Whoa, hold up! After weeks of attacking his opponent David Parker with rumors, innuendos and finger-pointing, NCDP chair candidate Bill Faison now wants to end the blame game because it wasn't really the Democrats' fault that the Republicans kicked their keister.
According to Faison's latest message, "the repubs" just "out-messaged" Democrats and pointing fingers now at those Democrats who dropped the ball just isn't necessary any more. Maybe Faison's change of heart comes from realizing everyone those responsible for the NCDP's past two years of errors are the very same people who are backing Faison today!
And as everyone knows by now, former state democratic party chair Jerry Meek had a personal agenda for backing David Young to succeed Meek. That agenda was about revenge and political pay back to prevent David Parker from becoming the successor all because Parker chose to endorse someone other than Meek for chair back in 2005.
Under Young's weak "leadership," the party suffered widespread election "losses at every level of state government" in 2009 and 2010 including losing control of the legislative agenda. Remember, If Meek can claim credit for all the 2008 wins, then he has to take the blame for all the 2010 losses.
Now Faison is Meek's 2011 stooge -- just like Young was in 2009 -- just to block David Parker's bid to become the NCDP's next state chair. And that begs the question, can we really afford another two years of Meek's anointed yet inexperienced party leaders? Not just no, but HELLLLLLLL no!
If Faison's video message is any indication of his communication strengths, then he doesn't brings much to the table as a potential state chair. Rambling toward some sort of a point, Faison inarticulately claims, "I have a background that allows me to enjoy the process of getting after Republicans.
Wha-huh??? Enjoy the process? This makes no sense.
How exactly does Faison plan to "get after Republicans?" By giving them full credit for our missteps? According to Faison's video, he says, "the repubs set the message, they set the tone, they captured the press and the media and they hammered it home to us." Notice how carefully Faison sidestepped any assessment of what Democrats did wrong. Hey, he needs every vote and that makes Faison blind to fixing what needs to be fixed inside the party.
Seriously, Democrats lost across North Carolina not because "we got out-messaged," but because we were too busy infighting to bother to develop any message voters could relate to. Instead, the state party coasted on the 2008 election after-glow and wasted time, energy and money fighting over who should run for what in our own primaries at the expense of grassroots support. Remember the US Senate democratic primary debacle where our state party leadership tried to force an inexperienced legislator (Cal Cunningham) on voters who clearly preferred the experienced, savvy and party favorite (Elaine Marshall)?
Wait a second! That sounds remarkably similar to our current situation over the candidates for NC's party chair! An inexperienced leader seeking to steal a seat better served by a more seasoned and experienced party leader.
Parker must have Faison worried because Faison is now borrowing from Parker's style of communication. Finally using video to "speak" to the State Executive Committee members for the first time, Faison proved he's not a good communicator at driving a point home.
"They're (Republicans) going to do things that disturb all of us," Faison said after listing the GOP's expected agenda of cutting back programs. But aren't we lucky Faison is "willing to take the time (read: from his busy schedule) and to do the work to help us win back control of our state." Not exactly a dedicated or decisive statement for one pursuing the state chair role.
No where does Faison ever talk about actually leading the party out of the ashes or bringing fresh ideas to undo the damage. Nope. Instead, Faison is going to run the state party like a business and, in his own words, "demand party staff achieve measurable and specific actions." Great. Just great.
That top-down style isn't leadership, it's management by decree and that doesn't work in a 99% volunteer organization. That's why we, like hundreds of other SEC members, proudly endorse David Parker for state chair. Vote David Parker on Saturday, January 29th in Raleigh.
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