The Missouri Democratic Party is holding its quarterly meeting on January 30. I wish I could invite you to it, but the Party is closing the meeting to the public.
I strongly oppose this lack of transparency, and I am exploring every avenue to fight back.
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I strongly oppose this lack of transparency, and I am exploring every avenue to fight back.
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I've been to every meeting since 2016, even those that required me to be on the road at 5 AM so I could make it for an hour and then get back on the campaign trail to ask my fellow Missourians to vote for Democrats. This will be the first one I miss; I'm not allowed to come.
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My position - and I believe the position of many of you - has been very clear: We need more, not less, transparency, in our government.
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That is especially true for the Missouri Democratic Party, an organization that has a poor reputation in many parts of our state, primarily, as I learned, because people are unfamiliar with what it stands for. At least, that's what I used to be able to say.
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I learned about this closed meeting while I was preparing to protect government transparency at the Missouri Supreme Court. I thought the Missouri Democratic Party supported that given how quickly the Party capitalized off of my work, often without attribution.
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Whether the Party does or does not support transparency, I know a whole lot of people in our state who do. I know a whole lot of Party members and leaders who do and are likely as pissed off as I am right now.
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And now I find myself looking at Missouri's Sunshine Law to see if there is any avenue to require the Party to act as it says. If I do discover a way, and the Party continues to reject public participation and transparency, I will not hesitate to enforce the law.
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I'm not alone in saying something. Folks are speaking out not because we hate the Party. It's because we know it needs to be better.
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We understand that working Missourians have little representation in our government right now, and we have seen the consequences of this Party's failures and the utter lack of balance we have in our state government.
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We have lost the opportunity to put wonderful candidates in positions of leadership. We've lost protections on the job. We've lost parents to our broken health care system. We've lost children to increasing violence.
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But still, despite all of it, despite how in the last several years the Party has often not been there when it needed to be, so many of us are still here and willing to get to work.
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So many folks holding Democratic meetings throughout Missouri every month. So many people serving our state, many I just saw collecting food for those in need. Why are we excluding them?
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I have faith that many members of the Party leadership disagree with this decision. I urge you to stand up for those of us who will not have a voice tomorrow. I also urge the Party caucuses to hold public meetings and encourage participation.
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And I urge each and every one of you to take action. The Party is not one of us. It is supposed to belong to all of us. But its potential will continue to dissipate into nothingness as long as we don't have the courage to stand up when we see something wrong.
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This Party will be nothing without people. It's a shame that some folks still don't understand that. It's up to us to make sure they do.
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The Missouri Democratic Party must be reformed. It must leave its weakness behind to stand with - not just for, but with - those who have been ignored and neglected for far too long in our state.
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It must truly be the Party of working people, of transparency, and participation, of Democracy. We can't just talk about it. We have to be about it. Or no one will be about us.
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It breaks my heart thinking of all of the people who have worked so hard for so many years just to see this come from the Party. They deserve much better.
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Many months ago, the Missouri Democratic Party Progressive Caucus allowed me to speak for a few minutes as a candidate. A few weeks before, one of my kids I taught was shot and killed in his backyard. He was 7.
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I told the room that it was this Party that needed to be his voice, that we had to be open and organized and powerful for him, for his sisters who will forever feel an emptiness in their heart, for the many loved ones we have lost to the lack of leadership in our state.
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I'm proud the Caucus took a stand today. I encourage you to read their words.
To my friends who can, take a stand tomorrow.
To my friends who cannot, do something anyway.
Missouri needs you.
21/21
To my friends who can, take a stand tomorrow.
To my friends who cannot, do something anyway.
Missouri needs you.
https://twitter.com/DerrickNowlinMO/status/1355156665562226688
21/21
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