Fight Condescension With Empowerment

Politico is reporting on fallout from the leaked RNC presentation that ridiculed donors and encouraged everything American's have come to hate about politics.

Mark DeMoss, who heads a major Christian public relations firm in Atlanta and served as a liaison to the Evangelical community for Mitt Romney in 2008, wrote Chairman Michael Steele yesterday that he was "ashamed" of the presentation, calling depictions of Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid "shameful, immature and uncivil, at best."

The timing of this just happened to coincide with something I have been meaning to write about for a week now: the Maryland Democratic Party's efforts to empower their supporters. At a time when Republican contempt for voters could not be more clear, the MD Dems just happen to be demonstrating the exact opposite.

It started at the beginning of March, when I received a forwarded email from my dear friend, Yvette Lewis:

We are looking to expand the circle to whom we send talking points on important issues, so please feel free to send these talking points to your activists, members, and elected officials. Thanks.

I wrote back to her, immediately:

I'm impressed: "feel free to send these talking points to your activists, members, and elected officials."

Wait what? Some transparency? Putting some power in the hands of activists and members? Who are these people and what have they done with our establishment Democratic party?

It was literally the next day that the RNC presentation was leaked.

And just yesterday, I received another email from Yvette, again with talking points and a note that we should "Feel free to distribute far and wide." (In case folks are curious, here is the most recent talking points <----pdf link)

The MD Dems could not have timed this more perfectly. I was excited enough at the seeming change of policy (most campaigns tend to keep talking points just for staff which always bothered me since your supporters will talk for you whether you give them the proper ammo or not). It may seem innocuous at a glance, but the act of sharing talking points with "activists and members," "far and wide," in contrast to the condescension coming out of the other camp, is far from innocuous indeed.