REMINDER: Political Parties Are Private Clubs, Not Democratic Institutions

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

A reminder that both political parties in the US are nothing more than networks of private clubs. Don't expect them to be keepers of the flam of democracy. They are NOT democratic institutions. They need not be responsible to live up to their own rules or charters. They are under no obligation to be fair or impartial.

Each state political party is an independent sister club, also private and under no legal obligation to the DNC, the DCCC, the RNC, etc. Unless you actually join the leadership in one of these state or national organizations, you are not technically members. You pay no dues. You don't have a vote on their internal affairs. You and I merely associate ourselves with them so that we can vote in their taxpayer-funded primary elections. Political parties see themselves as being in no way responsible to the voters or the courts.

In a transcript of a 2017 court filing in which Sanders supporters sued the DNC for violating the section of its charter that requires DNC-run elections to be “impartial” and “evenhanded,” DNC lawyers argue that the DNC has a right to pick candidates in back rooms. The attorneys claim the words ‘impartial’ and ‘evenhanded’—as used in the DNC Charter—can’t be interpreted by a court of law.

Keep this in mind as we continue to move forward in the current campaign season. If the DNC or RNC does anything that bothers you, consider sending campaign contributions directly to candidates that you feel you can support, even if they are in other states or districts. There is no democracy in America if voters have no say in the selection of candidates. There is no democracy when political parties control the outcomes of our primaries.

Political parties can only be held in check by the collective voices of the people. We must all be activists to assure that our will be done within political parties and within the halls of government. Democracy only works when we become physically involved with our voices, our pens, our presence, and our checkbooks.

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Further reading:

http://jampac.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/042517cw2.pdf

https://observer.com/2017/05/dnc-lawsuit-presidential-primaries-bernie-sanders-supporters/

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/08/reminder-dnc-lawyers-to-court-we-do-not-owe-voters-an-impartial-or-evenhanded-primary-election.html