BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE
The Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party held its 2016 state convention on June 4 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. I did not attend as a member of the press, but as an alternate, then upgraded to delegate, to Bernie Sanders. As a delegate I could be on the floor when the votes were taken, which the press cannot.
The first PLEO (Party Leaders and Elected Officials) I heard was 4th Congressional District (CD) Congresswoman Betty McCollum. She was a pretty good speaker, but then when I heard the next one, I thought she must have been the warm-up act. Congressman Rick Nolan, representing the 8th CD, absolutely blew away the room. He announced his support for Bernie Sanders, and the roar was deafening. His speech was a masterful, angry, fiery rant you hardly hear these days from mainstream politicians. Lori Swanson, state attorney-general, was up next. I didn’t stay for her whole speech, but she led off with a very nice joke about Republican puppies that turn into Democratic puppies when they open their eyes. This fit in well with the DFL fundraiser: They were selling some great coffee with the brand name “Wake Up, America.”
While I was out in the common area, our CD5 Sanders captain found me with an upgrade. Alas, the floor was frozen. It was already almost 1 p.m., and I could tell that lunch break would be late and short, so I decided to go out and eat. When I came back, I discovered that the vote was the special non-binding resolution to “reform or abolish” the super delegate system. Needless to say, this was sponsored by the Bernie delegation. It passed. When I got into my delegate seat at last, a seat I would remain in for nearly eight hours, the elections for Democratic National Committee were just starting. I began filling in my printed platform amendment ballot and listened to the speeches with one ear. There were four slots open and the Nominations Committee had nominated two of “each gender” and were quite miffed that the body would not just elect them by acclamation. We listened to the speeches, froze the floor and voted, and one of each from the “slate” was elected.
After the DNC elections, a couple more speeches, and a 30-minute break for lunch, we split into two subcaucuses to elect national convention delegates, the main reason most of us were there. Just as in the CD conventions, but worse than ours, because CD5 has many more Sanders supporters, the Clinton-pledged state delegates were much higher in proportion to the number of Clinton delegates they would be electing.
The MN Sanders campaign had built a slate of 10 candidates that they wanted us to vote up or down first, before even choosing a method of voting. The young and starry-eyed Emily Jensen, a top organizer with the campaign and an outstate activist before that, tried to butter us up by saying, “There are more progressives in this room right now than there are in my entire county!” The slate the campaign proposed contained six women and four men. (The pre-existing delegations from the CDs were slightly off to the male side, so to redress the balance both subcaucuses would be electing two additional non-men.)
Summing up the convention, the Star-Tribune chose to go with the theme of divisions simmering, yet being pushed aside, and unity through gritted teeth, all motivated by a huge fear of “President Trump.” My takeaway from the convention was one of hope. How can one not be hopeful, seeing all these millennial activists in their rainbow of identities, working pragmatically and intelligently for their far-from-certain future? “The kids are alright,” that’s the important thing.
