| Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the California Republican Party convention this weekend in San Diego. I'm sure it was a blast for all involved. The conservative, the right-wingers, the Tea partiers, and the over the top offensively backward. A raucous good time, I'm sure.
Fortunately, the good folks at CalBuzz were able to make it. I suggest you go read their 10 insights, but I'll just pull out one, perhaps off-hand comment:
The convention's biggest surprise came when a thickly muscled bouncer demanded that your Calbuzz correspondents (combined age: 122) produce I.D. to gain admittance to some second-rate pizza-joint-with-a-full-bar in the Gaslamp Quarter which they stumbled upon in the pre-dawn hours. The move by Thor (not his real name) reflected not only his apparent legal blindness, but also some CYA concerns he clearly felt in noting we were two decades younger than the average GOP convention worthy swarming the streets.
Of course, California Democrats have the same issue. The party infrastructures of both parties are dismissive of the youth, and vice versa. Of course, it comes down to a chicken and the egg type situation at some point, but if California is to become a truly 21st Century state, we need more young leaders willing to get involved in all segments of the state's politics.
I suppose that I should mention here that I was just elected as the regional director of the state Democratic party for San Francisco and the northern half of San Mateo county. So, I suppose I'll say not just to my fellow Democrats, but to those of all political persuasions, that the way we make change is to get involved. We must insist that California plans for the long-term instead of playing games with the present.
Democrats have a leg up in this area. Young voters are overwhelmingly Democratic voters, but we must make sure that this stays true, and the so-called "millenials" continue to stay engaged beyond a one-off election. Sure, it will be good for Democrats, but it will also be good for (small-d) democracy. |
