Liska Critiques Democratic Democrat Process

Middletown’s Democratic Town Committee is a microcosm of what has gone wrong with America’s democratic process. During the last presidential election campaign when Connecticut’s “favorite son”, Senator Chris Dodd, dropped out of the presidential campaign, this Hillary supporter had eagerly attended the next MDTC meeting with the expectation that the MDTC would have an open referendum to vote its support toward one of the remaining Democratic candidates. That was my expectation of what a democratic process should be like. To my complete amazement and utter disappointment, that evening democracy was AWOL. It was made patently clear that before the meeting the decision had been made behind closed doors by the MDTC’s executive committee to support Barack Obama. It was disturbing to see no evidence that anyone else on the MDTC saw any problem with this autocratic process. I took a sidebar moment at the end of the brief meeting to attempt to discuss what had just occurred with a key person on the executive committee and got a dismissive lecture about how his personal opinion of the chosen candidate was so great that I should have no need to question the process or the selection.

I attended many MDTC meetings after that up until this week, but observed that the process of nominating local candidates to elective office within the city was no different, i.e. nothing more than appointments made by the same executive committee behind closed doors. Motions were made and seconded so swiftly that it closed out any further nominations that might upset the carefully scripted plan. Qualified new candidates were shut out to give the nominations to the favored insiders. I attempted at a political rally earlier this year to again speak with the same key person about the process that shut out supporters of opposition candidates within the party. His mindset was closed. My opinions were not in lock step with his.

This past Monday evening [with no advance posting] the MDTC handed out its list of 70 proposed MDTC members for the next two year term to be voted upon immediately. The executive committee had omitted my name and a few others without any advance warning, removing us from the proposed membership list to be voted upon. This is voting MDTC style. You see, if you don’t agree with the process and you speak up to defend democracy, to defend your right to debate and to vote, you become persona non grata. The “powers that be” shut you out of the process. It is a profound joke on the voters that the MDTC has the word “Democratic” in its title. There is nothing democratic about the running of the MDTC.

In retrospect, the executive committee did me a favor. I had been conflicted by my participation in a seriously flawed process. Now I no longer have to feel compelled to attend those sham meetings. I love this country and thought that I should participate in the political process as my civic duty. I still love this country. I shall maintain the hope that democracy will find a way to survive the political shenanigans that is being practiced today in Middletown, in Hartford and in Washington, DC.

Joan Liska

Middletown, CT