The Many Ideas of Winston Apple (Part 3/3)

August 2019-November 2024

This is part 3 of a three -part article. Part 1 can be found here, while part 2 can be found here.

Apple never explained exactly what went down, though we can get an idea from someone who was live-tweeting the meeting:

There was also a controversy over the DNC chair appointing additional members to the DNC. Apple contended that this action violated party bylaws.

Apple did not take this well:

THIS IS WHAT AUTOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

Twice now, in October of 2017 and at the recent Summer 2019 meeting, I have challenged this violation of our Bylaws and lost the battle. We have not, however, lost the war. The struggle for genuine democracy goes on and on. Stay tuned…

Despite Apple’s frustrations, he did manage to pass two of his resolutions: the tax reform one and the one that directed DNC staff to compile reports on legislation related to the Democratic Party platform (and called on Democrats to support hypothetical ballot measures suspiciously similar to his own). However, the rest of Apple’s resolutions met a grim fate. His ranked-choice voting resolution was voted down unanimously by a DNC committee, and he provided a bitter account of the lifecycle of his resolution to reform Democratic presidential debates:

As both a DNC member and a concerned citizen, I feel obligated to watch the Democratic presidential debates. As a person who lives by the adage “Don’t waste time, it’s the stuff life is made of” I feel guilty spending time watching the “made for TV” events that are being advertised as “debates.” With each passing debate, guilt has intruded on my sense of obligation and I have watched less and less of each full debate.

These “debates” are being sponsored by “the DNC.” According to the charter and bylaws of the Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee consists of 459 members who are elected in various ways. In practice, every four years those elected members elect a Party Chair and the Party Chair hires/appoints/assembles DNC staff, who proceed to run the “DNC” with no input at all from the elected members (with the exception of a favored few who are close to the chair).

Ahead of the DNC meeting at the end of August I submitted a resolution calling for some substantive changes to the format of the debates…I was contacted by DNC staff who encouraged me to withdraw the resolution. I politely refused. In the process of negotiating a few changes to the resolution, the staff members patiently explained that the format had been carefully negotiated with our “media partners” and there was really no room for further negotiation. I disagree.

The Resolutions Committee met at 8 a.m. on the first day of our three days of meetings (August 22-24). They did not even discuss my resolution. (They did so in a manner that violates the spirit, if not the letter, of our bylaws.

Over the course of the next two days I managed to share my proposed changes to the debate format with five of our presidential candidates…they all indicated strong support. Senator Klobuchar was particularly enthusiastic. She gave me a spontaneous hug, saying “please make that happen.” I was unable to do so.

When I attempted to introduce my proposal in the form of a motion during the General Meeting, the Party Chair and Parliamentarian managed to derail the motion without discussion or a vote. Both the spirit and the letter of [party bylaws] were violated in the process. So…

We are left with this vacuous waste of valuable airtime. We are left with moderators doling out time in a manner that is inherently condescending and disrespectful to all of our candidates and extremely unfair to the candidates who make the stage but are largely ignored. We are left to look on helplessly as our candidates are encouraged to attack one another.

This is no way to run a political party, a debate, or an election.

Apple never said whether he thought any specific candidate was being shafted in the debates, though he vocally supported Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, which brought him into conflict with the Democratic establishment. After the March 17, 2020 presidential primaries, The New York Times ran an article titled “Bernie Sanders Has No Realistic Chance to Win. Some Democrats Say, ‘It’s Over.’”; this article included a brief quote from Apple making it clear he believed the opposite:

“Bernie is not running a campaign so much as leading a movement,” said Winston Apple, a D.N.C. member from Missouri who supports Mr. Sanders. “He will be a more effective leader for our movement if he remains in contention throughout the process.”

Apple was now staking his hopes on the progressive movement behind Sanders; the very same movement that had swept Apple into office in 2016. His individual pursuits at the DNC had largely been fruitless, but perhaps it would be different it he was acting as part of a larger group. Apple posted his full interview with the Times on Facebook, giving much more insight into his view on the state of the race:

New York Times: Given the delegate count, tonight’s results and the coronavirus concerns, is it time for Bernie Sanders to end his campaign? If Mr. Sanders stays in the race, would it weaken Joe Biden as a general election nominee?

Winston Apple: I am long time baseball fan in a city with a long history of losing teams. My wife and I never leave a game until the final out. I am often disheartened at points during the game when the Royals fall behind. We have gone home disappointed more often than not. We have also thrilled to some dramatic come-from-behind victories, including a couple of walk-off victories that involved a grand-slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

The “bottom of the ninth” will not even technically be over with regard to the contest for our party’s nomination until a candidate is nominated…should events make it clear to the delegates that Bernie is a better choice, even those delegates being elected as Biden delegates would be free to vote for whomever their conscience tells them is the best candidate at the time their vote is cast.

So, no. It is not time for Bernie to end his campaign.

All that being said, I do hope that both candidates will do a better job of focusing on the issues instead of attacking one another.

New York Times: Do you have any concerns about Mr. Biden’s ability to handle the cascading issues facing the country right now? Is he the strongest Democrat to lead the country out of the economic and public health calamities that Americans now face?

Winston Apple: I do not have any concerns about Mr. Biden’s ability to “handle” the cascading issues facing the country right now. But no, he is not the strongest Democrat to lead us out of the economic and public health care calamities we now face. That would be the candidate most likely to take advantage of the opportunity to come out of this dangerous period with a stronger and more just economy…and that would be Bernie Sanders.

Let me close by asking the two of you a few questions.

FDR called upon Congress to enact the legislation needed to put an economic bill of rights in place. We have been waiting 76 years for Congress to do that. Is it time for us to give up on getting a federal job guarantee or health care as a right? Is it time for us to give up on putting a high-quality public education system in place? Is it time for us to give up on improving and expanding Social Security so that every retiree can live in dignity?

I know not what answer other may give, but as for me, I will go on fighting until we elect a Congress that will fulfill their responsibility to “promote the general welfare” by enacting the legislation FDR called for 76 years ago. I imagine Bernie will go on fighting as well.

It’s the bottom of the ninth, there are two outs, for the sake of future generations, let’s hope Mighty Bernie does not strike out.

Sincerely,

Winston Apple

About two weeks after this interview, Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race.

Apple’s other projects weren’t going any better. He was so disengaged with the Missouri Democratic State Committee that he wasn’t even posting about it anymore (at some point, he changed the name of his Facebook page from “Inside the DNC and DSC with Winston Apple” to just “Inside the DNC with Winston Apple”). The minutes from a November 2019 meeting of the Democratic State Committee are available online, showing that Apple made another attempt to pass a resolution dedicating party resources to his ballot measures. Let’s see how that went:

Gray reads the resolution to officially support certain ballot initiatives in the 2020 election (needs clarification)…Winston Apple, author of the resolution, speaks on the resolution. Apple mentions that this resolution was unanimously approved by a DNC committee. Argues the importance of this resolution in showing action on platform planks. Apple speaks on importance of moving toward universal health care, and electoral reform in the form of ranked-choice voting

The author receives a question about whether the official language of his resolution has been approved by the Secretary of State. It has not. Author is asked for a response to concerns that this resolution would negatively impact the election of minority folks. Author answers that if folks vote in blocks they will be fairly represented…Mary Elizabeth Dorsey is opposed to the resolution and states that her opposition is rooted in her understanding of the purpose of the [Missouri Democratic Party], which is to elect Democrats. States her belief that it is inappropriate to take this position as a party since members are already free to volunteer for these initiatives.

Gray closes questions. The motion is defeated.

So, more of the same. With nobody to help collect signatures for Apple’s ballot measures, all of them failed to made the ballot, marking three straight cycles where all of Apple’s initiatives failed before they even reached voters. Despondent and defeated on all fronts, Apple announced in June 2020 that he would not run for re-election to the Democratic National Committee, nor did he seek another term on the Missouri Democratic State Committee. Apple instead supported a new slate of 3 progressive DNC candidates, including future congresswoman Cori Bush; this slate ended up winning.

Winston Apple’s time in internal Democratic Party office is a story of expectations blunted by reality. Back in June 2016, shortly before his election to the DNC, he had said he was “taking a more direct route” to changing the world, but the route he chose proved to be anything from direct. Apple thought that getting involved in politics would allow him to enact his grand plan to save the country, but instead he became acquainted with a system where fast, big changes are nearly impossible to pull off. If Apple got involved in politics and ran for the state legislature in his youth, he might have been able to pull off one his goals eventually; he certainly wasn’t going to reshape the political landscape in a few years as a side project in his retirement.

But Apple wasn’t quite done yet. There was still one event left in his term on the DNC: the 2020 Democratic National Convention in August, where all DNC members would serve as superdelegates. And as Apple made clear in his aforementioned New York Times interview, he had big plans for the National Convention:

According to the charter of the Democratic Party, “The National Convention shall be the highest authority of the Democratic Party.” Although the media focuses exclusively on the contest for the nomination, there is other potentially more important business to be conducted at the convention, especially the adoption of a platform.

I am also planning to propose some significant revisions to our Bylaws that would make the DNC a more democratic organization. Those proposed revisions will be voted on by the delegates to the convention.

Apple’s first act as a superdelegate was to cast his vote for the Democratic presidential nominee, allowing him to publicly show his support for Bernie Sanders. However, his disillusionment with the DNC persisted:

I cast my vote for Bernie a few minutes ago. That was the only vote I am likely to cast as a "superdelegate" that will bring me any satisfaction.

The powers that be within the Democratic Party have zero interest in conducting the party's business in an open and democratic manner. Any decisions to be made are made behind closed doors as much as possible. There is no interest in providing time and a forum for ideas or proposals from the delegates.

I have no interest whatsoever in listening to four nights of long-winded speeches filled with platitudes and glittering generalities that are intended to convince voters (and rank and file Democrats) that we are going to solve all of the problems we face as a nation…in reality enough Democrats in Congress and in state legislatures have been lured by the siren songs of corporate interests to prevent us from passing either Medicare for All or a public option, a federal jobs guarantee or even a meaningful jobs program, ranked choice voting, or any other legislation of any consequence.

I voted "no" on the party platform…I will vote "no" on every deal made behind closed doors w/no opportunity for input and against preordained chair and co-chairs. I do not own a rubber stamp. Four nights of speeches does not a convention make.

Winston Apple has officially turned against his beloved party platform.

Despite his frustrations, Apple was intent on making the most out of his last DNC meeting. He cooked up two final resolutions to submit, hoping to entice the DNC to voice its support for a federal job guarantee as well as proportional representation and ranked-choice voting; he also brought back his proposal to use ranked-choice voting for internal DNC elections. However, this last-ditch effort fell short, with a DNC committee rejecting the latter proposal “decisively.” Now at the end of his rope (and his term), Apple closed the book on his time at the DNC:

I am doing what I can to try to make a difference through the convention. I can't say I am experiencing much success. It's seems that…we “superdelegates” don't have any super powers. At least those of us who are not otherwise connected.

If I did get to choose a super power I would choose to have Democrats in Congress unite in support of our platform. I will keep doing what I can to move us in that direction.

Although Apple’s time in office had come to an end, that didn’t mean he wasn’t paying attention to politics. In the wake of the January 6 riot, he called for members of Congress who’d supported overturning the election to be expelled from Congress, and proposed a nationwide referendum on whether this action should be taken. After the war in Ukraine began, Apple proposed a “Peacekeeping Force for Ukraine,” which he thought should be “organized outside of” the United Nations and N.A.T.O. and “without the United States playing a significant role”:

A broad coalition of well-trained and well-armed soldiers from as many countries as possible, wearing uniforms or insignias of some sort that clearly identify them as peacekeepers, and not belligerents, should be organized from within Ukraine. After first serving notice to Russian soldiers, and any volunteers fighting with them, that if they do not leave Ukraine voluntarily and immediately, they will be captured, if possible, and killed, if necessary.

Apple hadn’t given up on passing ballot measures, but he only filed 4 initiatives for the 2022 cycle, an all-time low. At first glance, it would seem like he was just coasting at this point—but looks can be deceiving. Apple had cooked up some truly head-scratching ideas this time around, showing that his passion for electoral reform was still alive and well.

As you’d expect, Apple revived his idea to reimagine elections to the Missouri legislature, an idea that had grown over the years to become more complicated and confusing. To recap, the most recent version from 2020 would: split the state into 8 districts, each of which would elect 20 state representatives via proportional representation; eliminate primary elections and allow anyone who filed to appear on the general election ballot; require voters in each district to select 10 of the possibly dozens of candidates and rank them from 1 to 10; and elect the 34 senators statewide using the same system.

The newest revision, filed February 2021, would fundamentally reshape this system. Proportional representation would be jettisoned; instead, of the 13 highest-placing candidates in each district, the top 3 would become state senators, while the remaining 10 would become state representatives. This would reduce the Missouri House from 163 members to 80 and the Senate from 34 members to 24. In addition, senators would also see their terms reduced from 4 years to 2—thus making the Senate essentially just a smaller version of the House. Truly, Winston Apple’s mind was spiraling out of control.

In April 2021, Apple filed two more election reform initiatives, each making a new proposal. The first would revert back to electing 34 senators statewide and 20 representatives in each of 8 districts (this would make state senate elections a jumbled mess where voters would have to choose 10 candidates out of likely well over 100, and the 34 with the most votes would be elected). In addition to the 20 representatives elected per district, there would also be 3 representatives elected statewide, thus maintaining the current 163-member House.

However, these 3 extra representatives would be elected with a truly bizarre system. A distinction would be made between “in-district votes”—votes received by a candidate in their own district—and “cumulative votes”—the in-district votes plus any write-in votes cast for that candidate in the other 7 districts. In each district, the 20 candidates with the most in-district votes would become state representatives; at this point, of all the candidates in every district who placed outside the top 20, the 3 candidates with the most cumulative votes would also become state representatives.

And that’s not all! This ballot measure would also create a weighted vote system in the legislature, where each legislator’s vote is weighted according to their vote share in the previous election; essentially, if you received more votes than another legislator, your vote in the legislature matters more than theirs. In addition, the initiative would also repeal the rule saying that legislators must resign if they move out of their district. Finally, it stipulates that if Congress ever passes a law allowing states to elect their U.S. Representatives in statewide elections, Missouri must immediately begin exercising this option. And the cherry on top: Apple introduced another, mostly identical initiative on the same day, with one major change: this version would eliminate the Missouri Senate completely!

It had become clear that Winston Apple was down, but definitely not out. His passion for strange electoral reform proposals was very much alive, and nothing made that clear more so than the last of the four ballot measures, which proposed a brand-new idea: legislative proxies. Under this system, each voter would choose one member of the state legislature as their designated representative—thus assigning a “proxy” to that legislator—and each legislator’s vote would be weighted according to the number of people who chose them as their designated representative.

Like with Apple’s other proposals, he was debuting legislative proxies in Missouri, but intended to bring them to the rest of the country. In a long-winded essay on the Government By the People website, in which he calls legislative proxies “an elegantly simple, yet incredibly powerful, reform,” Apple makes it clear that he hopes to institute the system in Congress. He also list numerous benefits that he claims the system will bring, including mitigating the effects of gerrymandering, making the government more responsive to voters, and reducing the impact of money on elections.

In addition to the ones he introduced, Apple was also supporting another ballot measure; in 2022, Missouri voters were asked whether to call a constitutional convention, due to a state law requiring the question to be asked every 20 years. In an essay posted on his website, Apple voiced his support for the state holding a constitutional convention, seeing it as an opportunity for voters to directly amend the constitution without interference from legislators (and an opportunity to “put a system of proxies for citizens in place”). He acknowledged that a constitutional convention could result in right-wing policies being enacted, but said he wasn’t too worried about this possibility. Why?

The idea of proxies for citizens will be supported by many Republicans; and by a great many members of the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and other minor parties; and by independent voters.

Despite this support, the legislative proxies initiative failed to make the 2022 ballot, as did Apple’s other ballot measures. Meanwhile, the constitutional convention ballot measure failed by a 68 to 32 margin.

And that, at long last, brings us to the most recent election cycle. After only introducing four ballot measures for the 2022 cycle, Apple came roaring back by filing no less than 18 initiatives for 2024. Most of them are reruns, though with a few new ideas sprinkled in, like letting voters sign initiative petitions online and allowing the legislature to override gubernatorial vetoes with a simple majority rather than a two-thirds majority.

Apple also took his proxy idea to the next level, introducing an initiative that would abolish elections and instead fill seats in the legislature based on who has the most proxies assigned to them in a certain district. This proposal is…questionable. For one, because each voter can give their proxy to any candidate in the entire state, the majority of proxies would flood to a handful of districts with high-profile candidates, while numerous other districts would have their representative chosen by only a small handful of votes. Additionally, this initiative would maintain the current 197-member state legislature, meaning that each voter would have to choose among hundreds, if not thousands of candidates.

This wasn’t his only radical new idea. Apple introduced another initiative that would eliminate statewide elections in Missouri and provide that all statewide elected officials (“governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general and auditor,” though not U.S. Senators) be elected by the state legislature. This initiative would also provide that the legislature could vote to remove any of these officials at any point, and—of course—that these elections would be conducted with ranked-choice voting.

At this point, it probably goes without saying that Apple likely knew these initiatives wouldn’t make the ballot—though, after his many years of failure, he had a plan. One of his initiatives would lower the bar to place an initiative on the ballot; instead of needing over 170,000 signatures from voters, he would only need one-third of the members of either the state House or state Senate to sign his petition. Democrats have less than one-third of the seats in both chambers, but this change would still make things significantly easier for Apple—though, given his track record on the Missouri Democratic State Committee, getting Democratic legislators to support his ballot initiatives could be a challenge.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the fate of these ballot measures.

In fact, Apple’s latest round of ballot measures shines a light on his increasing disillusionment with the Democratic Party. Not only was he pitching ranked-choice voting as a way to hold both major parties more accountable, but two of his initiatives called to remove party labels from the ballot altogether. And in the leadup to Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, Apple was one of those calling for DNC delegates to choose a different nominee, though he characteristically backed up this position with a complicated argument centered around the party bylaws.

Apple was also embracing the role most commonly held by politically-involved retirees: person who shows up at lots of public meetings. He registered his support for a bill to reduce the size of the Missouri House, and opposed others that would have increased the signature requirements for ballot measures and required that ballot measures be pre-approved by the state legislature. When the legislature considered a bill to relax Missouri’s term limits law, Apple showed up in support, quoting Aristotle and remarking:

I also believe that the repeal of term limits should be accomplished by the people of Missouri through the initiative process. Which is one more reason I support making the initiative process easier rather than harder.

But although Apple is clearly more independent-minded at this point, that doesn’t mean he’s drifting to the right. In fact, there’s one more pet issue that he’s picked up as of late: preserving the right to gender-affirming care for minors. He introduced a ballot measure to preserve that right in the state constitution, as well as the right to same-sex marriage. When Republican state Rep. Brad Hudson introduced a bill to ban gender-affirming care for minors, Apple gave an emotional testimony opposing it:

Winston Apple testified that he watched his grandson struggle, getting poor grades and suffering with depression until transitioning.

“Now, representative Hudson wants to keep him safe by taking away his right to continue the treatments that have kept him safe from unhappiness, depression and possibly suicide,” Apple told the committee. “I am here today hoping to keep my grandchild safe from politicians who want to violate his god-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

And that’s it. An entire chronicle of Winston Apple’s activity to the present day—mostly. I couldn’t possibly include every little thing he’s ever done. For example, I didn’t really find a space to mention An Apple A Day - Food for Thought, a Facebook page operated by Apple that posts inspirational quotes. There’s also Edutopia: A Manifesto for the Reform of Public Education, a book he self-published in 2003 that includes proposals to “de-regulate education, removing elements of compulsion, and giving students and parents the freedom to make meaningful choices with regard to the nature of their educational experiences.” If you want to read what bookauthority.org claims is the 6th best-selling education reform book of all time, Apple posted the whole thing for free on his website.

Say what you will about Winston Apple, but he’s clearly a man who gives 100% at everything he does. At every stage of his life, no matter what he was fixated on at the time, he was giving every ounce of effort he had—sometimes to the annoyance of those around him. And though he doesn’t have many concrete accomplishments to his name, he’s certainly made his mark on those around him. His ambition may have been too lofty for his own good, but that’s okay. It’s not a crime to dream big. God bless you, Winston Apple, and may you continue to share your ideas with the world for years to come.