DPVA and the netroots

I’ve been following a couple of discussions going on in the blogsphere (NLS, Raising Kaine) about the Democratic Party of Virginia and the netroots. It seems that many who participate in the netroots think that the DPVA didn’t do as much as they should have in the last election.

From reading the responses posted, what was painfully obvious to me is that there is a misunderstanding between what the netroots thinks the DPVA should be doing as opposed to what it did. And this misunderstanding revolves around the fact that few of the netroots crowd is involved with the DPVA.

The answer to me is simple: if you don’t like the way the DPVA is being run, do something about it. Join your local Democratic Committee and get active.

(Soapbox on) One of the biggest problems I see is that people get involved in one candidate’s race and then disappear after that race is over. We have an election every year in Virginia, folks. Every year, each candidate has to build their own organization, which is an absolute shame. Time, money and people are the three ingredients necessary for a successful campaign. If there are no people, the campaign cannot be successful. If you only got involved because of a candidate, then you need to stay involved to help the next candidate. If you believe that it is important for our party’s ideals to be furthered, you can’t just disappear once your candidate wins or loses. (soapbox off)

Don’t just stand on the outside throwing rocks. Come on in and help propel the party in the direction you think it should go.

The Norfolk City Democratic Committee has its business meeting on the first Wednesday of each month and we meet for breakfaston the first Saturday of each mont. (And no, the website hasn’t been updated. Believe it or not, there are more important things to do during an election than update the website.) All Democrats – yellow dog, blue dog, whatever – are welcome.

UPDATE: See this post over at GOTV regarding how the FCDC uses people in their precinct teams.