What's It For

I think I met Faiz a couple of times a million years ago.

The problem, Shakir quickly found out, is that DNC members are pretty much given nothing to do.

“The way I was asked to participate, they said, ‘Pick two councils to be on,’” Shakir said. “I think I checked rural and labor. You get added to this roster, you go the DNC meeting. I said, ‘Where’s the discourse about the strategy to win? Are there polling presentations? Do we discuss in group settings?’” But as Shakir described it, the councils were mainly social gatherings, a place to hear speeches and rally and chat.

I had a distinct recollection of the one time I got involved as a delegate to the California Democratic Party many years ago. I rapidly learned that the state conventions, the only formal role for delegates, were just sandboxes for relatively meaningless resolutions and late-night parties. It was not just that outside consultants made all the important decisions, though they did. It was that they didn’t think there were really any decisions to make. Taking positions on policy was rare, but more than that, there was no strategic insight into how the party should introduce itself to voters, how it should organize, how it should make use of its resources.

No one can really explain what the DNC does, other than being a conduit for a lot of money, or how as an entity decisions are made. It's both all powerful and powerless. It's kind of odd.