[GPSCC-chat] Opposition to the party becoming professional.

[Wes Rolley]

When I read Spencer's notes from last night's meeting, I was a bit 
surprised that there was so much opposition to the idea of a paid 
staff.  In particular, I noted the comment that Cameron was opposed to 
the idea because " the hired staff component had a substantive negative 
impact on the party. "

Personally, I feel that the lack of a full time staff is one of the most 
important reasons that the party's numbers have stagnated, are in 
decline and that we are basically ignored by media.

Here is what I posted on the subject at California Greening 
<http://cagreening.blogspot.com/> this week.  If you got to that site, 
you will find this supported (in comments) by Alex Walker.


      GPCA poised for gains... or not

The General Assembly of the Green Party of California takes place this 
weekend. For those who will attend, there are a few things I hope you 
consider while deciding the next steps we will take.

Never before has money played such a key role in politics. Greens have 
been taking steps to counteract the effect of the Citizen's United 
decision. However, it does not appear that any great gains have been 
made on that front, even with key people spending a significant amount 
of time in the Move to Amend <http://movetoamend.org/> effort.

While washing dishes last night, I listened to the Rachel Maddow show. 
She was making a very important point regarding the now nearly infamous 
Paul Ryan budget that passed the House. Republican Congress Critters, 
including Wisconsin's Ryan, are not being warmly received while back in 
their districts over the Easter Recess. In fact, they are being 
confronted with almost as much rancor as was directed at the Obama 
Health Care plan last summer. Her key point is that, while Progressive 
organizations have contracted for $106,000 in media buys now, just 4 
organizations with ties Corporate Cash, have put up over $2 Mil to 
support Ryan's budget... the one that would, among other things, end 
Medicare as we know it.

I introduce this point about money in order to underscore just how 
uneven the playing filed is. The GPCA has not been so successful raising 
money. We managed to have a mini-fundraising drive that netted $7,000 
just before the General Assembly.

So, what are we going to do if we can't compete on money. Greens back a 
set of policies that make a lot more sense than those embodied in the 
Ryan Budget,but who knows what they are.

In a speech given at Occidental College 
<http://departments.oxy.edu/orsl/pdfs/MoyersSpeechOccidentalCollege.pdf> 
of few years back, Bill Moyers made the statement that "The only answer 
for organized money is organized people." In fact, this was important 
enough that he repeated it several time: "The *only* answer..." and then 
"is *organized* people."

It is clear to some that the wheels are coming off the American version 
of Capitalism. Even Alan Greenspan acknowledged that he did not truly 
understand just that organizations, like banks and insurance companies, 
do not act in their *own* long term best interest, but are tilling to 
take excessive risks in order to get immediate profit for the executives 
of these companies. Greenspan was a devotee of Ayn Rand, the same Ayn 
Rand whose selfish version of living in the world inspires many 
Republican leaders today.

It is a given that we don't have the money top play the corporate media 
game. I note the number of people who actually participate in our social 
media, and it does not yet add up.

If we are to take the next step, and the world needs us to do so, then I 
think we need to consider just how we can accomplish it. Look around the 
General Assembly. How many students do you see? If these are the future 
of the Party, what are we doing to build that future? If we can't answer 
the question of how many Campus Green chapters exist and who those 
leader are, it does not speak well for our future.

Maybe it does come back to money, and how we choose to spend what 
resources we have. We need, at a minimum&hellip' and need to keep it to 
a minimum... to have full time fundraising that is not dependent on 
another full time job to live on.

We need to be able to more nimble in how we deal with the media. It is 
not just that smart cell phones, Android aps and social media have 
expanded the range of possibilities, they have fundamentally changed the 
expectation of just how quickly a political organization can respond. 
This is one more aspect of being a political party that needs full time 
attention and, once more, there is a need to professionalize it so that 
no one has to give up making a living in order to do that work.

The real question for this General Assembly is whether we are going to 
be a player in the political arena, or will we just play at it.
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