The rank-and-file and the Democratic Party
About once a decade, I need to consult the Charter and Bylaws of the Democratic Party of the United States. As a rank-and-file Democrat - registered to vote as one - this is always remarkably difficult. That tells you much of what you need to know about the relationship between the rank-and-file and the Party: the Party is a private organization, with no obligation to disclose its organizational documents to people just because they are registered Democrats.
This time around I went hunting for a copy of the latest Charter and Bylaws, which is from 2022, because somebody asked me how we rank-and-file Democrats can encourage the Democratic National Committee to make Ben Wikler its chair. Currently the Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Wikler would be a great national Chair. But that's a topic for another day. Today is for explaining why it is that rank-and-file Democrats have no real way to influence who becomes an officer of even the most local Democratic Party organization, let alone the Chair of the National Committee.
National level American political parties are insular and byzantine. They are private organizations comprised of a web of other, interlocking private organizations. The membership of the National Democratic Committee is comprised in good part of members of state Democratic Parties and official Democratic Party affinity groups. Every U.S. state has a Democratic Party organization. So does Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. So do Democrats who reside abroad (Democrats Abroad) and Democrats enrolled in colleges and universities (College Democrats). So do various groups of office-holding Democrats, such as governors, municipal officials, county officials, state treasurers, state lieutenant governors, state secretaries of state, state attornies general. There are Democratic Party organizations for Democrats by age cohort, such as Young Democrats, Senior Democrats, and High School Democrats. There is a National Federation of Democratic Women and National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee. Members of the Democratic National Committee come from all of these groups, as well as from the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House and Senate, who also choose some additional DNC members from Congress; the Democratic Legislative Campaign Commitee; and the officers of the Democratic National Committee itself.
Each of state and terroritorial parties and official affinity groups has its own organization and rules, governing membership in them. In a somewhat fractal fashion, the state parties supervene on county parties, which supervene on wards and precincts within the counties. There are also local chapters of affinity groups, some of which are affiliated with state and county level Democratic Party organizations.
Simply being a registered Democrat does not make you a member in any Democratic Party association, organization, or affinity group. That level of party affiliation gives you no formal or even informal way to influence who becomes your Democratic Party ward leader. It certainly doesn't permit you to affect who becomes Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The only way to the internal workings of the Democratic Party at any level is to become a member at that level. Try finding out, though, how to become active in even your most local Democratic Party association. For example, go to your county Democratic Party affiliate's website. At mine, which is typical of most, there is information about how I could have volunteered for Democratic candidates running this past November. There's also a request for me to donate to support the county party. I can find at least the names of current county Democratic Party officers, right down to ward chairs. By looking really hard, I can even figure out what ward I live in. But there's no information about ward meetings or how to become a ward chair. I could try using the contact information for various county level officials to ask them how to find out about these matters or try to track down contact information for my ward chair, which isn't on the website. Clearly, nobody who is currently active in the local Democratic Party is interested in making the organization accessible to potential new members or input from registered Democrats living in the county.
When various Democratic officials, campaign staff, and strategists discuss how Democratic candidates can do better in elections, they never mention making the Democratic Party, at any level, much more accessible to join and much more amenable to communication with rank-and-file Democrats who are they not members of Party associations. At the same time, Party officials, campaign staff, and strategists all go on about how Democratic candidates need to do a better job of connecting with voters. This juxtaposition - Party organization opacity and Party concern about reaching voters - is jarring. Rank-and-file Democrats are Democratic voters. Democratic Party organizations would have better luck electing Democratic candidates if the Party organizations themselves were actually intertwined with Democratic voters.
I see that Ben Wikler, too, is raising money to support his bid to become DNC Chair. I don't know what funds are needed for an effort like that and I don't know who typically donates. One thing is for sure: unless Wikler explains how he will actively bring about robust connection between the rank-and-file and the Democratic National Party, I don't know why any plain old registered Democrat would donate to his effort to become DNC Chair. I can't even see why we registered Democrats would financially support our county or state parties.
All that said, I wonder if those of us angry about the Democratic electeds already appeasing and pandering to Donald Trump and members of his proposed administration shouldn't be trying very hard to become members of our local parties and work toward elevation through the ranks. I realize that it would be a long shot for any of us to get anywhere, let alone for enough of us to get far enough to change the Party organizations themselves. But this is a time when every shot at changing the politics, law, and culture of the United States is both imperative and long.