For years organized labor has been the heart and soul of the
Michigan Democratic Party. Now a prominent player who has benefited
from that power, is suggesting labor needs to move over.
Lt. Gov. John Cherry has surveyed the damage his party suffered on
November 2 and has come to the conclusion that now is the time for the
state party to bring in more professions and to broaden its
geographical appeal.
"For years the party was based in South East, Michigan," he notes
and things have changed and the party needs to change, too.
If labor is forced to give up part of it's power, Cherry argues
that would be "healthy for labor and healthy for the party."
Not sure how the good folks at Solidarity House feel about
relinquishing their hard fought place at the top of the Democratic food
chain. Usually the powerful are not eager to share.
But share it must, if Mr. Cherry is correct.
The Flint Democrat points to the President who reinvented the
national Democratic Party in 2008 by attracting more young voters, more
Hispanics and more independents to go along with the labor base of the
party.
But in 2010, when Barack Obama saw the coalition crumbling before
his very eyes, he could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.
Mr. Cherry figures if Michigan Democrats also fail, the
Republicans could continue to control everything for a long time to
come.
Some of the current frustration is being taken out on the current
Democratic Party chair Mark Brewer. He was at the helm when the GOP
tide swamped Brewer and friends.
Cherry did not call for a new chair, but he says he wants to see
someone who understands that the party needs to be reconstructed from
the ground up with labor at the table, but not controlling every other
seat at the feast.