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State Democratic Party chair speaks in Nevada
Thursday evening, some 20 people of the Vernon County Democratic Party gathered at the community room of the Moore-Few Care Center to hear Stephen Webber, the chair of the Missouri Democratic Party.
From the time of its founding in 1855, Vernon County voted solidly Democratic in national contests through the 1948 election of Harry Truman but only four times since. The switch to the Republican party on the local level is more recent. Yet even when this county was solidly Democratic, statewide candidates did not often campaign here figuring there was little need.
Webber’s attendance was somewhat last minute and hence notice of his coming was as well. Yet the reaction of Phyllis Sprenkle, county party secretary summed up the mood of many when she said, “The chair of any state party does not often come to Nevada and so to have Stephen Webber here means so much.”
County party chair, Paul Sprenkle added, “Did you notice how old he is? 34. I think that says a lot for the party and its future.”
Webber spoke on what it means to be a Democrat, addressed four policy issues and provided a three point plan for going forward.
“Just like Republicans, there’s a range of views on certain issues within the Democratic Party and yet I am telling you there is a common thread which runs through our party,” began Webber as he addressed his first point.
Webber said he saw it in one of the many sayings etched on the walls of the state capital building. Quoting a portion of one by Robert Browning, “Progress is The Law of Life,” Webber said the concept of progress is what unites and defines members of the Democratic Party.
Webber contrasted this with Republicans who, in his words, believe, “Today is OK, yesterday was better and the past was best.”
Using healthcare as an example issue, Webber said, “Democrats vary as to what our ideal healthcare system would look like but every Democrat I’ve ever met believes that when you pass a healthcare bill the end result ought to be more people ought to be covered rather than less.”
The former U.S. Marine, Iraq War veteran and four term state representative from the 46th district, based in Columbia, said, “Actually, progress is not a law of life, gravity is. Progress is not preordained; it is something we must fight for and work hard to achieve. This happens as we try to improve things for ordinary people and not just caring about the wealthy or protecting the interests of big business.”
Referencing the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v Federal Election Commission the state’s leading Democrat said, “While that decision was about spending limits in federal elections, what that really did was say corporations are equal to people. And having spent eight years in Jefferson City, I can tell you, there are far more lobbyists than representatives and senators. Corporations are represented way better than the people are. As members of the Democratic Party, we think that’s just wrong.”
As to policy issues, Webber spoke briefly about education, healthcare, infrastructure and agriculture.
“While I applaud the legislature for its level of school funding for the coming year, let me tell you, it’s not 100 percent of the foundation formula, it’s actually closer to 80 percent but by accounting tricks, they make it sound like it’s full funding,” began Webber.
Focusing on school choice, the state party leader said funding vouchers and charter schools hurts public schools.
“Everyone thinks this most hurts the big school districts such as St. Louis and Kansas City but that’s not true,” said Webber. “Small rural districts don’t have room in their budgets for cuts. So taking funds from public schools and giving them to private ones, hurts small rural districts the most.”
With a sly smile, Webber moved on to health care and said, “It’s easy to throw stones if you don’t have to govern.”
He spoke of Republicans bashing Democrats for not using an open system to create a bi-partisan health care plan but then asked what have Republicans done.
Said Webber, “They’ve written several plans, all behind closed doors, which, in the end, their own party can’t support. That’s failing to do what they’re elected to do, and that’s to govern.”
Moving on, the state chair spoke of the President’s trillion dollar infrastructure plan.
“It’s not actually spending a trillion dollars but instead, it’s a trillion dollars of tax cuts for businesses to encourage them to build highways and bridges,” said Webber.
Webber said the way businesses would make money under such a “scheme” would be to charge tolls on each of them.
Then he asked his audience, “If you were a business, would you build a toll road in a big city or in a rural area.”
Several called out, “Big city.”
“Right, because more traffic means more profit, which means most roads and bridges would not be built in rural areas,” said Webber.
The state chair said agriculture is the backbone of Missouri and Vernon County. He spoke of how commodity prices are dependent on foreign sales which means we must watch foreign relations.
“Brazil is building its corn crop and would be glad to replace us,” said Webber.
With the Democratic Party having only one state wide office holder — Auditor Nicole Galloway — local party members wanted to know what was going to be done to turn around the party’s fortunes.
“To do this (elect more Democrats), we need to recruit and train good candidates for every seat, defend Democratic values and seats and we need to rebuild our infrastructure from the ground up,” said Webber.
In a brief interview which followed his presentation, the party leader was asked to name his party’s greatest challenges and opportunities. He reiterated the need to recruit good candidates for every race, fundraising and the failure of Republicans to do little outside of executive orders.
Said Webber, “People vote Democratic when our candidates get out our message loud and clear. It’s my aim to do that again.”