As anticipated, the South Carolina Democratic Party (SCDP) ‘Debrief’…oozing out to those who voted Democrat… is a mash of congratulations layered over losses by candidates who were deployed to a campaign that wasn’t.
Campaigns, in a simplified definition are, essentially, studied endeavors that analyze demographics and socioeconomic statistics to formulate a winning message that matches the Party’s ideology.
Whether staff responsible for crafting this high- precision mechanism to make it competitive ever got it done, is not reflected in the abysmal losses the Party suffered yet again, in yet another election.
Of course the cherry on top is congratulations to the 6th district victor who has been sent back to congress for a 16th time to complete a 32 year term. And, before we say more, we’ll underscore our infinite respect for that politician’s contribution to civil rights that won us the right to vote.
But to accept this incomparable contribution to Civil Rights as some infinite measure of effectiveness and a standing order for decades of leadership, which, in translation, is the PARTY limply opposing or not opposing his perpetual candidacy, is the kind of false analogy, wrong inductive reasoning, that gives us a career politician whose unchallenged nomination by primary, every cycle, is no incentive for him to do more than his previous term…especially when continual state loss doesn’t alter the veneration he receives.
Appearing in the public square is not what he’s known do in Spartanburg, where he would mount the pulpit of a Reverend (retired) of a popular ‘church home’ and expound a potpourri of talking points in a raucous call and response from the pews. Neither call nor response addresses the fact that the Party is running a losing race, yet again.
But that’s the point. Appearance. That can be claimed as effort. Then effort becomes what we celebrate.
It’s not easily found on the Party’s website but we’d feel duped if the post -election formal debrief is not enshrined in the Party’s articles of formation or Constitution, as is fundamental procedure for a political organization that fundraises on a promise and campaigns on shared ideology.
Correspondence, so far, has expounded on the need for a Warnock win –which email recipients need no prodding to conclude– simultaneously fund raising for Warnock for the ‘fee’ of a split donation… the kind of hussle that reveals the drop in small dollar donation from us, smaller members, who are yet to get a return on our continued investment.
The Party seems disinclined to give us the debrief of another failed electoral strategy … ‘Turn SC Blue in ’22…a rhyme which began and ended with no political potency.
Look.
We’re aware of the sociopolitical demographics of South Carolina which makes it unlike a Georgia, whose more culturally and academically diverse voter – population delivered a Warnock and an Osoff.
This is why we’re contending that current leadership hasn’t tailored its strategy to improve the Party’s appeal to strict Republican voters. Not only has the same failed leadership remained at the helm of every election cycle but it runs on the same failed blue print …of not trying to penetrate known Republican strongholds.
The ‘Register 46’ campaign “Register 46 seeks to meet demographic shifts across the state…” was nothing more than a claim at effort. Of course, we haven’t been given feedback in numbers on how this effort increased likely voters for Democrats.
And what we’re certain of is that the strategists do not understand the interethnic dynamics amongst the different races….even in its backstop, the Afro voters, who are not all born Americans but are part of a large naturalized community, targeted as Afro American. The importance of these distinctions is not evident in proclaimed ‘strategy’.
We’ll suggest, again, that the SCDP runs as if it is given permission to run by its opponent.
Leadership is big on amplifying the National Party’s message but fails at filtering how it applies specifically to this state…in the 46 counties that make up the voting bloc. The Republican culture wars languish until the conscience of some of their state senators is afflicted by cruel decisions like the abortion ban; which the SCDP then retweets, with creative gusto, as its Party’s messaging.
It’s more than just course correction that’s needed. The contest between questionable leadership and visionless stratagem is the take- it or leave – it offer we get every cycle; all along the ticket; from state to municipality- if we want to vote Democrat.
Leadership remains an establishment throwback of personnel with friends, family and some goodwill by osmosis that, we, the mere voters, just have to accept if we want to be members of the Party.
We’re not going to throw around terms like cronyism, favoritism or nepotism but the striking resemblance is not serendipity.
The bureaucracy of organization assigns the privilege to hire functional executives to the Party Chair.
The expectation is that hired personnel will not only be reflective of the social propriety that we espouse as a nation and by extension, a Party but will be qualified to function in the portfolio they were hired in to.
Our understanding of the function of an Executive Director (ED) is that it encompasses strategic planning. Judging from the Party’s losses since 2020, the ED was either oversold or has massively underperformed- given the retention of its predictable losing streak with the continued deployment of its outmoded blue print.
The weekly broadcasts billed as ‘keeps you in the know with updates from across the State’…seem to have been an experiment that did not validate the hypothesis…and we’re wondering how many non establishment personnel would have been given the opportunity to come back and in with this plethora of negatives – which we wouldn’t link to here, since it falls outside of our professional focus.
Our communicated thoughts on that TV show, though, were largely ignored, in deference to what was more of a self-massaging product than a strategy to show preference for programs that directly impact people’s needs, amongst many, in a nontraditional softening of the Red State hard lined views….which requires, many of us know, comparative leg work with delicate packaging to shed the shroud of liberalism and other terms of defamation that attach to these programs -and not a TV show.
Yes, Government run Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid Expansion, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) provokes consideration, even deep contemplation, when sold in context.
The post campaign/election debrief is and must be a timely exercise.
It is planned for, as much and as well as its previous parts and sits on the same tier of importance as they do…when done right.
One thing, many of us know, is that it is done when memories are fresh, sentiments are raw and foresight is sharp.
It is not a thing to be done at the leisure of those tasked with its execution, or at the convenience of the results of a run off in Georgia, say, so that those results could be added as some cheap padding to shade the State loss.
It is a tool that sits in the best-practices box of Party Administration… yet to show that it’s a ‘nimble organ that can act with despatch’, for our 18 years of supporting this SCDP arm of the Democratic Party.
