5 days left to apply to be a Delegate to the DNCC

APPLY NOW

On May 17, 2008 the last 40 delegates from Florida to the Democratic National Convention in Denver will be elected, and 6 alternate Delegates. This delegate election is also where the Florida Democratic Party will try to meet its diversity goals developed by itself and the DNC.

Each State develops its own Diversity Goals, and Florida has set its up in such a way to help its delegation reflect its voter registration. The easiest math for this is that the party allows that 10% of democrats self identify as LGBT so 10% of our delegation will be LGBT. Also, our delegation has to be gendered balanced, 50/50 male and female. Because our super delegates have more men then women mixed in, we will be electing more women then men at this last round.

Here is a break down to take into consideration of the remaining diversity goals:

9 Hispanic delegates
1 Hispanic alternate
14 GLBT delegates
10 youth delegates
2 youth alternates
13 African Americans delegates
4 disabled delegates

We have met our goals on veterans, and these delegates can be elected pledged to Clinton or Obama, and one of the alternates elected to Edwards.

The gender break down is:

Senator Hillary Clinton
24 At-Large – 14F / 10M
3 At-Large Alternates – 1F / 2M

Senator John Edwards
1 At-Large Alternate – 1F

Senator Barack Obama
16 At-Large – 10F / 6M
2 At-Large Alternates – 1F / 1M

Read this over, and think of the people who you think should apply. The delegates are elected with a weighted vote, discussed earlier in this blog. Good luck, I hope you try, and I hope you get it... It is going to be a great convention!

www.demconvention.com
www.denverdnc2008.com
www.denverconvention2008.com (unofficial)

Voto Latino Fundraiser & Parody PSA

Check out this new album on Itunes:


Voto Latino is produced by Nacional Records and iTunes, and they are both donating their proceeds from the benefit album. All proceeds will benefit Voto Latino’s voter registration, education and empowerment initiatives. Check it out now 15 songs for $3.99, a great deal, and a great cause.

Voto Latino on Larry King

The Voto Latino telenovela.

Make sure you are registered to vote. Music is the soundtrack to my life. The Voto Latino compilation is the soundtrack of a movement,” says Voto Latino co-founder Rosario Dawson, who recently starred in a widely circulated telenovela parody PSA with Wilmer Valderrama. “It encapsulates everything about the Latino drive to the polls so blast it on your way to change.”

Adds Valderrama: “Music has proven to be an influential platform for our generation. This is the time to use it.”

YDA's Spring National Conference

Are you totally geared up to put a Democrat back the White House this November? Ready to boot Republicans out of office up and down the ballot? Tired of watching campaigns from the sidelines? Had enough of the media telling you what voters are saying?

Join us as we kickoff the Young Voter Revolution - YDA's first-ever truly National Youth Coordinated Campaign to turnout young voters, take back the White House, and swing elections up and down the ballot.

Working together in Nashville we will develop our campaign plans, set goals for the number of young Democrats our efforts will turnout to vote, and brainstorm creative and cutting edge ways to make this all happen. Learn how you, as a YDA member, can get involved in this historic effort, how your local chapter, caucus, or state organization can work toward our collective goals, and what resources YDA National can provide you to help with those efforts. All in all, this meeting is where we officially kick off our efforts to make sure we not only win in November, but ensure that 2008 continues to be the "Year of the Young Voter."

Plus, we like to have a good time at YDA. After all, this conference is taking place in the heart of Music City, USA. Once all that hard work planning and preparing is done, reward yourself with some good ol' fashioned fun in Nashville's world famous bar and club district, Music Row, with enough live music to suit all your tastes!


Link

Bill Clinton thinks young people aren't savvy

Bill Clinton, who heavily targeted young voters almost 20 years ago when he was first elected, how now said that they aren't savvy enough to figure out who they should vote for.

Older voters gravitate to Hillary Clinton because they're too wise to be fooled by Barack Obama's rhetoric, former president Bill Clinton told Pennsylvania voters today.

Clinton's comments, to a packed high school gym about an hour north of Philadelphia, were one part presidential politics and one part legacy protection. His beef was with Obama's contention that many of the problems facing the country today were simmering long before President Bush took office seven-plus years ago.

I don't think he meant it the way that he said it, but he did say it. That isn't going to win his wife any more votes.

Read the full post by clicking here.

Looking for Young Election 2008 Reporters

Check out this opportunity from WireTap:

You know that we are witnessing what may be the most important election of our lifetime. For the first time in decades, the future of education, jobs, climate change, national security, immigration -- almost every major issue that young people care about is being debated by passionate and dynamic presidential candidates. As young voters are coming out in record numbers, WireTap magazine is thrilled to partner up with Rock the Vote to support the work of five emerging reporters for Rock the Trail project.

http://www.rockthevote.com/rockthetrail

These young reporters will rock their local, state and presidential campaign trails to deliver insightful and compelling blogs, articles and videos from the communities they live in, reporting on young people's top issues. Rock the Trail reporters will help make this election relevant, fun and meaningful for new voters.

The issues and voices of Rock the Trail reporters will be posted on RocktheVote.com, WireTapMag.org, BET.com, and will also be available for viewing on AT&T mobile phones. In addition, we will be working with the WashingtonPost.com to contribute unique perspectives complementary to the site's vast coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Entries will be judged by the staff of Rock the Vote and WireTap, as well as an advisory panel of distinguished journalists including:

- Jeff Chang, award-winning author of 'Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the
Hip Hop Generation'
- Sian-Pierre Regis, producer, BET News
- Peter Rothberg, associate publisher, The Nation magazine
- Jose Antonio Vargas, political feature writer, The Washington Post.

Rock the Trail reporters will be paid a $500 monthly stipend and supplied with a laptop, cell phone and video camera to rock the 2008 campaign trail. Rock the Trail
reporters will work approximately 10-15 hours a week from May 15 to November 30.

So, if you're a U.S. citizen between the ages of 18-29 and interested in reporting on one of the most exciting times in U.S. politics, please visit:

http://www.rockthevote.com/rockthetrail

Deadline to complete an application: May 7th (not a minute after 11:59pm).

Young Voters are demanding the popular vote

Reading Wiretap this past week, I read an article where the young people are demanding the popular vote. Why?

Today's youth are more ethnically and racially diverse than ever before. This unprecedented diversity of Millenial's though is not fully present at the voting booth, because of our antiquated Electoral College system.

and

"In the context of the Electoral College, geography explains some of the reason that this voting gap persists. Born out of American federalism -- a system in which the power to govern is shared between the national and state governments -- the Electoral College was intended to prevent the tyranny of the majority by protecting the sovereignty of small states. But, that also came into existence at the same time that women and people of color (many who weren't 'free' or regarded as citizens!) were not allowed to vote.

The population of today's communities of color are concentrated primarily in uncontested states. While the African American and Latino youth voting blocs are large (and growing, as the case is for Latinos), they are concentrated in several uncontested states, such as Maryland, Mississippi, Texas, California, New York and the District of Columbia among others."

The author argues:

"Retiring the Electoral College and having the popular vote decide the presidential elections will engage more young people of color into politics. 'One person, one vote' means candidates must speak to everyone, not just those in key "swing" states.

Young women, on the other hand, are not constrained by geography -- with a large enough population that is spread throughout all the states and the District of Columbia. As a result, today's candidates have to appeal to them regardless of where they campaign and are now more representative of women's views than in the past."

It is an interesting argument, and one I had not condsidered before. In my world view, the electorial college let's us know who has won by the end of the night. A good example of this is the ongoing primary for the Democrats, who divide delegates based of the votes, a lot like what is being proposed, 1 person 1 vote style, and the Republicans, who divide delegates based off of whole states, like the electorial college.

We have for sometime now had a Republican Nominee, but we are still fighting for our Democratic Party Nominee. And the two candidates are actively reaching out to every group, and every voter.

And, with the popular vote tactic, we would never have had a President Gorge W. Bush.

Should 16 Year Olds Vote?

After Super Tuesday, The New York Times (who I love more and more each day) rand this article: You’re 16, You’re Beautiful and You’re a Voter. It is a great article about raising expectations for our young people and the positive effects it can have on their civic participation and future. The article discusses more then just voting, including ways to phase in credit card use for younger people to avoid some of the issues of the exploitative lending policies on college campuses.

Wiretap blogged about this to. What do you think? I don't think it will happen right now, young people vote Democrat, and younger people's votes can be influenced by their parents, and too many people don't want either of those things to happen.

I think it might be a good idea. It is similar argument that I have made to lowering the drinking age in the past. I think we should be doing what we can to let people ease there way into adulthood, versus thrusting it upon them when they don't have the same support structure that they had in their early youth.

Also worth noting:

I added two new links today.

The Chedder Box The writings of an Asian American, Oakland California soldier who now resides in the Dirty South. He like politics, sports and entertainment, and provides a good insight into the social justice movement.

and

OhDang! Founded by Arjay Das, Zoneil Maharaj, Donna Tam, Brenda Tam and May Suen, OHDANG! is an independent webzine serving as an outlet and voice for today's urban culture. With a focus on arts, lifestyle and (sub)culture, combined with commentary and personal narratives, Their hope is to translate thier voices across cultural, racial, age and gender boundaries. Or something along those lines.

Both are fairly new webzines with a youth focused political edge. I encourage you to check them out when you get the chance.

Eleven Tips for Reporting the Youth Vote

http://www.futuremajority.com/node/794

It even gives a shout out to YDA a a model. Peer to Peer!Check the link above, here is the text, but the original post links to sources, in case you need to site them when you are telling people why we (young people) matter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Journalist Cheat Sheet: Eleven Tips for Reporting the Youth Vote

Mike Connery's blog

Update: I've added in another tip (now # 1).
------------------------------------
It’s getting rather tiring, correcting one shoddy media report on the youth vote after another. This really came to a head this weekend when, less than 24 hours after forcing a young UNLV student to ask Hillary Clinton whether she preferred Diamonds or Pearls, CNN un-ironically aired a piece during The Situation Room that made a mockery of young voters and their participation in our electoral process.

So I created this “cheat sheet” for journalists. Basically it’s a listing of all the most common mistakes that the media makes when reporting on young voters. Enjoy. Spread widely.
Journalist Cheat Sheet: 11 Tips for Reporting on the Youth Vote:

Tip #1:
The youth vote is not synonymous with students. In fact, students make up only a small part of the eligible youth vote. Only 21% of all 18-29 year olds are currently attending a college or university. That means that when you report on "students", you are leaving out the other 79% of all the individuals that make up the "youth vote." These people serve in our military, are struggling to raise families - and yes, have very different concerns from college students. I understand that makes it difficult for you to cram them into a cookie-cutter story about student aid activism and tuition costs, but you do them and your readers and our democracy a disservice when you limit your coverage to students.
Source: Current Population Survey

Tip #2:
Stop saying that “Howard Dean courted young voters and the youth failed to show up.” Fact of the matter is, youth participation quadrupled at the 2004 Iowa Caucus, they just didn’t vote for Dean. In case you missed it, young people voted in higher than usual numbers and were 17% of all participants.
Source: Pew Trusts

Tip #3:
This tip is directly related to Tip #2. Your cognitive dissonance w/r/t the 2004 Iowa caucus springs from the fact that young people did not vote in a monolithic block like you expected. That’s called reality, and it is your job to report it accurately. Young voters chose John Kerry over Howard Dean by almost 2-1. If any candidate in Iowa was the “youth candidate” in the 2004 primary, it was John Kerry, and he won the nomination.
Source: CNN Exit Polling

Tip #4:
The idea that “young people don’t vote” is patently ridiculous. In 2004, 49% of all voters 18-29 went to the polls. That’s millions of voters. In fact, a report by the Harvard Institute of Politics stated that more voters 18-29 went to the polls (20.7 million) than did voters over 65, the so-called reliable seniors (19.4 million).
To spell this out, we may still vote at lower rates than the rest of the electorate, but there are more of us. Millennials are the largest living American generation. In 2004, we were 17% of the electorate. It’s estimated that we may well be 25% in 2008, and by 2015, we will be over 30% of all voters. That makes our support valuable, and that’s why the Obama, Clinton and Edwards campaigns all have full-time youth outreach staff.
Sources: Harvard Institute of Politics (pdf), CIRCLE (pdf), Young Voter Strategies (pdf)

Tip #5:
If you insist on reporting the same old story that young people vote at a lower rate than the rest of the electorate, then you have an obligation to also inform your readers/viewers/listeners that youth turnout has increased for 3 years straight, and is at its highest level in over a decade. You also have an obligation to note that in 2006 the youth vote swung a number of important federal races, including pushing Democratic candidates Jon Tester, Jim Webb, and Joe Courtney over the top.
Source: Historical voting patterns (pdf), Impact on Races (pdf), Midterm Turnout (pdf).

Tip #6:
If you are going to report on low-turnout among young voters, you also have an obligation to note that young people face more barriers to voting than do older voters. We move more frequently, requiring us to re-register sometimes on a yearly basis, on campus we face a lack of voting machines and long lines, and many university towns actively discourage and try to prevent students from voting.
Source: League of Conservation Voters Education Fund

Tip #7:
There are simple fixes to the problems outlined in #6 – election day and same-day registration and mail-in voting are two such fixes that can be applied at the state level. These have been proven to bump youth turnout by as much as 14%!!!!! It would be nice if you reported on them occasionally.
Source: CIRCLE

Tip #8:
Young voters will participate if they are asked to, particularly by a peer. This is proven. But the system stopped asking long ago by removing resources and manpower away from young voter outreach. Only in recent years have organizations – and a few campaigns – begin to reengage young voters in any serious way. The result is three straight years in which youth turnout increased. In plain terms: young voters are not apathetic. Rather, the system fails to engage them in any meaningful way.
Source: Young Voter Strategies, Voter Mobilization Tactics

Tip #9:
Stop reporting on “celebrity activism” as the Rosetta Stone for understanding the youth vote. This is a Boomer and Gen-X construction created for a broadcast TV culture of the 80s and 90s. Today’s young voters are interested in peer-to-peer communication and networked action. From Facebook to on the ground, peer to peer organizing at club, bars, barbershops and apartment canvassing, the most effective, and sustainable developments in youth organizing in the past five years have come from new, grassroots organizations doing peer to peer organizing on the ground or online. Stop reporting on celebrities and start doing the work of talking to and reporting on the activities of these organizations. Good places to start include:
Forward Montana, The Oregon Bus Project, New Era Colorado, Young Democrats of America, and The League of Young Voters.
There are many more, but let’s do this in baby steps. Start with these and we’ll work out way deeper into youth organizing together.

Tip #10:
Related to #9, “talking to young voters” is not code for “dumbing down.” We understand issues. We have thoughts on those issues. We’re yelling loudly for the “adults” to take action on those issues. See: Iraq, Global Warming, Global Poverty, Darfur, and college aid. Stop stereotyping us in your reporting by spotlighting frivolous questions.
Moreover, and this is very important, you REALLY need to stop force-feeding us these fluff questions in national forums (see: Mac vs. PC and Diamonds vs. Pearls). If you are going to say that we are frivolous, you shouldn’t be enabling - or worse, instigating - that behavior. This habit is doing nothing to build your credibility with a younger audience that is already abandoning you for the internet. So following this rule is not only good for Democracy, it is good for your bottom line.
Source For more on issues, visit the Harvard Institute of Politics for their annual surveys.

Tip #11:
Related to #10, we do not live in a Newtonian Universe. We live in an Einsteinian Universe. Just as the act of observing something changes it, your reporting on the youth vote has an effect on the youth vote. It effects how campaigns, staffers and consultants perceive young voters. When you fail to accurately report on increasing turnout or the impact of youth on an election, these individuals continue to believe that the youth vote is a waste of time. This feeds a vicious cycle in which campaigns put less money into youth outreach, meaning young voters are less likely to turnout because they are not being asked/engaged.

You are not neutral observers. There are no neutral observers. We all exist in a self-referential ecosystem. You are culpable here. With great power comes great responsibility. We rely on you to use it wisely. Please start living up to those not unreasonable expectations.

More and More Young Voters

YDA has linked in several news articles today on their website. More young people are participating in our democracy, becoming political active and voting.

This is the energy that we are trying to work with to make our organization here stronger, and across the state.

Click on the Title of this post and it will take you to the YDA Article. The Article also links to this story from this weekend: Case Studies in Young Voter Mobilization from Future Majority. This article is discussing the same trend.

Check out this link from YDA. It also gives the links to lots of information that will help you when talking to people about what YDA, FYD's and the Leon County Young Democrats are trying to do, and when fundraising.

And this link is Democratic Party Youth Statistics

Some of the highlights:

• In the 10 most competitive 2004 battleground states, turnout was 64.4% among young voters, compared to 48% across all other states. Like older voters, young people will turn out in higher numbers when targeted.
• Young people care about politics. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, 77% of 18-29 years olds say they are interested in local politics, up 28 points from 1999, and 87% are interested in national affairs.
• In 2006, young voters ages 18-29 supported Democratic candidates by an impressive 58%, six points higher than the voting-age population as a whole. Democrats made gains with young independents while Republicans lost ground with their young voters.
• Young people are increasingly self-identifying as Democrats. Unlike the general population, party identification has increased among young voters. In 2006, 43% of young voters called themselves Democrats as compared to 37% just two years ago. Among all ages, 38% identify as Democrats, up only two points from 2004.

I know it is a lot of links and things to read, but I hope that you take the time to look them over in the near future. The better educated we are, the better we can present ourselves in public. The more people will want to be a part of organization and work with us in the future.

Sen. John Edwards coming to Tallahassee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2005
CONTACTS: David Ginsberg/Jenni Lee 202-449-7601
EDWARDS TO ENCOURAGE YOUNG PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED WITH FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

Washington, DC - In an effort to get more young people involved in the fight against poverty, Senator John Edwards will travel to ten schools across the country in October to launch Project Opportunity, a new student-led effort to encourage young people to make the elimination of poverty the cause of their generation."In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we have a historic opportunity. The country is hungry for change and we do not have to live in an America that accepts poverty as a fact of life or chooses to ignore it," Edwards said. "At so many critical moments in our nation's history, it has been our young people who have made a difference, and that's why I am asking them to join me and their peers in making the eradication of poverty the cause of this generation."

Senator Edwards will travel to the following schools on the following dates as a part of Project Opportunity:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, October 17
University of Missouri at Columbia, October 18
Yale University, October 19
Harvard University, October 20
Dartmouth College, October 21
University of Texas at Austin, October 24
University of California at Berkeley, October 25
University of Wisconsin at Madison, October 26
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, October 27
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, October 28

The goal of Project Opportunity is twofold: to get more young people involved in their communities and to encourage young people to advocate and promote policies that expand opportunity. Students will challenge their peers to take the Project Opportunity pledge and commit to 20 hours of community service per semester, to press for policy solutions at the local and national level, and to work with colleges and universities to maximize their impact in the fight against poverty. The Project Opportunity chapters were formed this summer and each chapter is adopting a community service project in their area. To learn more about Project Opportunity, please visit www.projectopportunity.org.

Project Opportunity is a project of the Center for Promise and Opportunity. The Center for Promise and Opportunity is dedicated to exploring new ways to expand opportunity and realize the promise of our country for all Americans. Its mission encompasses much more than just proposing ideas - it will lead efforts to build public support for change, and will serve as an incubator for solutions, conducting real-world trials. Edwards is the honorary chair of the Center for Promise and Opportunity. To learn more about the Center for Promise and Opportunity, please visit www.promiseandopportunity.com.

###

Currently Senator Edwards is scheduled to speak at 12 Noon in the Grand Ballroom. The doors are scheduled to be opened at 11:00 AM, and the event is not planned to be ticketed. Now this is still subject to some change, but I wanted to make sure everyone had a heads up.

Speaking of the Future Establishment

This is an article that I went to read on the Wiretap website, Alternet's news targeting young people. Much to my suprise local Young Democrat and City Commissioner Andrew Gillum was staring back at me! At that moment I knew that it was going to be the next blog post. This article is about the current model of progressive activism on college campuses and the huge number of small organizations focusing on their own issues.

Speaking of the Future Establishment
By Kristina Rizga, AlterNet
Posted on August 1, 2005, Printed on August 12, 2005

On July 13, a large auditorium at the Washington Convention Center lit by 19th-century chandeliers wasn't hosting the usual crowd of elderly men in gray suits. For the first time in 30 years of liberal organizing, Campus Progress brought together over 600 progressive twenty-something activists to the capital of political establishment.
Recovering from the steady stream of recent defeats, liberals argue over the future of the Democratic Party. And as with the recent AFL-CIO split, there is no agreement on winning strategy in sight. Progressives blame the centrist '90s and want to move away from corporate sponsors to pulling together a new, lower- and middle-class majority of Americans. But beltway moderates can't seem to abandon conservative-leaning elites.
Political differences aside, progressive grassroots organizers seem to agree on one point. While the left has been more effective in local activism, including college campuses, when it comes to national politics the right dominates the agenda more than ever.
Over the past 30 years, right-wing groups poured over $35 million annually to college campuses. Even though a vast majority of students identify themselves as being closer to the left, for every progressive publication on college campus, there are two conservative ones. When it comes to affecting national agenda, conservative groups have been more effective at organizing students, in large part, through campus publications.
But it looks like this trend could be changing. Campus Progress--a division of the Center for American Progress--is the only group in the U.S. today that financially supports progressive publications on college campuses. It currently sponsors 14 progressive publications, with plans to hit 50 next year, helps students bring progressive speakers to their schools and organizes national editorial conference calls. Student publishers receive money for printing, training and mentorship, says Elana Berkowitz, editor of the Campus Progress online magazine.
Their first annual conference was an attempt to gather hundreds of small student groups to kick off a national debate about progressive agenda.
In a day-long, free conference, students heard from Democratic moderates like President Bill Clinton and the first female White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers. There were also more-progressive writers and organizers, such as author Thomas Frank, Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation and Stephanie Nyombayire -- a young activist from Rwanda working to bring more visibility to the ongoing atrocities in Darfur, Sudan. Morning panels attempted to define progressive values while afternoon workshops focused on strategic training shared by veteran organizers.
A young woman in her early twenties in a flamboyant dress and pink high heels confidently introduces herself to everyone at the table. She is an intern from Americans for Peace Now. Her head shook violently as she laid out her carefully crafted talking points with a confident, at times deafening voice. I put a finger on my ear to hear my soft-spoken neighbor. Rob Cobbs is a full-time student at Amherst College and a board chair for Massachussets Student PIRG (Public Interest Research Group). He spends more than 30 hours a week on political organizing. Jamia Wilson, a veteran pro-choice activist with maturity well beyond her 24 years, has thoughtful insight on any topic that comes up. This group of students is every college professor's dream -- motivated, smart and articulate.
With 4.7 million more 18 to 24 year-old votes cast in 2004 than 2000, these young leaders are also becoming every progressive politician's dream--from Democrats to Greens.
Tom Friedman vs. Naomi Klein?
The week after the conference, Campus Progress heard a few loud boo's on its blog inspired by Sam Graham-Felsen's article in the Nation. Critiquing the conference for its lack of more radical viewpoints from the progressive circles, he pointed out that no one challenged President Bill Clinton on the war in Iraq or his welfare policies.
Most Campus Progress bloggers debated the merits of a national conference that brings together more centrist students, who typically vote for the Democrats, and more radical participants, who vote for the Greens or even start their own parties. Do they have enough in common, or is this a waste of time, a project doomed to failure once they get down to policy?
Activist Jamia Wilson thinks the conference was a good idea and was impressed by the diversity of students, but she doesn't see much future in compromising with the more though I truly appreciate Campus Progress, there is definitely this lean toward moderate, centrist propaganda. The Republican Party is winning and they never appeased us, ever," she argued. For Wilson, the issues discussed were too safe -- poverty, social security, sex education -- compared to tougher turf like gay rights, a woman's right to choose, or affirmative action.
Gilowen Jenkins, 21, a senior at the University of Massachusetts, recently changed his more radical stance and moved to the center for strategic purposes. "I feel that to get some positive progressive change we need to get the seats of power back. It's okay to dream -- we need visionaries -- but you have to be realistic about the nature of power in this country and how to get it," he explained.
Berkowitz, editor of Campus Progress, views these disagreements as an asset of the progressive movement, "At the core, Campus Progress students share a number of values -- a commitment to economic opportunity and justice, maintaining civil liberties and reproductive freedoms, pursuing a thoughtful, effective and humane foreign policy." She views finding common ground as key to effective progressive activism. "Students who don't always see eye to eye on every political issue will have to work together to create a movement and to make change on their campuses and in their communities."
Don't Just Organize, Mobilize
Most students spoke with conviction and clarity about their values and goals. There were savvy strategists, organizers, and promoters. But as with the rest of progressive community, student organizers often fail to mobilize larger groups of people beyond their immediate activist circles.
This is where Campus Progress comes in. The group helps some of the most effective progressive student activistsgo beyond short-term mobilization on one issue -- voting once a year, getting their schools to divest from Wal-Mart, or stopping a polluting plant -- to becoming long-term, strategic organizers who stay in touch with non-activists in their communities on a day-to-day basis.
Through campus publications, these organizers can connect big political issues -- like global warming -- to the personal lives of people who are working too many jobs, taking too many classes or watching too much TV. The success of long-term organizing that can shape national agenda requires engagement of our less politically-active neighbors.
John Wilson of the Independent Press Association, which that also supports college publications, comments, "If you look at any category of activism -- the number of student organizations, the number of campus protests and events, the number of students actively organizing -- progressives far outnumber conservatives. But the current model of progressive activism on campuses is a huge number of disparate organizations focusing on their own issues."
Campus Progress can be that missing tool for all progressive students -- radical or centrist -- to effectively communicate with their base, build broader coalitions and win bigger battles. David Halperin, director of Campus Progress adds, "Trying to force conformity is doomed to failure. But we can get smarter about presenting our case and figuring out when it's best to come together."
For one day, for the first time in 30 years of progressive organizing, there were students from Ivy League schools and community colleges, students from Tennessee and Florida -- all seeing each other as part of a cohesive whole. Public service seemed like a hip thing to do. And most participants were challenged to focus on what the progressive movement agrees on and stands for, rather than what it is that divides the various factions. For a movement that prides itself for its inclusion and diversity, I say it's a good thing.