Harry the Horse “With those dice he cannot make a pass to save his soul”
Sky Masterson “What did you say?”
Harry the Horse “I said, with those dice he cannot make a pass to save his soul.”
My sincere congratulations to FDP’s newly elected chair, Allison Tant. It wasn’t even close. The final vote tally of 587 for Allison Tant and 448 for Alan Clendenin in the FDP elections surprised many of us who thought that it was almost going to be a dead even race. The unusual thing about this election came next. Alan Clendenin’s name was placed into nomination for 1st vice chair from the floor. Without hesitation the two announced candidates for the position immediately withdrew their names from consideration and Clendenin then became the party’s first vice chair. It was something out of a Frank Capra movie, or was it? Honestly, the whole thing felt (Dare I Say it?) orchestrated. I’m not complaining, mind you because this is a good thing. The best possible outcome and it feels right for the moment. You could almost hear the wounds healing and the broken bones knitting together. The soul of the party is, for at least the time being, safe from being sold outright instead of the trial lease it appears to be.
There’s no question that fund raising is very important. Chairman Tant is fully capable of fulfilling that function, however, with that kind of money comes strings, some of which might be OK but some of which can be not only distasteful but the antithesis of what the party stands for. Some money is just not worth chasing, so just let me inject that little caveat. And some more caveats: stop thinking in terms of just beating Rick Scott. He is a manifestation of the problem, not the problem itself. The core of the problem is the ghost of Jeb Bush, and until that problem is fully addressed it’s not going to go away. Remember the 2004 elections where we were all focused on beating George Bush. It “should have” happened but it didn’t. As a result, the Republicans picked up a few more seats in the House and retained their majority in the Senate. Beating Rick Scott should be a high priority but not the only one. There are too many house seats at stake that need our support and tons of local offices that need Democrats in them. We need to focus on destroying Jeb’s education policies and his privatization policies. We need to focus on how well the state worked BEFORE Jeb started to dismantle it. He’s supposed to be the smart one. He needs to be dealt with; just look at what his dumb brother was capable of doing.
I do have to take a moment here and admit that I was very harsh on Allison Tant. I also used analogies that were quite graphic and misunderstood by several people who let me know it. So, please forgive me for being overly passionate for my preferred candidate. I’m sure that this new leadership team is equal to the task and I fully support them. We Democrats also have a responsibility to hold our leadership accountable, both ways. If they’re doing a good job they need our praise; If they’re not performing they need our reprimand. There’s going to be a lot of money coming into the party because of this. It needs to be used wisely or else the soul of our party will sink into the title of this piece. All you have to do is insert an I into the empty space.
