Monday, May 28, 2018

I am very happy to be a retired committeeperson!

Although I enjoyed my 32 years as a committeeperson, I am very happy to be a retired committeeperson. I hope to continue some involvement in the ward as an Associate Committeeperson, helping out on Election Day and with distribution of flyers as needed. I’m still intensely interested in politics, and want to be in involved in the ward at some level, but at this stage in my life I don’t think I can handle that long day at the polls; also walking around the neighborhood delivering all those election flyers is getting really difficult.

I strongly believe that if someone is not willing or able to get out there and knock on doors and talk to their neighbors about what’s at stake in each election, that person should not be a committeeperson. It was becoming clear to me that I no longer had the energy for going door to door and after 32 years I had think I have earned a rest. I look forward to helping out on election day but I need to ratchet down the level of responsibility. And fortunately there is a very smart, energetic young woman in my division who ran for committeeperson.

At this stage in my life, I would much rather read and write about politics than do door-to-door organizing organizing. See my analysis of the May 15 primary results in the Chestnut Hill Local.

I think probably the most useful thing I have done in local politics was my documentation and analysis of the efforts of progressives to reform the local political system in Green Shoots of Democracy. I’m frequently asked if I will do a sequel; my answer has been that I sure hope someone continues this story with an in-depth analysis of the efforts of progressives in 2018, but that it won’t be me.

The 2018 campaign to reinvigorate the Philadelphia Democratic Party has been very much the work of millennials. That’s where the energy is and I do not have enough connections and knowledge of the work of young activists. Philly has many talented young political writers; I sure hope one of them is interested in documenting/ analyzing progressive organizing in 2018 committeeperson and ward leader races.


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