The Democratic Party Infiltrated: A Personal Account

This is what happened in the 2004 Democratic Primary in Alaska.

My wife and I were newbies to the political process, we had never been to a caucus before, never been involved in politics other than casting a vote every few years. This time we were watching closely, and we became aware that John Kerry was a Republican with a Democratic nameplate. We saw Howard Dean collect $40 million in anti-war money, then turn around and support 40,000 more troops Kerry. Whatever happened to fighting for what you believe in? How is it possible that we had a Presidential election between two pro-war candidates? Why didn't America have a real choice, ie Bush vs a Dem that would end the war?

This story outlines how the DLC stole Alaska for Kerry. Hopefully my experience will help others to be prepared to expose the status-quo stooges in their state.

1. Discourage Participation
In Alaska there was no primary vote, but instead local caucuses. In Colorado, the local caucuses were held in private homes, like mini-neighborhood parties. This seems like it would encourage participation- way to go Colorado. For some reason, Alaska's Democratic Party chose to hold their caucuses in a central location, ie we had to drive 90 miles to attend. For a population of 15,000(?) 19 people attended our caucus.

It was held on a beautiful Saturday in Spring (after a long winter, most people would not want to waste such a beautiful day indoors). The day of the caucus was on Saturday, March 20th- the first day of Spring Break, and the anniversary of the war.

As any Alaskan knows, during Spring Break there is a mass exodus south- Hawaii, Mexico, etc. Why would the Dems schedule the meeting on the first day of Spring Break, why not the week before?

2. Misdirect
The Democratic Party of Alaska repeatedly gave out the incorrect address of the caucus, telling us the event would be in the wrong town. We called several times and were told the wrong answer every time. We finally talked to another Democrat who told us the correct location, and she said, ~ "Are they still giving out that information, I've called them several times already to inform them of the correct location."

The day the Dems picked for the caucus was also the anniversary of the 1st day of the war. So we had our local "anti-war leaders" convince a hundred people or more to stay in town and hold an anti-war march. Rather than voting for the anti-war candidate, many Dems were fooled into attending yet another pointless march. (Note to Dems Everywhere: the 'anti-war leaders' in my hometown are pro-establishment stooges, are yours too?)

3. Waste Time
At the Caucus itself, all 19 of us had driven for more than an hour on this beautiful Saturday to debate the merits of Kerry/Dean/Kucinich. Rather than spend the afternoon discussing the war, health care, etc... we were told to sit down and listen to a special speaker. A candidate for the local borough (county) assembly was to give us a presentation. Ok- we're all polite so we sat down to listen... and then he went on, and on, and on.... talking about his Arby's restaurants, yadda yadda yadda. After close to 2 hrs of this bullshit, i was getting irate. Ok, so he finally finished, now there's another speaker, some lady for Tony Knowles. So we had to listen to another spiel- we already knew Tony since he was governor, but still we had to sit through another 45 minutes or so of BS. Looking back I realize this was all by design, but at the time I had no clue...

So finally it was our turn to debate... each candidate had one person stand up and speak for them. It turns out that 16 of the 19 attending were Strong Kucinich supporters (End the War, Health Care for All), but none of us got to speak for Kucinich. Instead we had another Kucinich 'supporter' stand up to speak, even though this guy wasn't in our district. He wasn't going to vote- why was he even there? So Joe stands up and talks about why everyone should vote for Kucinich- 'because they were old drinking buddies in college and he's a really good guy.' HUH?

After that we had 15 minutes to talk amongst ourselves, it was time to vote. Huh? We've been here sitting through crap for hours, but we only get 15 minutes to actually talk about the issues? Yep.

Even with all the time wasting, our caucus voted 16-3 Kucinich over Kerry. If there were a real discussion, it would've been 19-0, ie 100% to End the War.

4. The State Convention
At the State Convention it got really weird. Once again we were forced to listen to hours of speeches. There is no time to discuss the issues, just sit down and listen to one speaker after another (anyone remember the 'pig in the snake' guy?)

During one short break, I went up to the main table and asked the DLC leader Scott (?) if there would be some time to debate the issues. He said no, the schedule was tight, there's no time for that kind of thing. Huh? Again, I was a newbie, I had no idea that this whole event was staged to prevent participation and dialogue.

Finally at 4pm, it was time to vote. We're told to split up Kucinich Delegates on one side, Kerry on the other, and the 20 Undecided in the middle. We're given 15 minutes to try to convince the undecideds to vote with us.

There's Joe again, the Kucinich 'leader'- does he stand up and lead the charge to convince people to vote with us to end the war? No, he tells the Kucinich delegates to gather around and lets talk about who's going to the national convention in Boston. Huh? So we listen to him for about 10 seconds, then left to go and try to convince the others to join us and vote to end the war.

So we go over and are talking to the Undecided delegates to vote with us, End the War, Universal Health Care, etc... we've got flyers and facts and we're talking up all the reasons why Kerry is a Repub and Kucinich's policies are for real.... the Kerry people sat their silently- they had nothing. Not one of them tried to convince the Undecideds to vote for Kerry, because they really didn't know why... only that the TV told them to.

The race was literally neck and neck, and whoever won the undecided vote, won the state. So we're over there talking to people when this guy Ian stands up and says, "we've made a deal, if all the Undecideds would follow me over here" and he leads them OUT OF THE ROOM - which is strictly against the rules. (All delegates are supposed to remain in the main hall until the vote is over.)

So he leads them into a tiny room across the hall, and we're like, what are you doing people, "you can't just make a deal then vote for kerry." What was the deal? Some 18yr high school student wanted to go to Boston, and if all the Undecideds come and vote for Kerry, then she can go as one of the delegates- good deal eh?

What was really strange is I was talking to one lady from the Mountain View area of Anchorage, and she said she had to vote her conscience, for the poor kids in her neighborhood. So after outlining some key points, etc... she started walking with us towards the Kucinich side, then some other lady swoops in, puts her around the gal and says come with me to the Kerry room... and she was whisked away, seemingly against her own will. It was really bizarre- as if the Kerry lady had some of that "trust perfume" on... I know it sounds crazy, but this is what happened.

So the vote was counted. Not in public, but in secret. Kerry's supporters were in the tiny room across the hall, Kucinich supporters were in the large room. One teacher suggested to Joe (the Kucinich Leader) why not have everybody get in groups of ten- easy to count. Joe: No, no, no.... he had a hat, everyone get in a line and put in a little yellow piece of paper. But why- the teacher's idea was great let's do that. No. Then Joe counted the little pieces of paper, and went up to the stage to tell DLCer Scott our count (in secret). Then the Kerry guys came and conferred... it seemed as if they were making up the numbers to match the supposed total.

So then came the ratification of the vote- I stood up and said we should have a re-vote. What kind of democracy is it for some Kerry goon to 'make a deal' so some 18yr old can go to Boston? I suggested a re-vote. Instantly a minder came over to me and told me to pipe down, Joe came over too, 'we did our best'... No you didn't asshole.

I should have pushed the minder out of my face and continued raising good points, but instead i talked to her for a sec, and that gave Scott the opportunity he needed to say, "all in favor, aye" and that was it. Everybody started leaving for dinner.

Oh, I almost forgot, I said to the crowd, "Why did we sit here for hours of speeches and then have only 15 minutes to talk about the issues. Why can't we debate longer?" To which Scott replied, "the banquet hall is booked and we have to clear out so the Hotel can clean up." Huh? Why would the Democratic Party schedule their State Convention like this? Why did they leave so little time for discussion of the issues?

As this was all unfolding, I didn't really 'get it', but upon retrospect, I see that it was all planned. The Alaska Democratic Party has been infiltrated by status-quo goons that intentionally limited the debate in every way possible.

Even with all that, the official vote was 51%-49% Kerry over Kucinich, but if you ask me, Kucinich won hands down. There should have been a lawsuit against the Dems that broke the rules at the state party, having delegates go into a separate room, counting the vote in secret- it was a scam! If it wasn't for DLC stooges like Scott, Ian and Joe- the rightful winner of Alaska's 2004 Democratic State Convention would have been Dennis Kucinich.

Of course the national Dems have been co-opted as well. Proof of that was the Boston Convention.

Why would they have people travel thousands of miles to attend the Convention, then schedule it from 4-10pm everyday. Why did they pass out free drinks to the delegates, get them sloshed then wake them up at 8am for pointless meetings?

Did you watch the convention on C-span every day? I did. It was a sick joke. There was ZERO discussion of the issues, just one person after another talking about how great Kerry was-

At 4pm on Wednesday, right as people were filing in to the hall, with most of the Delegates still waiting in the security check line, Bill Richardson stood up and asked to approve the party platform- any objections (you could hear someone yelling in the back of the room), he says, ok- approved. That was the pro-war, Republican-Lite platform- approved with zero debate from the delegates.

Where was Kucinich and the anti-war crowd? PDA launched this same week, and they we're leading the anti-war crowd in speeches far away from the Convention center. Why weren't they trying to create a real debate inside the convention hall? What do you think?

For more on the Boston Convention, see this article from a Minnesota Delegate.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=2305

Again, I write this hoping to help others be on the lookout for similar tactics. If they try to tell you to sit through hours of pointless speeches, tell 'em to shove it. Demand a Real Debate on the issues.