I’ve haven’t read much to compare with Hunter’s sarcasm when he wrote recently, “I, Hunter, Am Your Leader” over at dKos. It was pretty hysterical. And yet, even a healthy dose of cutting wit directed at my idealism cannot squash this small thing of a conscience that resides somewhere inside of me, that refuses to let go of the dream that our government does not have to be dominated by cynical political processes. That we can actually be led by good people with good ideas. People who are out for more than simply winning elections. I want to believe that leaders can make a difference. Whether that is true or not.
And so I was pleased to see BooMan write a recent story where he laid out a vision of how he thinks progressive people might win back the Democratic Party from the inside. There has been a good deal of talk about what is the best political course for progressive people to take in the wake of Bush v. Gore, a lying war, Ohio fraud, Alito being named God and Hackett being chopped out by the party elites, among other Democratic Party failures. The ideas are almost as varied as the individuals who hold them. And without some person or idea to lead people, I don’t see a way out of the mess we seem to be in. Maybe there is no way out. Maybe we are like West Virginian miners trapped in a rich man’s cave-in. Just waiting for the candle to go out. But I think BooMan’s willingness to put out his idea, given his position as the founder of this blog, represents a willingness to try and lead that I’ve found lacking in other blogging communities.
So for those of you with an “inside” strategy, I would truly urge you to get behind his idea. Do something about it. Follow his damn lead. Get organized in some fashion and try hard. As a country we are flagging.
I’d say that a majority here at this site, at least as far as I can determine, and at least among those who are willing to talk about these issues, are in favor of an “outside” the party strategy. A third-party solution. Or a movement solution. And a convincing majority are at least supportive of either an “outside” solution or a combined “inside-outside” solution.
And as life has a way of leading me to ideas, and sometimes action, I’ve been pondering an interesting “inside-outside” solution that I thought I would float as a plan. In some ways, this proposal could be complimentary to BooMan’s plan. Or it could stand on its own. Since there are no shortage of plans in the world, this one probably isn’t original, or particularly good. But I like it enough to float it, despite Hunter’s witty admonition about the desire for leadership.
The idea came to me, as many of my ideas do, from a combination of events in my life. There was all the third-party talk here at Booman. And there were a couple of things that I did last week on the activist front. I went door-to-door in the target neighborhood of an upcoming protest, looking for allies in the peace movement. We are looking for some private property to use as a staging area for a public protest nearby. I saw a house with a peace sign, and met a woman there who seemed as if she was just waiting for someone to walk into her life and drag her off the couch and into the movement. All it took was a simple statement and question. “My name is [BostonJoe] and I’m an anti-war activist. Can I ask you a question? Are you sick of the War in Iraq?” A very connecting experience followed. Of course she is sick of the war. Most human beings who haven’t been thoroughly misguided by the Republican noise machine are sick of the war.
A few days later I was collecting signatures on a petition drive to raise the minimum wage in our state. It was slow going. We were collecting the signatures outside a ritzy theater performance. And many of the rich want to protect their business interests. But there were many who recognize the basic need for a day’s work to at least be worth a day’s life. A powerful moment of direct democracy. Whatever the outcome.
And the confluence of these events leads me to write this plan:
Part-Time Activist Plan
We take volunteer bloggers from here at the Booman Tribune. I’d be shooting for twenty to forty people. We each volunteer a minimum of two-hours toward this plan per week. Do more if you like. But you have to give your two hours.
This core group of bloggers become a steering committee for the group. We refine the plan that I’ll lay out here. Its goals. Its methods. And we get it into an acceptable format. And then we take it to the larger liberal blogosphere. All the satellite liberal blogs first, trying to gain 10-40 bloggers where we go. To build our planning group. When our group is sufficiently large — let’s just say 100-200 bloggers, we take the idea to major sites like dKos and try to get an even larger contingent of core members, all willing to volunteer 2 hours per week in their local communities.
Once the core group is firmly established via our blogging connections, we start in with the main phase of the plan. Every core member goes out into the community near him or herself. Pick a few blocks where you are comfortable knocking on doors. And we take our message (to be discussed afterward) to individuals. We are looking for disaffected Democrats. Republicans who are disillusioned with the system. Independents and non-voters who recognize that our country needs serious structural change.
What we are selling, at its essence, is a chance to get involved. A relatively easy way to become the change. We are selling direct democracy. We will have an agenda. And it will be populist and progressive. Core values. But ultimately, we are the answer to the cynical system that this country has given us. In corporate and political terms.
The short term goal in the neighborhood you start with is to find another core group of individuals who feels like you feel. To organize them into a neighborhood cell. To give them a starter project so they can see that it is fun to be involved for two-hours per week. Once you have a reliable neighborhood group established, you set them to work organizing their own neighborhoods. They become core members, just like the initial 100-200 bloggers that we initially recruited. You expand your target neighborhood’s geography only large enough to get about ten committed individuals. Maybe it can be done in one block. Maybe it takes ten blocks. Maybe it is several square miles of rural farmland. Whatever it takes in terms of size and distance and time. Eventually you will have a cell of ten. And you will then set them to organizing cells of their own. And you will be off to organize another neighborhood.
The long term goal is to create a very large network of grass-roots activists in each state. Very decentralized. Communications going out in via e-mail and phone trees. Keeping it very simple. And once the network reaches a large enough critical mass (a number determined by each state’s ballot initiative laws), we set out on petition drives to put a whole slew of progressive issues directly before the voters in each state. If our lawmakers will not vote for progressive ideas, we will at least give people a chance to vote on such ideas in every election. I would say that the critical mass number in Michigan is in the tens of thousands. If you had 20,000 committed activists, and you told each one that the next months’ mission was to go out individually and collect three filled petitions for ballot proposal “X,” I think you could put your laws before the people. (As an aside, the effect of putting these progressive ballot initiatives on the ballot would be to help the Democratic Party — in the same way that the anti-gay initiatives drove up Republican turn-out in the last election — just an added feature of this having potential as an “inside-outside” strategy).
This would, of course, in no way assure passage of the ballot initiatives. Imagine the money that would be spent by non-democratic interests to defeat a truly progressive agenda. But once the proposals are on the ballot, you have a hefty grass roots network to get out and push your issues. You are in the game. A people’s congress or people’s legislature, if you will. Built on nothing but sweat and good ideas. Let them stuff their money up their arses. And show them what democracy looks like.
A third phase of the plan, once a strong organization was built, would be to take willing activists from within the group, and run for all local offices. At this point, the plan could merge with a rejuvenated Democratic Party, or may have the power to go it alone. But we run candidates for every small local office from school board to dog catcher. Where there is success we build up. Townships. City halls. Counties. State houses. And ultimately statewide races.
This plan would obviously take some time to build from the ground up. But as I looked at other third-party “outside” options, I was struck by what one commentor had said in response to a diary of mine after the Alito fiasco, i.e., that the benefit of starting a new group is the ability to start with a new identity. While I almost totally agree with some of the platforms of now existing third-parties, I think there are some frames that these shells would have to overcome, even in terms of recruitment.
As for core values — or a core message, I would be inclined to keep it very simple and populist. Not even specific policies to begin with, but broad principles. Like this — Part-time Activists believe 1) That the interests of people should be above the interests of corporations. 2) That the government exists to ensure basic human rights — a right to work that provides adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care for all people. 3) That the environment that sustains life must be protected and valued. 4) That America’s foreign policy must be built on respect for international law, and on respecting the human rights of all the citizens of the world. 5) That our government must not be dominated by unaccountable corporate or party interests — we need a transparent and effective democracy that speaks for people not for money. From these, and a few other basic principles, I believe you could come up with a myriad of progressive policies that would fall under the umbrella — and allow room for individual differences within a cohesive structure.
Two last points. Two hours is not much to ask. Many people have it to give. Many people can make that time. And I can tell you that activism, while often draining, can frequently lead to more activism. You can’t stop doing once you are in the game. You are in, or you are out. It is just a fact. And the more people who are in, and not watching the MSM, the better for the world.
Finally, as the larger organization builds, I believe there are many opportunities for local actions that would be beneficial to individual neighborhoods. Such potential actions are limited only by the creativity and resources of the individuals involved. We will be generating an incubator for ideas and movements that we cannot yet envision. For leaders to emerge. For a change of our government.
Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “You must become the change you seek in the world,” rest heavy on me when I prepare to sleep at night. I’ve got a long way to go. But I believe that man was on to a universal principle that we all need to learn and live.
Well there you have it. Another idea de jour? Are there 20-40 Boo Tribbers willing to donate two hours a week to such a dream? Or is Hunter right? Is it foolish to look for leaders in the blog world? Or perhaps this — Hunter is right in another way, and it is foolish to look to others to lead us, when we must lead ourselves?
