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I'm sorry for the profanity, but you simply would not believe the shit that the AZ Democratic Party does. Stupid, just plain stupid.
Here, let me give you an example. Just the latest in an unending stream of stupidities.
Yesterday, just yesterday, Thursday, December 16, 2004, the AZ Dem organization sent out an email. The subject line of the email said "Holiday Party This Saturday!" Now, you might think that my anger at them is because they sent the invitation out so late, when it might be difficult for people to make arrangements at the last minute what with other holiday events going on.
Oh, no, not so, eggnog breath. /with a nod to Johnny Carson for all those old enough to remember/
My anger was because upon opening the aforesaid email, I discovered that the party is on MONDAY, DECEMBER 20 ! Not only is it on Monday, rather than the announced SATURDAY, but it is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. at the downtown Phoenix office, which makes it virtually impossible for anyone who actually works, who has a job that requires their presence until, say, 5 p.m., and who can't beat their way through rush hour traffic (madness in Phoenix this time of year) to make it to the party office.
Not only is the scheduling of the event in poor judgment, IMHO, but the total screw up of announcing it for Saturday and then scheduling it for Monday is like utterly utterly unforgivable.
And don't tell me I should have patience because people do make mistakes. This is only the latest in a very long string. It extends from the state party office through the Maricopa County operation and right down to the local legislative district level. It encompasses district meetings to which PCs were invited by mail, except that the postcard invitations were mailed on the Saturday before Labor Day for a meeting on the Tuesday after Labor Day. In other words, unless you knew about the meeting ahead of time through the grapevine, you'd have gotten the invite AFTER THE FUCKING MEETING. This is what happened to me. I got the postcard in Wednesday's mail.
You want some more examples?
At another district meeting, on the campus of the local community college, we were to meet in a given room, per the instructions emailed ahead of time. Several of us arrived together and discovered that the room was in a locked building. There was no one around, no signs, no nothing. After wandering around in the dark and cold, we located a security person who said, "Oh, I think the meeting is in that other building over there." Sure enough, it was, with a big sign taped to the door "DEMS MEET HERE." Said sign was invisible in the dark. It was nowhere near the building where we had been told to meet. When I asked the chairperson why he put the sign there and not put one on the place where we were supposed to meet with directions to the correct place, he said, "Oh, why would I do that? This is where we're meeting."
A few months ago, the phone rang. I answered it and said hello. The caller, a male whose voice I did not recognize, asked, "Is Tansy there?" I said, "May I ask who's calling?" The caller replied, "I'm not going to tell you." I responded with, "Either you tell me or I'm hanging up." (Tansy's curiosity got the better of her; if she'd had any brains, she'd have just hung up.) The caller replied, "I'm not going to tell you because I want you to hear what I have to say first." I said, "Good-bye," and then he quickly identified himself as my Democratic Party district chair. This was shortly before the election, and when I told him I was on another call on the other line and he would have to call back in half an hour, he agreed. I have never heard from him since. Never.
The list is endless, and I'm not alone. I get in trouble, and I'm called names, if I so much as mention that someone hasn't done a very good job of anything. Didn't send out notices of meetings? Don't complain. Didn't get the directions correct? Don't complain. They want no boats rocked, not even if calm water means lost elections.
I live in a neighborhood that has seen literally thousands of new voters move in in the past two years with new housing developments. Where has the district or the county party been on registering these new voters? I don't have a fucking clue, because every time I ask them, they ignore me. Sometimes I approach them in person and they literally turn their backs on me and start talking to someone else. Sometimes they tell me they'll call me back; not one of them ever has.
As a precinct committee person, I was given no instructions, no guidance. I was told I could come down to county HQ for "training," but it was only on certain days and I wasn't able to make it. Oh, well, toughski shitski. We can't give you any information over the phone, and you're just out of fucking luck. We the party don't give a rat's ass, because all we really care about is money. Not real votes.
I won't even bore you with the nightmare that was the Kerry/Edwards campaign in central Arizona. It was fucked up in November 2003 when Kerry came here for a Veterans' Day parade and it remained fucked up through November 2, 2004. There were no bright spots. None.
I'm not a kid. I'm 56 years old and I am not stupid. I sat and watched the Democrats and the Kerry campaign collapse because they pulled in a whole lot of enthusiastic but inexperienced young people and ignored the pleas of older, more experienced people to be allowed to help. And I've seen a party that has put all its eggs in the collection basket, relying on money money money money money and more money, and forgetting that it's people who vote, not dollar bills.
Sorry for the rant, but that stupid holiday party invitation set me off and I had to vent. I wish it were an unusual occurrence, but it's not.
I was planning to attend the PDA meeting in Phoenix last week-end but had unexpected out-of-town company drop in on Friday. I'll be in touch with the PDA people again, because I honestly do not see any freakin' hope for the official Dems in Arizona. They are totally and irreparably incompetent.
the DUer who hides behind the moniker
Tansy Gold
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