Oregon GOP Takes Dems off Crime List

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Thomas Gangale

A few years ago, I remarked to a friend. "Blogs are the graffiti on the underpasses of the information superhighway." Today, I publicly repent my error. I was wrong. The past week has taught me the power of the blogforce. I hope this story illustrates that it is imperative that all of the resources of the Internet remain equally accessible to all.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to considering how to improve the California Democratic Party. I had just read a discussion on the Yahoo group of the party's Progressive Caucus in the aftermath of the Feinstein censure resolution having been blocked from being considered at the party's recent Executive Board meeting in Anaheim. Some participants in the discussion questioned whether is was desirable to have the party chair appoint all members to the standing committees, and one person mentioned that the bylaws of the Oregon Democratic Party provide for some standing committee members to be elected by the body.

I thought I'd check it out for myself. On 25 November I did a Google search for the Oregon Democratic Party bylaws. Interestingly, the seventh hit on the list was the platform of the Oregon Republican Party. I don't know why this caught my eye, but it did. I was curious why I discovered the Oregon Democratic Party should be mentioned in the Oregon GOP platform. I discovered in Section 7 of the platform, "Crimes and Justice:"

"Inter-jurisdictional agency cooperation shall be improved for more effective joint action against organized crime, drug cartels, terrorist networks and the Oregon Democratic Party."

I had to read it several times before I believed it. Here was the official policy document of the Oregon the Republican Party equating the Democratic Party with organized crime, drug cartels, and terrorist networks, and openly advocating the use of the police powers of the state against its political rivals. It wasn't just hateful. It wasn't just stupid. It was so stupidly hateful that it was chilling, like a kristallnacht in November nearly 70 years ago.

I sent out a message to my email list calling attention to this outrage. A few hours later, I send an opinion-editorial to Randy Bayne, which he posted.