Joan Venocchi had a piece a couple of weeks back saying as much, but it’s amazing how the travails of the local Democratic Party are those of the national party writ small. In case we were to dismiss the centrists’ claims that the Democratic Party has been hijacked by special interest groups (always a loaded term), here come the special interests to confirm their worst fears. To wit, it seems that the 2004 Democratic convention is under attack already. First, from city employee unions, who are using Mayor Menino’s obsessive desire to show a world-class, politically-harmonious city to push for labor concessions. One Menino advisor says the unions should be careful of not overplaying their hand. Indeed.
Meanwhile, the Boston chapter of the NAACP has launched an ongoing attack on the convention organizers, using the promise of staying quiet about the city’s racial problems in exchange for convention contracts dedicated to minority-run businesses. Now, it is criticizing the choice of the convention’s CEO, Rod O’Connor, with city councilman Charles Yancey huffing, “I certainly would expect the Democratic Party to make sure that people of color are in decision-making positions.” Lost in the recriminations is any sense that the ideas and policies of the convention matter at all. Instead, by griping so loudly over the power and money grab of the convention - and in doing so with the universalist claims of civil rights activism - it implies that its only hope is inclusion in a political machine, not any demonstrable political end.
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