The recent party-switching games being played in the state Legislature call into question the whole idea of party affiliation. What’s it mean to be a Democrat? Do you join the party in order to be a Democrat or do you suffer the party to join you?

In November, Rep. Joanne Twomey left the Democratic Party because “I thought that if I unenrolled, I’d get this party’s attention… I didn’t feel like I belonged.” Then, Dec. 30, Rep. Barbara Merrill of Appleton quit the party for essentially the same reasons. Suddenly, Rep. Twomey saw that her protest resignation was having some really bad consequences and she came back to the party on Jan. 4 in order to maintain the Democratic control of the Legislature.

What all this political posturing fails to acknowledge is the fact that political parties are made by the people who inhabit them – they don’t exist outside of us.

When a Democrat decides he or she has just had enough of the hypocrisy of the party after it caves into special interest power, or panders to that mythical “middle” out of fear of seeming too radical, or exhibits cowardice in the face of conservative intimidation, that Demo-crat is doing one of two things:

A. Using the situation to get some publicity as a “maverick” politician with principles so pure, they cannot be compromised by contact with an imperfect organization.

B. Giving up on the party out of disgust.

Those of us who are actively involved in Democratic politics feel betrayed either way.

There has been a sea change in Democratic politics over the last three years. I’ve personally witnessed this change in Maine and have heard about it happening all over the country. It began with a speech by Howard Dean to the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting on Feb. 21, 2003. He spoke for all liberals who had been simply shaking their heads in disgust at a Democratic Congress that, at the time, was falling all over itself to say “me too, me too” as the Republicans all got in line to follow Bush off to Iraq.

He said things like, “What I want to know … is why in the world the Democratic Party leadership is supporting the president’s unilateral attack on Iraq?” It sounds pretty sensible now, given what has happened, but it was “radical” at the time.

The party establishment managed to sink Dean’s campaign. It was no coincidence that, in the first Democratic debate, most of the other candidates attacked Dean, not each other. The fix was in and Howard Dean went down. (No, it wasn’t the scream. The scream proved Dean was real. John Kerry lost because people sensed he was not real. They were right.)

After he lost the nomination, Dean did the thing no other defeated nominee cared to do. He turned his energy to the task of rebuilding the party. He’s still at it.

He visited Maine Democrats last October to speak at the 2005 Maine Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Lewiston. As always, he gave a rousing speech with a simple purpose: to make us believe we can make the Democratic Party be a party of integrity, hope and public service. He urged us Demo-crats to run for local office, to be Democrats by profession as well as in name. If we didn’t want to hold office, he charged us to actively support our local candidates.

That is what it means to be in the Democratic Party. You get in and you fight to make it the best it can be. The Democratic Party will either become that party of change and hope, or it will wither. Both paths are equally possible and the outcome is unknown.

One thing is certain: quitting and going home angry will not accomplish anything.

Tim Copeland of Biddeford is a retired Air Force pilot and a member of the York County Democratic Party. He attended the 2004 Maine Democratic Convention as a delegate for Howard Dean.