When The Phone Don't Ring, It'll Be Me

That's the clever title of an old George Jones country song.  But I'm updating the title to this:

"When the Phone Don't Ring, It'll Be the Democrats."  Let me explain.

Last week, I received an email with a "special, personal invitation" from Sen. Sherrod Brown to join him on a conference call with supporters to do a post mortem on the election and to share ideas on the path forward.  (Although I'm acquainted with Sherrod a little bit, the invitation was neither special nor personal.  I just happen to be on a list.)

I replied and said I'd be part of the call, which would begin at 5:30 on Tuesday (yesterday).  All I had to do was enter my phone number and a staffer would call me at that time, then I could listen in and maybe even chime in with my two cents worth, to wit:

"From now on, Democrats must not give an inch.  We'll need to fight like hell to protect Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, voting rights, human rights, labor rights, the EPA, et al.  Senate Democrats must stand as a firewall against any regressive legislation and any turn-the-clock-back Cabinet and Supreme Court nominations.  Give the R's a big taste of their own hyper-partisan obstructionist medicine.  We need progressive politicians and public figures to continue to campaign against Trump as if the election never happened.  We must continue to speak out and demonstrate and protest against all his bigotry and hate and BS."

"Hello, Buster?  Are you on the call?  Is Buster Gammons
out there somewhere?  Hello?  No Buster?  Oh well."

Yessir, that's what I was going to say but I didn't get a chance because the phone didn't ring.  At all.  Nobody called at 5:30.  Nobody called all night.  I just sat there.  And the "special" invitation had no way to call them.  So . . .  pfft!

Was the conference call cancelled or rescheduled?  Or did they just not call me?  Who knows?  But it struck me as typical of Democratic politics -- really good ideas hampered by disorganization and lack of follow-through.

We gonna need to do better than that.