Report on the State Democratic Convention

It was my first convention and I didn't quite know what to expect. So I wasn't disappointed. But I can say this: It was long periods of tedium interrupted by brief moments of excitement and angst. It was in some ways reminiscent of the Democratic party in 1968 (yeah, I know that's not a good sign...) in that you had the "old guard" who seemed, in some ways, almost desperate to keep the control of the party out of the hands of those uppity Young Democrats, the ones who came out in record numbers at the caucuses and therefore were represented in larger numbers than ever before at the convention. I don't need to tell you that those uppity youngsters are the future of the party, and we need to encourage them, not try to stifle them.

But I won't bore you with any more details, except to say the the "one person one vote" concept was missing. As were about half of the elected delegates -- there were supposed to be 2000 delegates, and only 970 showed up, along with 250 alternates. So even though all of the alternates who showed up were seated as delegates, there was not a sufficient number of votes to pass any of the requested platform amendments. And that was because of some arcane rule that to pass an amendment, it had to get a majority of the votes from the delegates "to" the convention (as opposed to those "at" the convention).

Which meant that any amendment had to have 1001 or more votes to pass. And since the amendments were, by and large, intended to give the Young Democrats more say -- and more clout -- in the party, the Old Guard was successful in voting them down.

Oh yeah, John Kerry was supposed to be the keynote speaker. Naturally he didn't show up. This is the fifth time I have been in attendance at a gathering where he was supposed to speak, and every time he was a no-show. I'm beginning to think it's me...