Tough times call for heroes.
DNC chair candidates Ken Martin & Ben Wikler are two of the best political organizers in the country. They are modest, hardworking, honest, generous, fearless and committed to building community.
I do not want to spend the next four years writing about Donald Trump. Others will do that with great distinction. And there will be plenty to write about: the erosion of our democratic institutions, the unprecedented graft, the pettiness and the cruelty, the abuses of power, and so much incompetence that we will be lucky if it is only as bad as the COVID epidemic in his first term.
Tough times call for heroes. People with the vision, the guts, and the character to not only to stand up to what’s coming, but to remind us of what really makes America great. Tough times don’t just call for heroes, they create them.
If we can spare a moment’s attention from the hourly outrages coming our way it is not too hard to discover heroes in our midst. Turn away from Kash Patel for a moment and you can find people who stand up for our common humanity and for the idea that we are most free when power- whether in the hands of government or corporations or the fabulously wealthy- is limited and checked.
Two of them have tossed their hats in the ring for the job of DNC chair.
Ken Martin chairs the DFL in Minnesota and leads the Association of State Democratic Chairs. He got his taste for politics while working for the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, and it inspired him to dedicate his life to the fight for ordinary Americans to have a say in their communities and our country. He built a political operation in the state that delivered results not just in elections, but in people’s lives. For example, back in 2008 he led the fight to amend the Minnesota Constitution in a way that assured environmental protections in the state. Because of the way Ken leads, passing environmental reforms never looked like an elite project. Instead, working women and men across the state saw it as a project to protect their legacy and their right to enjoy the beauty around them. As Party chair, Ken not only eliminated the debt he inherited, but he has also not yet lost a statewide election. The party he built, it was different. He modeled what political parties can be. Not the backroom, secret deal making organizations I grew up fighting here in Illinois, but rather organizations built from the bottom up by people who share a set of ideas about how we should live together.
Ben Wikler chairs the Wisconsin Democrats. Trivia: we share a birthday. Ben was always drawn to ideas of bottom-up governance. As the Washington Director of Move On, Ben led the grassroots fight to save the Affordable Care Act. He focused early on digital organizing and alternative ways to reach people who were not always engaged with the news. As a campaign director at Avaaz, for example, or by producing Al Franken’s radio show. Those experiences planted a seed that would later grow into a fundraising and organizing machine when he became chair of the Wisconsin Democrats. When Wisconsin native & actor Bradley Whitford approached Ben about having the West Wing cast do a live-reading as a fund raiser during COVID, Ben not only agreed, but went to work to build a huge audience for the event. It’s hard to overstate the challenge Ben faced in Wisconsin. That state had enacted the most radical gerrymander in the country. Its right-wing governor, Scott Walker, in a preview of what is now happening in Washington, used the power of government to weaken unions, to undermine public and higher education, and to reward his own funders. When Walker lost to Democrat Tony Evers, a result Ben organized to bring about, the gerrymandered GOP legislature stripped the incoming governor of many of his powers. In an uphill fight that took a decade, Ben brought thousands of people together to stand up against one party rule. He is correctly credited with helping Wisconsin become more democratic (small d) and with winning victories of Democrats (big D).
Both Ken and Ben live by values that used to be more prevalent across the country and still remain part of life here in the Midwest. They are modest, hardworking, honest, generous, and committed to building community. They are also fearless, and ready to stand up to the depravity and diffidence that now characterizes Washington.
Ben Wikler (left) and Ken Martin
None of this is to say that I am glad they are in the running for DNC Chair. I have seen DNC Chairs get undermined in countless ways every day. The DNC itself is an idea in need of reform. Whether that can come from inside the organization is a tough question. I had rather Ben stay in Wisconsin and step up to run for governor when Tony Evers’ term ends. I had rather Ken train a new generation of party leaders and someday join the US Senate from Minnesota where he might be as effective as Lyndon Johnson in organizing Democrats to get things done. Nevertheless, they are American heroes. Now, and in the coming months we need them.
Our democratic institutions and our pluralistic culture are still strong. Despite the stated wishes of Mr. Trump’s nominees- people who have real power over law enforcement, reformers in our country are not killed or exiled. But our institutions have been weakened. And the powerful amongst us have been emboldened to take even more. Our politics have been so corrupted by money that ordinary people cannot hear the truth so thoroughly drowned out as it is by the amplified sound of lies.
We are living in a dangerous time. Fortunately, we have folks like Ben and Ken to help us get through them.