The Ephemeral Party

A while ago, I said that outside of election seasons, the Democratic party effectively ceases to exist.

Jane Hamsher makes a parallel observation:

With everyone enthusiastic about Democratic prospects for 2006 in the wake of last week's elections, I've been reading a lot of comments around the blogosphere by people wanting to know how to get hooked up with local organizations. So I woke up this morning all excited, thinking there would be a ton of organizational information on the web and I would do this great big post about it.

It's really pathetic what's out there. Small wonder the GOP kicks our ass.

Some good suggestions on local organizations in the comments, and some about what the party is doing, but a lot of people are seeing the same thing: no effective permanent local-level organization. As Jane says:

Boy this sure does seem to be a practical and effective way the Dems might be spending some of that cash, no?

Yes indeed.

Update: My friend Deborah has some interesting observations on the subject.