Progressive Democrats of Somerville, Jan 27th meeting

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Hear ye, hear ye: the Progressive Democrats of Somerville invite all to attend our January meeting. The agenda will include: an upcoming campaign and candidate training, endorsement discussion on the condo coversion ordinance,  our campaign on how Somerville will respond to the national and state financial downturn, and planning for the new year!

When: Tuesday, January 27th - 6:45pm to 8:45pm

Where: Visiting Nurses Association, Community Room, 259 Lowell Street, Somerville

Come out to our next meeting and experience some good people, good politics and good conversation with one of the most exciting organizations in Somerville!

For more information, please contact Marty Martinez, PDS Chairperson, email : chair(at)pdsomerville.org

[Note: I am the endorsements chair for PDS]

I hope to see you there!

Comments

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

Could you give us more information about the progressive democrats? How do they differ from regular democrats?

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

I would say that Progressive Democrats are not satisfied that the Democratic Party is living up to its platform. We believe the party needs to be reformed to connect the leadership to the grassroots. We want our party to be defined by accountability, openness, transparency, and inclusiveness. Here's a link to read more about PDS (http://www.pdsomerville.org/about) and about our national group, Democracy For America (http://www.democracyforamerica.com/issues). Thanks for your question.

[cos]

In this state in particular, there's really no "regular Democrats" anyway. Massachusetts is effectively a one party state, and almost all of the meaningful political competition occurs among Democrats, who hold a lot of different views. I don't think there's any good way to define any particular group in terms of a comparison to "regular Democrats" in MA.

[ron_newman]

I think the distinction between 'Progressive Democrat' and 'regular Democrat' was more meaningful a few years ago, when Tom Finneran still ran the Mass. House of Representatives.

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Ron, can you elaborate on what you mean by that, please?

[ron_newman]

I mean that back then, there was a substantial ideological opposition between the establishment Democrats personified by Finneran, and the progressives such as our Pat Jehlen. Since then, many of the really right-wing Democrats have left or lost office and they no longer control the party. Since the election of Deval Patrick, progressive Democrats have become more integrated into the regular party structure.

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

I can see what you mean, but I think that Democrats have remained divided on other issues such as whether to bring casino gambling to MA, whether to make gay marriage un-Constitutional, and whether to eliminate the state income tax, just to name a few, and of course myriad issues at the national level. Would you agree?

[ron_newman]

Casino gambling is a divisive issue, but I don't see much real difference among Massachusetts Democrats anymore about repealing gay marriage (now a dead issue) or the state income tax.

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Yes, but those were just a few examples of controversial issues since Finneran left the state house. There are plenty of other issues at all levels of government and I am not certain that state issues are the most important in defining intra-party group affiliation, such as the progressives.

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Ok, so what other types of Democrats are there and how would you distinguish progressive Dems from the rest?