters also extend a period of instability at the DNC, where Perez is the third chairman in less than a year. Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned during the Democratic National Convention in July after the revelation of hacked emails showing the party had tried to tilt the scales toward Clinton over Sanders, which threatened to overshadow the nominee’s coronation.
Her interim successor, Donna Brazile, only further angered the progressive wing after another round of hacked emails posted by WikiLeaks in October showed she had given the Clinton campaign a list of planned topics from a CNN town hall ahead of time.
Brazile owned up to the misdeed last week, calling it “a mistake I will forever regret.”
Perez is likely to reject some resignations and accept others, but Arnesen said the move seems to be more about sending a message using “a blunt instrument” than pinpointing the exact problems within the DNC, which she believes are the establishment bigwigs.
“We kind of rushed to pick the next chairperson with the same people who picked the old chairperson,” she said.
Democrats desperately need to win back blue-collar workers, whom President Trump picked up in November — and who were being wooed again yesterday by Trump vowing to bring back coal mining jobs while signing an executive order rolling back former President Barack Obama’s climate plan.
“(The miners) told me about the efforts to shut down their mines, their communities and their very way of life,” Trump said. “I made them this promise — we will put our miners back to work. My administration is putting an end to the war on coal.”
Trump claimed his executive order would also lift domestic energy production, including oil, natural gas and coal and lead to “a new energy revolution.”