OK, everyone reading this knows we need better collaboration. Here are a couple quick steps:
The Grassroots county committees need to get on ActBlue. This is an easy way for local parties to raise solid money online. San Diego and San Fernando Valley are already leading the way. Then, come here and tell us how it is working so other counties can learn.
The netroots need to explain the netroots to the establishment. I highly recommend this video. In conjunction, help local Central Committees get on Actblue and help the politicians come here.
The elected officials need to come around for a conversation.
I want more discussion on unity, please offer ideas in the comments, but I think these three concepts are a good place to start.
Updated: Original title: Netroots 101 for Democratic Women of the Desert
By request of Sandra Stone, president of Democratic Women of the Desert, and George Zander, president of Desert Stonewall Democrats, I took my fellow Democrats down the rabbit hole with me. Many of our best Democratic activists here in the desert are still unfamiliar with a lot about the blogosphere, and I hope to bridge the gap a bit. Word got around after Howie Klein's visit with Democrats of the Desert last May. These are politically savvy, experienced Democrats who show up, fundraise, canvass, and phonebank. Time to join forces more effectively. I want them in here.
I've pulled some notes together and collected pertinent links. The goal is more Democrats from the CA-45th active in the blogosphere. Follow below the flip for the working outline of Netroots 101, a friendly introduction to the blogosphere:
This is the equivalent of going on MTV 20 years ago and telling Down Town Julie Brown that MTV is nice, but Casey Kasem is all that matters when it comes to Rock and Roll.
UPDATE: A lot of us crossed the bridge to the 21st century, please join us!
(In Orange and In Blue. Please give out some rec lovin! Oh, and at Facebook - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Join us on April 27th for a very special Blue House at the Brew House Blograiser to benefit the campaigns of Representative Jerry McNerney (CA-11) and Lt. Col. Charlie Brown (soon to replace John Doolittle as the representative of California's 4th District). This is a production of California's blogger community (and our now moth-infested pockets), and we encourage everyone to come out and enjoy great food, delicious San Diego microbrews, and a big step towards making California even more Blue!
First off, I want to say that I am looking forward to meeting a lot of folks I've only heard about online at the "Blue House at the Brew House" blograiser at the California Democratic Convention next Friday.
Just a few days ago, I went to the YearlyKos fundraiser YearlyKos fundraiser in Washington, DC. You can see some of the pictures from that event, including a photo of me with Dengre, in NYBri's recommended diary.
As you all know, I defeated Richard Pombo, a seven-term Republican incumbent, and was elected to Congress in 2006 on a wave of grassroots and netroots support. But, what some of you may not know is that I ran in 2004 and lost.
Sometimes, it takes more than one election cycle for voters to realize it's time for a change. That's why I am proud to post the following request on Calitics today.
Come over to the other side of this diary for the rest of the story.
Like thousands of others across California and the United States tonight, I took part in a vigil protesting the continuation of the Iraq War. I was fortunate to have a protest just a bit down the road from me, with folks from Normal Heights, Kensington, and the surrounding area setting up shop on the Adams Ave/I-15 Bridge to catch rush hour traffic on the way home. I managed to arrive late, as I tend to do, but was still able to have a great time discovering that there's lots of hope, even in San Diego.
Guest-blogging at the Cafe San Diego blog today is Murtaza Baxamusa, senior planner, Center on Policy Initiatives. It's a relatively brief, bullet-point rundown of ways in which San Diego has been fiscally irresponsible with its development deals over the past 10 years or so. It's by no means an exhaustive list and it by no means covers everything that's wrong with the given examples (Qualcomm Stadium, College Grove Wal-Mart, Navy Broadway Complex). The real kicker- the part that has implications to everything we do here and everywhere else online- comes right at the end:
The last example illustrates how our officials are sold on the idea that any development benefits the community. Seldom does anyone sit down with a calculator and fill in the costs and benefits columns. The CEO of the downtown redevelopment agency, Nancy Graham, recently told reporters: "We don't get into the financial analysis, and neither does the city."
So I went through last night and loaded the Calitics Event Calendar with all sorts of San Diego goodies, and now it's way overloaded with San Diego bias. Hopefully that'll entice people to start using it more (I've noticed it gradually gaining some steam), because I think it's an excellent tool for one of our goals here of providing the mechanism to get people more involved locally.
I am honored to be serving as a delegate to the CDP along with Ellis Perlman, a Professor Emeritus in political science from the University of Michigan-Flint. He has been a keen observer of grassroots politics as it relates to this state for the past 100 years, and I asked him to put together some information on it, to serve as a historical perspective for those of us who don't quite remember the days of Hiram Johnson and Earl Warren. There's some very good information here, and it all speaks to the fact that this "people-powered" movement is nothing new, it's just being adapted for the 21st century.
On St. Patrick's Day 2005, then Congressman Rob Portman was tapped by President George Bush as U.S. Trade Envoy. The progressive blogosphere paid attention within two hours and the very next day, Swing State Project publisher DavidNYC wrote the following on the front page of Daily Kos:
On Sunday, The Union-Tribune reported on the simmering issue in San Diego of sex offenders concentrating in the downtown area. Now that Jessica's Law (Proposition 83) has been overwhelmingly approved by Californians, local officials have been given the greenlight to run sex offenders out of downtown. But has anyone given any thought to where they're supposed to go?
Identifying existing bases of support and changing their minds. That's how any campaign manages to defeat an incumbent. In a Democratic Primary, perhaps it's a bit more difficult, or perhaps it's just that the tactics have to be reinvented. Many institutional groups (NARAL, Sierra Club, etc.) are just blindly endorsing Democratic incumbents whenever and wherever they can. It requires changing the fundamental mindsets of people and groups who want a united Democratic front and are opposed to a system of regular primary challenges. It requires taking on the conventional wisdom of every single Democrat in this country that's terrified of risking a single inch and, particularly in California, it requires cracking the California Democratic Party's iron insistence on picking the nominee before the primary (except of course, for governor, or for cases in which we beat them). So who endorsed Ellen Tauscher in 2006? This is the list we're starting from. These are the minds we'll need to change, or at least be able to contend with. What can we gather and how can we attack this?
Emboldened by their role in the Dem sweep, liberal bloggers are now targeting Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA 10), a Bay Area centrist, pro-business Dem in the mold of Joe Lieberman.
But defenders of Tauscher note that Kos and some others in the blogosphere sharply targeted the moderate Lieberman -- and got credit for getting him defeated in the Democratic primary -- only to find their influence was viewed as profoundly weakened when he was handily re-elected as an independent in the mid-term elections.
Tauscher can't run as an independent once she loses and it was the same blogs that BEAT LIEBERMAN that also put Tester and Webb over the top. I don't know who views flipping the senate as "profoundly weakened" influence, but Marinucci should stop listening to them.
On November 28th, the San Diego City Council voted in favor of banning Wal-Mart Superstores (spotted by Todd Beeton at Calitics as well) citing low-wage jobs, traffic congestion and the demise of mom-and-pop stores as reason to keep the biggest of the Big Boxes outside of San Diego. This was, perhaps sadly, one of the bigger political stories of my several years in San Diego, with friends and foes of discount superstores crowding into the public hearing to plead their cases. That Walmart would come out on the wrong end of this in San Diego of all places is pretty impressive, as we find our progressive moments to be few and far between. But as is generally the case when some combination of evil corporations, politics and California combine, it looks as though we're heading for an expensive legal campaign and an even more expensive disinformation campaign as Walmart fights back. This is a battle that we're going to have to fight and win eventually if a progressive agenda is going to have a prayer in this country, and since the fight in Chicago has come and gone, perhaps we can seize on this one to create and hone strategy.
Considering the fact that Ellen Tauscher is Joe Lieberman's BFF in congress, it isn't surprising that Ellen Tauscher is scrubbing Joe Lieberman pics from her website. While this an acknowledgment she is running scared, for some reason Ellen Tauscher is failing to realize why Lieberman was rejected by Democrats in each of the last two cycles.
While the internets have slammed Counterproductive Katie for suggesting the successful primary campaign against Lieberman was misguided, it is Ellen Tauscher herself who has the money quote on Joe Lieberman's rejection.
If Katie Merrill had the goal of preventing a primary campaign against Ellen Tauscher, it might not have been the best strategy to provoke the publisher of the most widely read political blog in the world into declaring, "So in CA-10, we will have a candidate, and there will be a primary."
But as Jane Hamsher noted, Tauscher has greater problems than netroots. Sure, California bloggers are going to cover this race closely (Calitics is averaging more than a post a day on Ellen Tauscher in December of all months and Markos lives in the east bay). And sure, if things get interesting the national blogs will have the ability to get the race nationwide attention. But all of that will be focused towards understanding and supporting what is actually going on in California's 10th congressional district.
(This may not satisfy Katie Merrill's demand that the netroots only do what she says, but as with everything online it is a great way to bring together people who want to work together on this. - promoted by blogswarm)
I want to introduce Democrats Work, an organization dedicated to mobilizing grassroots Democrats to perform community service projects . . . as Democrats. I also want to invite anyone in the Bay Area to two upcoming service events, which are also listed on the Upcoming Events section on Calitics. Could be a free Democrats Work t-shirt in it for you!
The "big idea" behind Democrats Work, which I co-founded and am now the executive director of, is our belief that we need to build a service-based approach to politics. Let's take the energy and enthusiasm we have around election time and use it to make positive contributions in our communities all year long. Let's do tangible things - clean up parks, paint schools, sponosor basketball tournaments, help at neighborhood rec centers - that people can point to and say: "The Democrats did that for this community."
The DNC under Howard Dean, whatever its faults may be, has done a good job of helping the grassroots be more effective. One of the ways they are doing this now is through the "Democratic Reunion" events. They have a listing of all the events in California. If you have some time, consider participating in helping to make the state and country more "blue." I'll try to put some of the events in the event section, but there tons of events, so make sure you search for your city.
Democrats are divided over whether appealing to the moderate center or galvanizing their progressive base is the better strategy. Given the public's declining confidence in Republican leadership, either strategy may enable Democrats to win at the polls. But neither approach will give them the electoral mandate required to govern effectively and retain the public's support once they're in office.
Fortunately, choosing between these two strategies is unnecessary. There is an alternative to left-right politics and by adopting it Democrats can remain true to progressive principles while attracting millions of voters from the non-ideological middle.
The step beyond the "New Deal," the "Fair Deal," and the "Great Society" is a "Dignitarian Society." The slogan is Dignity For All.
