Notwithstanding recent broadsides by Bai, Brooks, and others -- the new precinct captains of cyberspace are in perpetual high five mode these days, celebrating the key role the internet is playing in the 2008 presidential campaigns. They feel the netroots have changed the game, sparking a revolution in how politics is played in this country. And that's true -- to a point.
You Really Want A Revolution?
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Have Coffee with Howard Dean and Mark Brewer this weekend
There have been so many moments throughout history where real men and women have revolutionized the face of politics and we've often found ourselves wondering what it would be like to be a part of it. Now is one of those times where Democratic politics are more than ever an integral part of reshaping the face of the political landscape. Howard Dean, chair of the Democratic National Committee and Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party and Chair of the Association of State Democratic Chairs are a very big part of that change.
For the first time ever, you can sit down, grab a cup of coffee, and talk shop with them.
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Oprah's next endorsement? (NOT a candidate diary)
Oprah Winfrey made big news late last year when she decided to make her first-ever political endorsement. It remains to be seen what sort of impact that endorsement will have, but some observers are already suggesting that Winfrey could create a much broader, lasting legacy if she chooses to lend her name and clout to small-d democracy and the idea that, in order for our nation to survive, we must all do more than vote.
Writing recently at his nonpartisan "Redeeming Hope" blog, Rich Harwood of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation said:
I urge you to kick off a national discussion on politics and public life. It doesn't have to be abstract and boring. Instead, it should focus on how each of us can engage and connect with one another in daily life. You could even focus on a single book that people could read together. Imagine if the 30,000 people who gathered in the South Carolina stadium ... week were invited to grab a book, start reading, and start talking to one another - and with their fellow citizens across the nation.
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Lowering the voting age in Minnesota (long)
I offer the simple proposition that lowering the voting age to 16 will be good for our democracy, good for young people, good for our communities, and good for our nation. I propose we amend the Minnesota constitution to change the voting age.
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The audacity of making hope real
This is not a candidate diary, but a post for Kossacks who are involved in small-d democracy - community organizing, local governance, etc. Thanks for reading! And if you yourself blog about small-d democracy topics, please contact me via email to jfanselow at everyday-democracy dot org. Together with other organizations, we are building a national network of bloggers on public engagement issues, and we'd like to know what you are doing.
We’re hearing and reading a lot about hope this year. Rich Harwood of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation recently published an essay – Make Hope Real: How We Can Accelerate Change for the Public Good– that offers five succinct guidelines on how civic leaders and community organizers can nurture the new national impulse for involvement and change. Read below the flip to see these ideas and get a link to download the full essay.
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Youth Voter Participation Surges – But So Do Voter Suppression Attempts
Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters
Weekly Voting Rights News Update
By Erin Ferns
Young voters have arrived.
Finally.
Since the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1972, predictions of the increasing impact of young voters on the outcomes of elections have consistently been proven wrong on Election Day. In fact, youth voting rates have rarely been as strong as they were in 1972 and young people continue to be among the least represented groups in the electorate and in the voting booth.
Until now.
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A Call to Arms: Practical and Necessary Actions in Support of Democracy
I'm finally starting to feel the urgency and necessity of radically expanding the political dialogue in order to check a runaway executive, of which I'm highly dubious as to the prospect of them going away quietly. As such, this is hands down the most substantial and passionate posting I've ever written. What makes it more significant to me is that I am planning on sending to every single person I know as a personal plea for them to lay down their apathy and realize just how bad the situation has become.
Anyone who's seen/read Naomi Wolf's lecture/book, The End of America understand the urgency of which I speak.
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The Enthusiasm Gap
I know that plenty of people have suggested that the hard right, with social conservatives foremost among them, would come back to the GOP nominee in November, because there are tribal forces that keep these Republicans, who feed more than anything on hatred of their opponents, coming back for more. And that is probably true. But there's more that the fundies and the hard-right conservatives did to win elections for George W., for example, beyond voting. We're five months out and this is entirely subject to change, but there are warning signs that John McCain has huge problems with just the kinds of voters who volunteer and do the ground work for practically every Republican campaign.
more...
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Calling all Coloradans
If you live in Colorado, and especially if you have a keen interest in working for greater racial equity and more inclusive government, we invite you to check out Everyday Democracy's national meeting, Making Every Voice Matter.
Most events will take place at the Renaissance Hotel, 3801 Quebec Street in Denver, but there's a program set for 4 to 5:30 p.m. today (Wednesday, June 11) at the Penrose Branch Library in Colorado Springs. Matt Leighninger will be there to talk about his book, The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance - and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same. See more info here.
Thursday's first public event, set for 4 to 6 p.m. at the Renaissance Hotel, is a free program dedicated to the legacy of John Parr, a longtime national and Colorado civic leader who died late last year. (More below the fold ...)
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The Right's Goal To Demonize Political Participation
Jesse Taylor at Pandagon had a remarkably insightful piece today about the wingnut carping over the Barack Obama speech in Berlin, the media reaction, and his popularity generally. I really think this is important to understand. The right has always held a goal of minimizing political participation; normally this is done through voter suppression, onerous voter ID or ballot access laws, and generally disenfranchising those for whom it is hardest to engage in the process. Now they've taken it a step further, basically planting the seed that ANY participation whatsoever, not just voting but showing up for a rally or working a phone bank or donating money, is toxic and inherently fascistic. Because their deficit in this election year is enthusiasm, they're trying to make such support and excitement untenable. Behold:
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Trick or Vote 2008 is here: Get Out The Vote...In Costume!
Do you know what you're doing for Halloween? Felt that energy around? That buzzing? Thus starts the final countdown to election season -- and it's time to get involved!
Find your inner Frankenstein, knock on some doors in costume, then party down with like-minded volunteers at Trick or Vote!
It's the largest get-out-the-vote canvass...in costume...come change the world on Halloween!
Trick or Vote is here!
Friday, October 31
AudioCinema, 226 SE Madison (map)
2 canvasses! 3:30 & 5:30pm
Party! 8:00pm
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Notes On An Inauguration
Today is not only the observance of Martin Luther King Day, or the eve of the inauguration of our 44th President (I'm on West Coast time). It happens to be the 1-year anniversary of the Nevada caucus, and I only remember that because Democrats Work was passing out a shirt that read "Make 1.19.08 more than a one-night stand." As today was a national day of service, with thousands of Americans participating in service projects, that proved fairly prophetic. But 1.19.08 was also the one moment during the primary campaign when it looked like Obama wouldn't win the election. I was in Vegas that day, and after an insane caucus at The Wynn, literally one of the craziest political moments I've ever seen in my life, which looked like Halloween with people yelling "HIL-A-RY" and "O-BA-MA" at each other, I went to the main center for the counting and watched Sen. Clinton win. And this was in the age before anyone paid much attention to delegate counts and the fact that Obama probably got more delegates out of the state. Just a few weeks before that age, but in the age.
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DADT vs The Obama Nation
President Obama's calls for greater civic engagement is directly at odds with the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The two things cannot be reconciled.
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What does the progressive movement need to become a viable political force?
Cross-posted at PunditCountry
Chris Bowers at Open Leftdiscusses a very salient issue occurring at this point in the movement as we find ourselves not getting the issues we feel need redress addressed by the very leaders we helped send to Washington to deal with. From DADT to the removal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, we are told time and time again that the sensible thing to do is wait, and wait, and wait.
This generally doesn’t happen to those on the right. But this goes back to a point I made in an earlier post that one of the chief differences between the parties is that the Democrats loathe their base while the GOP fears and coddles theirs. Both may feel they are out of touch, but at the GOP leaders are aware that not acting on red meat issues like gun control, pro-life legislation, and low taxes will have an adverse reaction from those they need most at the ballot box come election day.
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Street Fight & Campaigns
Tonight I am excited about campaigns. Not one campaign, or at least not writing about one campaign I am passionate about...but just campaigns the love of the democratic process and the role that campaigns, people and passion bring about.
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More Right Wing Money for Youth Groups
This morning I got an email from myImpact.org announcing that they'd received support from the Peterson Foundation and Mobilize.org for a social media project they intend to do. This was announced at the Mobilize.org event "Exploring the Millennial Generation’s Return on Investment" a conference announced earlier this year when Mobilize announced their $1million grant from the Peterson Foundation.
William Greider wrote in The Nation earlier this year about the Looting of Social Security, describing very specifically the plan among Wall Street and Banking elites who are pushing the idea of fiscal responsibility as part of policy. Fiscal responsibility is a well tested phrase that everyone can get behind - because everyone agrees that our country should be responsible with its money. . . but Greider says that this is a backdoor swindle on anyone who has paid into Social Security
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No, We're Not a Broken People
In 2004 I began speaking at rallies and forums around the country on issues of peace and justice, something I've done off-and-on ever since. Up through 2008, it was extremely unusual for questions from the audience to consist of pure defeatism. In 2009, it was rare to get through a Q&A session without being asked what the point was of trying.
And the defeatism is so contagious that it will be hard for me to make it through 2010 if people don't shut up about how doomed we are. If current trends continue, by 2011 the only people showing up at forums on peace and justice will all be old enough to tell my grandparents they're too young to understand how pointless it is to try. And my grandparents are dead.
Most of the defeatist questions I get asked are more statements than questions, mostly informing those in the room of ways in which our nation is corrupted that we are all painfully aware of, but stated as much out of frustration and despair as out of any hope of hearing a miraculous solution articulated.
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A Coffee Party Letter to the Editor
Today, I had a Letter to the Editor appear in my local newspaper, the Altamont Enterprise regarding my organization of the Albany County Coffee Party as part of the National Coffee Party Kickoff to take place this Saturday, March 13.
I feel compelled to re-post the the letter in its entirety here for two reasons. First, because the Enterprise never puts its Letters to the Editor on it's website.
Second, because the final few paragraphs of my 1,776 word letter were cut off, along with any byline to attribute the letter to me. You can discern it was written by me in a small story deeper in the paper. I don't hold it against them; the Enterprise is a top-notch, independently owned local paper that gives a huge forum to letter writers every week, so a mistake here and there is forgivable.
Without further adieu, here's what I wrote, along with the headline:
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Obama at the MI Stadium--first-hand observation/reflection
I'm a U-M alumna and have worked at the U for several years; my older daughter will start a grad program here in the fall. Earlier this week our local OFA group and the Washtenaw County Dems put out a call for help with crowd control, since all the available tickets (over 92,000) were distributed to graduates, their guests, and the U-M community. It was in part the chance for some mother-daughter bonding that took us there at 5:30 yesterday morning, even though we are both night owls. But we were also motivated by the chance to help out and enjoy some of the fruits of our hard work. After all, we both played a part (no matter how small) in helping Obama win the election.
We didn’t know that we’d arrive in time to get drenched by a thunderstorm that also delayed the opening of the gates by over an hour, and we didn’t expect to be in the middle of a few thousand people most of the morning, attempting to guide them to the gates with the shortest lines. We both wished several times that we were substantially taller, and louder, than we are!
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It starts with you: Literacy Project - Click to find out how you can help!
So most everyone who has encountered me on this blog knows pretty much that I’m passionate about literacy. I’m a pretty decent political organizer, but organizing projects around literacy is where I really go all in. I’ve been a member of a successful coalition in my city two years ago to save 11 neighborhood libraries. I’ve also, created a tri-state reading program as a key component of the King Day of Service that selects one book a year, asks students to read the book and submit essays. I instituted this program two years ago and although I’m no longer with the non-profit, this program is still thriving and has become a main component for students to get involved with the King Day of Service.
Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about putting together another literacy project that would require participation by many of you here. I’ve been going back and forth with the feasibility of the project but then the universe has collided to force me to just get it going.
More below the fold...
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More Pages to Explore .....
