What I Would Do if I Were Chip…
I have to confess that the recent reelection of Chip Forrester as the Chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party was not something I was thrilled with. I understand it, for Chip more clearly represented a more mainstream end of the party, but given the losses this past cycle, and the unbelievably bad fiasco that was called a governor’s campaign, I think that someone needs to be held accountable and Chip was the guy with his hands on the wheel.
Look, I understand that this cycle was next to impossible for Democrats at best. While I don’t agree that this was an anti-Obama election (I think it was an anti-incumbent election at best), certainly the energy from the right and the ambivalence from the left (given the inability of Democrats to more decisively control the agenda when in power) made this a tough row to hoe. At the same time at no time during the election did I feel like the TNDP have much of an impact in the campaigns beyond issuing press releases.
I think what I am looking for in a party leader is someone much more in the Howard Dean style — someone who isn’t afraid to dirty his hands and be brutally honest with both party members and opponents. More importantly, I agree with the Dean strategy which won seats in 2006 and 2008 which refuses to write off any race as either futile or in the bag. EVERY race needs to be seen as winnable and resources need to be directed to those races if for no other reason than it forces the other side to likewise direct resources as well. There is no room for waffling on anything.
The other thing that I would like to see (and I hope that you are hearing Chip) is to be frank about what it means to be a Democrat in Tennessee. I think the Herron/Fincher race is instructive not because of the resources spent there, but because Roy Herron tried to tack radically to the right, attempting to reinvent himself as a truck driving, gun shooting, good old boy rather than the Vanderbilt educated intelligent leader that he is. Folks saw through the act and voted accordingly because he was not honest about who he was. I think it’s time to acknowledge that the Democratic party is naturally based in an urban understanding, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t concerned with issues in rural areas — jobs, poverty, etc. We need to be who we are — folks who are concerned about the conditions of others, and not be apologetic about that stance.
Yes, Chip has lots to do — including trying to energize a demoralized party that he presided over. I think the only way to do that effectively is through brutal and difficult honesty and transparency, inviting conversation from all parties at the table to renew Democratic identity as the party of the people. Certainly maintaining the status quo will only serve to see the ultimate disappearance of the TNDP from Tennessee.
