An Afternoon at “The Shack”. Here's to Better Days

I had to laugh at the insipid remarks of a person who called herself Lacey (but we know who she is) who left a comment on a FortBendNow Op/Analysis piece by Bob Dunn. Lacey likened the Fort Bend Democrats, and the Bankston family, to a “pack of locusts” that “reek (sic) havoc on the official party”. I’m not going to answer back here because my friend Farhan Shamsi did it so ably in the comment that immediately followed Lacey’s.

I just wanted to let you know that “The Shack” has been packed up and is currently being stored in a 10 X 10 for the next time. “The Shack,” by the way was equipped with 21st century technology, 21st century software, and 21st century volunteers; 21st century volunteers ranging in age between 16 and 80.

We spent the afternoon loading truckload after truckload of this equipment and furniture. It was backbreaking work but we did it willingly and with the esprit de corps that always exists between us. On breaks we crunched the numbers again and again. The outlook? There is blue in the distant horizon. I am uncharacteristically optimistic, despite the “havoc” that we wreaked on the Democratic Party.

What havoc was wreaked? The Democratic Party put up more candidates for local office than had been for as long as anyone can remember. Credible candidates who ran credible campaigns. The Fort Bend Democrats provided funding and a headquarters to for these candidates to run their campaigns.

Did they win?

No.

Here in Red Texas, it isn’t about what your qualifications are, or about how poorly your incumbent opponent runs things, it’s about which party you are affiliated with. The numbers in Fort Bend County aren’t yet right. But the operative word is “yet”. This election, as it turns out, was a dip of the toe in the water. The numbers show a trend that, should it continue, portends a shift in the local political landscape very soon now.

So as we locusts burrow deep for our 2 year slumber (remember, FB Democrats, the club meets this Saturday), we can’t celebrate local victory with our Democratic brothers and sisters in other states. But we can bask in the sun with our fellow Democrats as we watch the coming of better days.