This is an opinion column.

If you want to know how messed up the Alabama Democratic Party has become, consider this: The state party chairman, Randy Kelley, didn’t vote for Kamala Harris when the state delegates held their virtual nomination process a week ago.

He didn’t vote for someone else. He just didn’t vote.

Neither did Alabama Democratic Party boss Joe Reed, who also serves as vice-chair and leads the Alabama Democratic Conference.

Reed and Kelley, longtime allies, were among a handful of delegates who refused to take part out of protest.

But protest of what?

They say racism, but really it’s all about holding on to power. Silly “power” but power, nonetheless.

The Alabama Democratic Party, once the state’s dominant political force, has long been poisoned by internal feuds you might expect of homeowners association squabbles — nasty tyrants fighting over tiny kingdoms. Now, they plan to showcase their petty power struggle at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago, exposing it to the nation.

Sit down, grab and snack. This will require some explaining.

Once upon a time, in 2019, Reed supported Nancy Worley as Alabama Democratic Party chair, a woman so incompetent that she used a party newsletter, sent to party members throughout the state, to tell her harrowing story of getting stuck on the toilet. She also once threatened another party member with a gun, but none of that matters so much anymore, as she’s dead now.

For years, Reed and Worley used their positions to preserve their power. But in 2019, a handful of Alabama Democrats found a way to shake their hold on the state party. The party had only one minority caucus — Black Democrats — with power to appoint at-large members to the state executive committee.

Long ago, however, the Democratic National Committee bylaws said state parties should have caucuses for all kinds of folks — LGBTQ, Latinos and youth, among them — with seats proportionate to the Democrats voting in each state. A handful of Democrats, including but not limited to then-Sen. Doug Jones, persuaded the DNC to make the state party abide by those rules.

The DNC did so. Worley lost (and later died). State Rep. Chris England of Tuscaloosa became the state party chairman for a time.

But Reed, a Montgomery powerbroker for generations, wasn’t done. When party elections rolled around again, he took advantage of a split among his opponents and rallied enough support behind Kelley to install him as party chair.

Kelley and Reed won that fight fair and square and could have presided over a bruised-but-united party.

But no.

Instead, Kelley and Reed repealed the changes mandated by the DNC and refused to seat members on the executive committee they didn’t approve of. Weird things began happening, like votes taken without the necessary quorums, and also, vote counts that were clearly at odds with pictures and videos reporters took of those votes.

Next, the DNC stepped in again, mandating — again — that the state party give young members and the other groups a place on the executive committee. With no other choice, the state party agreed. But since then the party hasn’t been able to do basic things, like get enough people together to have meetings.

And here’s where the stakes get even higher for the Democrats and, by anyone else’s standards, stupid and petty.

It’s all about who gets to go to the Big Party — the national convention next week in Chicago. This is the sort of affair that makes party officials feel important and some will do everything they can to go. Reed and Kelley believed they would get to pick their favorites for the big bash.

They were wrong.

Under party rules, which Kelley and Reed should have read, the presidential candidates get a say. They get to vet their delegates to the convention. Kelley submitted a list. The Biden/Harris campaign (now d.b.a. Harris/Walz) rejected many of those delegates and picked their own, after seeking suggestions from several Alabama Democratic heavies, including Jones, (but also including Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, who now chairs the Alabama delegation.)

Again, all of this is by the rules, but Reed and Kelley have cried foul.

It’s worth remembering at this point that Reed, in particular, has some baggage here. In 2020, he didn’t back Biden, but rather, threw his support behind party late-comer Michael Bloomberg, who landed with a thud in that primary. Before that, in 2008, he backed Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama and said America wasn’t going to elect a Black man president.

All of this is to say, Biden didn’t owe Reed any favors.

Reed and Kelley are now accusing Jones and others behind the delegate selections of racism, which is to use Jone’s response, “total bullshit.” Two-thirds of the delegates are Black people, they’re just not Reed and Kelley’s preferred Black people.

Meanwhile, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison has told Reed and Kelley to knock it off.

“Refrain from any further miscommunication or misinformation to convention participants,” he wrote earlier this month.

Or, if he were being less diplomatic: Stop lying.

The DNC has neutralized Reed’s ability to hand out a favorite party favor to his faithful supporters and has made a place for young Democrats in the state party that had looked like the rec room at the Magnolia Breeze Rest Home.

That’s it.

Now Reed and Kelley are refusing to take part in the party’s nominating process (even though they are delegates on the Biden/Harris/Walz-contingent, too). Now, they are threatening to bring a second Alabama Democratic delegation to Chicago to make a big fuss — something that happened once before.

In 1968.

Also, in Chicago.

A few weeks ago, when it was unclear who the nominee might be, I considered writing a column warning the national party not to become the mess Alabama’s party had become — divided, crooked, at each other’s throats.

In the end, I didn’t have to. Harris secured the support she needed swiftly and she could have the momentum to take her to the White House.

The DNC knew better than to make an Alabama mess.

And those silly folks thought that would be enough.

Now Alabama is bringing the mess to them.