Who will save America’s Democratic Party? (2) There’s Keith Ellison in the House
In the United States, the Republicans now control the White House and the two houses of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives. If President Trump has his way, the vacant position on the Supreme Court will be filled by a conservative. In these circumstances, the Democratic Party has to fight back urgently and strongly with the mid-term elections in 2018 a particular focus of attention.
The fight-back will require leaders of courage, compassion and eloquence. In the House of Representatives, a leading member of the struggle will be 53 year old Keith Ellison who, since 2007, has been a Representative from Minnesota.
As this profile on the Mother Jones website reminds us, Ellison warned of a Trump victory long before others saw the possibility. The article also highlights that Ellison is now a strong contender for this weekend’s election of a new Chair for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The piece notes:
“The role of the DNC chairman is to run a political machine that helps to elect Democrats throughout the country, not to dictate the party’s policy priorities. But Ellison’s blueprint for defeating Trumpism is nonetheless rooted in the anti-establishment politics of Sanders.
The DNC has become the “Democratic Presidential Committee,” he argues; short-sighted focus on big-dollar fundraising and swing states has weakened the party on a county-by-county level. Change starts with shifting the party apparatus toward assembling a multicultural army of organizers, focused on the communities likely to bear the full brunt of the new president’s policies.
Ellison says the proof that this can work is in his district. Emphasizing door-to-door engagement over TV advertising, Ellison boasts he’s juiced turnout in his safe Democratic seat to some of the highest levels in the country. Even as the Upper Midwest goes red, Minnesota Democrats have scored victories at the state level, bolstered by Ellison’s Minneapolis machine.”