Letters: Democrats must re-earn lost power

Dimitri Cherny is correct: “the Democratic Party’s leadership isn’t helping the organization achieve its goals” (“Time for a Democratic Party reboot,” Nov. 22).

A party that once claimed to care about the poor, disenfranchised, sick, disabled, jobless and hopeless has become the party that cares about hanging onto power.

The fact that the party backed the status quo candidate, rather than allowing primary voters to determine who the nominee should be, was a real indicator of its intent: hanging onto the power that it assumed it had. State leaders were content to follow the national hierarchy’s plan. This is playing not to lose, and it rarely succeeds. Well, we did lose, big time, and will likely be paying for that loss for a long time. I have always been a loyal, proud Democrat. I am proud no more.

There is too much at stake for the Democratic Party, at the national or state level, to sit on its apathetic hands, waiting for power to fall into its lap. Power is earned, by listening to the needs of the people and doing the legislative work necessary to address those needs. Democrats have not earned power, so they have lost much of what they had.

This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Letters: Democrats must re-earn lost power."