Back in the summer of 2015, Progressive Democrats (including followers of Bernie Sanders) began a movement to create a statewide progressive movement within the NCDP - including a seat on the State Executive Council. We initially proposed to call ourselves the NORTH CAROLINA PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS. And we invited all progressive and fair-minded North Carolina Democrats to join us in creating that g
roup. If we wanted to take back our local, state and federal governments from the Republicans, we would need all hands working together. We held an initial statewide meeting of 40 progressive Democrats in September 2016 at the NCDP State Executive Committee meeting in Rolesville. At that meeting, the decision was made to call ourselves the PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS OF THE NCDP. We elected interim officers and charged them with instructions to write bylaws, create individual and chapter membership procedures, create procedures for handling grievances, create communications and outreach efforts, fundraise and create a treasury. We held another meeting of the general membership the first Sunday after the November 2016 General Election - attended by approximately 100 progressive Democrats motivated to take action by the recent election win by Donald Trump and other Republicans. While we got bylaws written which were passed by the SEC in February 2017, action on the rest of the stuff was stalled by several other members going AWOL - just not showing up to do the work, and not taking the time to resign so we could elect their replacements in a timely manner. When one AWOL member finally resigned in March or April 2017, members tried to replace him but that replacement went AWOL as well. Instead of going to the progressive community for help, some of the interim officers mistakenly placed their trust in fauxgressive Dems and others who had either not worked to help us get started or who in fact had been aggressively working against progressive Democratic values of an more open and transparent party. Interim officers voted unanimously to grandfather in the Wake County Progressive Democrats as the first county chapter of the PCNCDP on May 26, 2017. They placed an announcement of the same on the PCNCDP website on or about June 11, 2017. Interim President David Nelson came to the Wake Progressive's June potluck on 6/21 to make the formal announcement. All throughout the summer of 2017, the Wake County Progressives were the first county chapter of the PCNCDP, with several officers of the Wake County Progressive Democrats helping to guide the statewide caucus through the first very awkward months of trying to build both individual and chapter memberships with a website that didn't always work the way it should have worked. They wondered wonder why more county chapters haven't formed, and why there are so few people of color and folks from small rural counties and other economically depressed parts of the state that DESPERATELY need the kind of Democratic Party leadership that progressive Democrats can provide. They spent and continue to spend more time building a website instead of a movement. Another big part of the problem was interim and later permanent statewide caucus officers who were very inexperienced in Democratic Party procedures at the state level. They also used very poor judgement in bringing others in to advise and work with them. Wake Chapter President Chris Telesca welcomed members to the statewide caucus meeting held in Raleigh in late August 2017. At that meeting, caucus members ratified the bylaws approved by the SEC in February, and elected permanent officers to fill out the remainder of the 2-year terms. Other committee position elections were held, and people volunteered to work on other committees. And that is where the real trouble began. We now have fauxgressives and non-Democrats within the leadership of the PCNCDP, and they've led the board to make some very bad choices. And one of the PCNCDP state executive committee members is actively working on policies with his fauxgressive elitist insider Democratic friends to remove the PCNCDP from the State Executive Council. In the two months following the late August meeting, it appears that one of the fauxgressive minions of the elitist establishment conservaDems began working to remove the Wake County Progressive Democrats as the official chapter from Wake County. Without any procedural due process (no grievance petition filed, no Judicial Board hearing or decision, and no vote of the PCNCPD Executive Committee), President David Nelson began pretending that Wake County had never been organized in the first place. Then he violated state caucus procedures to appoint a second "Organizer" (for the already organized county chapter) when the procedures allow for only ONE organizer per county. He also claimed that Wake was a contested county chapter which required more than one progressive group recognized by the Wake County Democratic Party when the Wake County Progressive Democrats were the one and only progressive group recognized by the Wake County Democratic Party. Progressive Democrats all over the state can learn what's going on so they can come together and take back our new statewide progressive caucus from the folks who are supposed to be our leaders, but who have used TERRIBLE judgement by sucking up to party leadership instead of reaching out to the progressive base. We are all in this together - and together is the only way we can take back our progressive caucus to take back our party and then our government! If you have any questions and/or want to help us get organized, please message us here, or e-mail us at [email protected]
