With a newly elected president, the Malibu Democratic Club seeks to get out the vote.
By Lauren Gustus/Special to The Malibu Times
With November elections just around the corner, the Malibu Democratic Club hopes to regenerate itself and increase its membership so it can be an effective player in races statewide.
And newly elected president Ralph Erickson is at the forefront, ready to battle the club’s (and nationwide, Democrats’) eternal nemesis-the Republican Party.
Erickson, a retired judge, was elected to the presidency of the Malibu Democratic Club in February, after the group had been almost dormant for a year due to a leadership crisis. His primary goal is to educate the local public so it will be more inclined to actively participate in its own government.
“There is a problem of people being aware of how government functions and being aware of how government acts,” Erickson said.
Erickson kicked off the group’s latest evening meeting by questioning the motives of President George W. Bush, who on Earth Day was photographed in the New York Times with an ax over his shoulder.
The political rhetoric for the remainder of the evening was no less biting, as close to 40 local Democrats gathered to listen to guest speaker and professor of law at Loyola Marymount University Laurie Levinson, and to discuss issues facing their party at all levels.
Of particular interest to the group, and the subject on which Levinson spoke, was school vouchers. The issue of vouchers, which are awarded by the government to help families pay for private-usually religious-school tuition, could be decided very soon.
“The Supreme Court will vote vouchers constitutional before the end of June,” Levinson predicted.
Erickson, in true democratic fashion, questioned how anyone could read into the Constitution a willingness to provide taxpayer funds for religious education.
Although Erickson alludes to his succession to the presidency of the club as a sort of default process, he has ample experience to handle the task. His broad understanding of the government comes from 41 years of employment with the federal government, first as a prosecutor and then as an administrative law judge. Born in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin he received a law degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and made his way to California in 1978. He has also served on the Proposition X Oversight Committee, which monitor funds available for new construction at local schools for the past one and a half years.
“I saw the good side of government being a prosecutor and the bad side being a judge,” said Erickson.
As chief of the SEC’s prosecution unit, he often fought against top lawyers in mining, auto, oil and gas.
Getting the vote out
The general consensus of the club, which is echoed nationwide, is that apathy toward politics means voters are not getting out to the polls during elections. The Malibu Democratic Club, in part, attributes this to the loss of civil liberties they say the Bush administration facilitated when it passed the Patriotism Act post-Sept. 11.
According to the act, citizens can now be searched without a warrant regardless of suspected connections to terrorism, cell phones can be unknowingly tapped and the government can determine what books you are taking out of the library if it wishes to do so.
These infringements, which cut down the perception of personal freedom, contribute to a feeling that the individual is perhaps not as valued as was previously considered.
In response, the club is attempting to re-ignite grassroots democracy at the local level. The club is holding information meetings with guest speakers to discuss pertinent issues and it is active in the campaigns of several school board members. On June 16, the group will host the district’s representative, Henry Waxman.
“Because of the election we really want to get lots of enthusiasm and a good turnout,” said Dorothy Green, wife of club secretary Chuck Green.
The club is chartered in Los Angeles County, and as low-man on the totem pole in California’s political system, pledges all of its support to all candidates nominated by the California Democratic Party at its convention.
According to Erickson, various members of the Malibu Democratic Club have served as delegates to state conventions in the past.
Although Erickson says that, “Democrats are disappointed with [Gov. Gray] Davis because some of the positions he’s taken haven’t been strong democratic positions,” the governor will have the club’s support as he faces off against Rep. Bill Simon in the upcoming election.
“It seems like the public has given up on everything (except for being afraid of terrorists) and it could effect the future of our country if we don’t start to act locally,” Erickson said.