One of the presentations at Netroots Nations that I wanted to share came from Josh Roseneau, Programs and Policy Director at the National Center for Science Education NCSE). NCSE is a really incredible organization, especially considering how small it is compared to the anti-evolutionary forces arrayed against it. But the problem it elucidates for us is our continued inability to think in terms of hegemonic warfare, the way that conservatives do. This is not a criticism of NCSE, but rather of how we failed to build a larger framework, both organizationally and conceptually.
In this presentation, Josh covers a lot of ground, but two things struck me particularly--and I've gotten some images from him on the flip to underscore them. First is that we're making progress in the teaching of evolution. The second is that evolution is becoming more and more important as a framework not just for understanding the world around us, but for developing new techonologies. A picture of an evolved antenna from NASA awaits you on the flip. This is an example of how evolution is becoming increasingly important for understanding our world in the modality of logos, the explantion of how things work in the world. I would argue that one important elements what's currently missing from our side is a similar expansion of evolutionary understanding in the modality of mythos, the explanation of meaning in the world. This is a tremendous lack on our part, that needs serious addressing, and I hope that bringing it up here can help spark more of a discussion about that.
Now, here's Josh's presentation from Netroots Nation:
After the best Netroots Nation conference yet, my wife and I hit the road out west, going to 4 national parks - Sequoia, King's Canyon, Yosemite, and the John Muir woods - and ending the trip in San Francisco, my favorite city to visit. Spending time in the majesty of the trees, mountains, canyons, and valleys of Western America fills up your soul with goodness like nothing else I know of. But being with the good folks of Netroots Nation does pretty well at that too.
The progressive netroots is a fascinating movement. Having been around progressive politics for 30 plus years now gives one perspective, and the netroots movement has a lot of the same characteristics as some of the other social movements and constituencies I have seen, but is also very different in some ways. Whether you think of it as starting from MoveOn's dramatic beginning in 1998, or from the time Jerome Armstrong and Markos began blogging around 2002, the netroots is still a very young movement, and they have a lot of the characteristics of young movements: the excitement of previously ignored people getting a taste of political power for the first time; the passion of people organizing for the first time; the creativity of people not constricted by old ways of thinking about politics; the impatience and anger at how messed up and slow to change things are; the aggressiveness of a movement seeing the potential of power but not yet part of the power structure.
A lot of times what happens in politics is that movements become strong enough to get a seat at the table, but once they have that seat, their leadership becomes satisfied, complacent, and stale. Once you have your seat, you don't want to lose it by pushing too hard, and you start to accept the conventional wisdom of everyone else already seated there alongside you.
The question for the netroots is what happens now. A seat at the Democratic Party table is a good thing in many ways, and it is within range. This is a movement, though, that will die faster then most if it becomes stale, complacent, or captive to conventional wisdom. What makes this movement a movement is the early-adapter edge, the creativity, the ability to say what is not being said by the establishment. If that is lost, people will get bored and communities build on websites will erode.
On the other hand, without the knowledge of what works on the inside or the capacity to build longer term institutions, without the kinds of relationships with insiders that can turn activism into legislative accomplishments, all the good work being done by this movement will run into a brick wall and people will get frustrated and start drifting away. Striking the balance right is challenging for any young movement, especially one as diverse, bottom-up, and (small d) democratic as the netroots.
The "DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama" is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!
Today marks the completion of the second week of the DREAM Now series. I am sorry I was not able to get a letter out on Wednesday. Too much travel and not enough sleep led me to come down with a soar throat and a fever on Tuesday. Thankfully, I'm starting to recover, today. If you're not getting enough of your DREAM Now fix I recommend reading Matias Ramos' post on why he stood up during Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) speech at Netroots Nation.
When I was at Netroots Nation on Thursday, I pointed out why a majority in the House of members with D's next to their names isn't as valuable as a majority populated by Better Democrats:
We currently hold a 37-vote-margin in the House. Yet 34 Democrats voted against the health care reform and 19 voted against financial reform. It doesn't take a genius to see that it barely matters what happens in November when that many Democrats are voting with - and voting like - Republicans.
That's why you were there for Donna Edwards when she took on Al Wynn. That's why you were there for Bill Halter when he took on Blanche Lincoln. And that's why you should be with me as I take on Stephen Lynch.
As a reminder, my opponent in the Democratic primary, incumbent Stephen Lynch, voted for the Iraq War and its continued funding, for the Patriot Act and its reauthorization, and against health care reform, and has voted to restrict a woman's right to choose.
The differences between my values and Stephen Lynch's values couldn't be clearer. Ilyse Hogue, Director of Political Advocacy and Communications for MoveOn.org, highlighted as much when she sat down with Amy Goodman for an episode of Democracy Now! taped on location at Netroots Nation:
Amy Goodman (52:33): Ilyse Hogue, what about other primaries that are taking place?
Ilyse Hogue (52:37): Well, I think Bill Halter was the precursor. What we saw was him embodying a very strong feeling that our members have, and we think is sweeping across the country, which is he was taking on Wall Street. But Blanche Lincoln was also showing a friendliness towards the HMO's during the health care fight. And, what we're seeing is the base - our members - saying, 'Enough with Democrats who think that they're more accountable to corporate powers in this country than they are to us.
So we're seeing that same thing play out with Stephen Lynch and Mac D'Alessandro in Massachusetts-09. That primary is September 14th. What's interesting about that is that that is largely believed to be a safe Democratic seat, so the primary is actually the election. And Stephen Lynch, who is the incumbent, voted against the health care bill even though, at the end of the day, most of the Democratic base thought it would provide some relief. He did not do it as a champion for the public option. He was not there for the public option fight.
Mac D'Alessandro has come in and he's said, 'You know what? If we really want this democracy to be owned by the people and work for the people, we've got to do things. We've got to overturn Citizens United. We've got to actually get public financing. We've got to get lobbyists out of D.C.' And, I think that most Americans are looking for action on specific legislation like financial regulations, but they're also looking for people who are going to challenge the system because the system is not working for most Americans.
The kind of grassroots campaign that I'm running is built upon reaching out to voters directly, on the phones and at the doors. With the help of enthusiastic supporters across the 9th district, we have built a grassroots army that has generated strong momentum.
Just today, it was announced that we finished in second place in Democracy for America's Grassroots All-Stars contest, a competition that began with ninety candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives from across the country. I was the top finishing candidate among those still in a primary campaign, and I was the only candidate among the top five finalists not from the state of California.
I am running against an entrenched incumbent who has a million dollar warchest lined with contributions from big corporations and special interests. But, if there's one thing I've heard over and over again from voters as I've gone door to door across the district, it's that the voters want someone who stands up to big corporations, not someone who is funded by them.
That's why I need your support and the support of the netroots. Like Ilyse Hogue said, this is a blue district, so we have an opportunity to focus on electing the best Democrat we can. I urge you to support my campaign so that Massachusetts' 9th can be represented by a Better Democrat.
I've never been one to think that unity was a realistic political goal. We should strive for greater unity, of course. But as Chris has noted repeatedly over the years, the large mass of people vote similarly to others in their demographic cohorts, reflecting the fact that they have similar life-experiences, interests, and values, as well as similar ways of interpreting the world. The flip side of this is that there are equally basic reasons why unity across groups will be limited. However, this doesn't rule out a convergence of interests, values and ways of interpreting the world--not to mention an increased understanding of how seemingly different life-experiences share certain elements in common. Convergence is a far more realistic goal to aim for, and it's also realistic in another sense, since it recognizes and respects differences that can be a source of strength, if properly appreciated.
With that said, I was truly surprised at how much convergence of views I witnessed at Netroots Nation. This is a subjective view on my account, of course. But I was impressed that there seemed to be fairly broad agreement--even from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid--that (a) Democratic governance had not brought about the kind profound change that we had been hoping for, and that (b) the reason for this was that the progressive movement is not yet strong enough to overcome the obstacles it faces.
When the Speaker of the House tells the FDR "make me do it" story (with Frances Perkins in the role usually given to A. Philip Randolph), and then directly encourages people to increase pressure on Congress, there is very tangibly much more unity of purpose than normally appears in our day-to-day struggles.
There are all sorts of differences over how this plays out, of course--as witnessed in our recent debates over trying to understand what motivates Obama. But Mike's point about the need for such speculation to have a positive practical result was very much reflected in the repeated overlap of views that I witnessed. Yes, the mid-terms are going to be tough. And I believe it's important to be clear about why this is: A failure not just to deliver "change we can believe in", but even to actually consider it, much less fight for it. But even more important than that is to keep moving forward in battling against the accumulated power and influence of the right.
This is a battle for the long haul, and we need to understand what that means and act accordingly. As one speaker pointed out, it was 30 years from Goldwater's defeat in 1964 to the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994. We've gone from the nadir of 2002-2004 to the triumphs of 2006 and 2008 in lightening speed by comparison, which is a big part of why those triumphs have not paid off in terms of fundamental change the way that want them to. It takes time to change deep-seated assumptions, habits and calculations--not to mention institutions. It doesn't need to take 30 years. But historically speaking it's hardly surprising that less than half a decade isn't enough.
I am, by nature, on the impatient side of things, even as I write this. I'm not asking anyone to lower their level of expectation. But what I saw at Netroots Nation was the potential power that comes when disappointment is channeled into raising the level of effective and transformative effort, rather than lowering expectations or abandoning the fight altogether.
Arguably the most important, most overlooked aspect of the upcoming elections is the control of state legislatures, who play a crucial role in redistricting for next decades. I'll be writing more about this in the days and weeks ahead. But for now, I'll just say that it's typical of the broader need to focus on institutional forms of power. We can tell if we're making real progress when we stop being obsessively focused on the shiny surface of things, and instead find ourselves naturally at home with the deeper structures that shape the moment-by-moment flow, even if they do not determine the exact nature of moment-by-moment events.
Maybe it was just me. But I don't think so. At Netroots Nation, I saw the signs of that shift taking place. I saw the shape of things to come--if we are wise and patient and persevering enough to "make it so," as Jean-Luc Picard would say.
Three developments that I'm aware of coming from Netroots Nation 2010 today:
Reid promises filibuster reform. In the Q&A after his address today, Reid was quite clear that rule reform is needed. He compared the filibuster to the spitball in baseball, which initially wasn't illegal, but was used only sparingly, but once it began to be abused, baseball had to ban it. Interesting metaphor. He didn't give any details of what reform he has in mind though.
Tom Udall promises Senate rule reform. In the filibuster session that followed Reid's remarks, Udall promised to move that the Senate adopt its rules by majority vote on the first day of the 112th Congress next January. He is aiming to have this rule change adopted by simple majority, not two-thirds.
Common Cause planning lawsuit. At the filibuster reform session, someone from Common Cause stood up to announce they will file a federal lawsuit against the filibuster as unconstitutional. Nothing on their site yet, but hopefully soon.
As a reminder on the filibuster front, by my research, 36 State Senates do not allow the possibility of a filibuster. If a supermajority of States don't need the filibuster, why does the national Senate? Table inside.
The "DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama" is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!
This post will mark the completion of the first week of the DREAM Now Letters. This social media campaign has been an immediate success, which is in large part due to the historic actions of DREAMers this week.
Major bloggers from across the net, which I will link to below, have already cross-posted both Mohammad Abdollahi's and Yahaira Carrillo's stories. The letters even made a brief appearance on memeorandum, a news aggregator that I'm addicted to.
If you haven't read about it, yet, on Tuesday, 21 DREAM Act youth were arrested on Capitol Hill. Nativists' heads are already exploding at the notion that undocumented youth could openly declare their immigration status, get arrested, and not get deported. David Bennion, my co-blogger at Citizen Orange, has the best write up of the action, by far. It's new media at it's best. He was actually there while it was happening.
Fmr. Pres. Bill Clinton speaks at the 2009 Netroots Nation Convention in Pittsburgh, PA | Flickr Photo by kyleshank
Each year, for the past five years, members of what has become known as the "netroots" [a term that almost exclusively means progressives, liberals or Democrats that regularly blog and organize on the Internet] have come together for an annual convention known as Netroots Nation to participate in a forum for progressive activists and candidates to strengthen communities online and grow the progressive movement. It has attempted to inspire action and help those in attendance grow new ideas to affect change.
As the "netroots" prepare to meet in Las Vegas to once again discuss what they could be doing (and have been doing) to "amplify" their "progressive voice" by using "technology to influence the public debate," one wonders if this convention will have any potential long-term value at all to movements in this country desiring more change from the Obama Administration.
David Lightman of McClatchy Newspapersaptly presents the dilemma the "netroots" currently face, "Activists in the liberal blogosphere face a crossroads: They had tremendous success in 2008 helping to turn voter anger into votes for Democrats, but persuading Congress and the White House to adopt their agenda is much harder."
Lightman adds during the convention "members will quiz House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., among others, about why Washington doesn't move more quickly to end the Afghanistan war or give more help to the millions who are out of work" and the "netroots" will likely be told " (a) Washington works in complex, deliberate ways, and one should be happy to achieve 80 percent of one's goals, and (b) since Democrats took control of Washington 18 months ago, they've won the enactment of historic legislation on health care, economic stimulus and financial regulation -- no small achievements."
Lightman's preview of Netroots Nation indicates the convention will be another Democratic exercise in the lowering of progressives' expectations of what is possible in terms of change in this country. There's also indication that the focus will not be on Democrats at all. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), who reassures readers in the McClatchy article that the party is in "no danger of being a captive of the left" believes in unifying "this year's congressional candidates behind an anti-Republican message: that if the GOP were in charge, things would be much worse." The DCCC is a sponsor of Netroots Nation.
Rep. Van Hollen appeared on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Here's a glimpse at the story the Democratic Party will likely be promoting as it seeks to ensure Americans will vote for them in November:
REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, what you're, what you're hearing is--as, as Bob said, look, we know that we have a long way to go on the economy. People are still hurting, that's absolutely clear. But we also know what the American people know, which is the day George Bush lost--left office, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. And during the full eight years of the Bush administration we lost private sector jobs. We are now beginning to climb out. And what we are saying is yes, let's focus on the policies, because why in the world would we want to go back to the same economic agenda that created that mess, that, that lost jobs for eight years? And I think the challenge that our colleagues have here, Pete and John, is to say to the American people, how do you expect to do the same thing and get a different result? I mean, that, that's Einstein's definition of insanity, right? [emphasis added]
Such a message hinges upon whether or not the financial reform legislation can be viewed as shifting the country away from the same economic agenda that created this mess. Robert Reich, who was the Secretary of Labor under President Clinton and is a fairly outspoken progressive voice, asserts, "Congress has labored mightily to produce a mountain of legislation that can be called financial reform, but it has produced a molehill relative to the wreckage Wall Street wreaked upon the nation."
Also, should we be so certain that the Republican's are following "Einstein's definition of insanity"? What they are doing may not be working out for certain sections of the American population, but it is most certainly, politically, paying off. As a tactic, crafting a debate on issues that ranges from what the Tea Party is not willing to accept to what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street and other private interests fear will infringe on their precious free enterprise system today has effectively defanged every piece of legislation that has come up for debate in Congress.
Representatives like Rep. Van Hollen ignore the tactic that the Obama Administration has practiced, the courting of Republican votes for legislation the party will continue to oppose no matter what concessions the Administration grants them.
The Administration has decided Republican voices are more important than any liberal or progressive voices in the Senate or House that might be making demands.Instead of seeking to silence the conservative echo chamber that effectively skewers any progressive agenda items that could potentially be put on the table, the Administration has gone out of their way to assure and reassure Republicans that they can move the debate in their direction.
Progressives, on the other hand, have learned that they will incur the wrath of those in the Administration like the brawny and rugged Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and other Obama advisers if they dare to oppose the Administration's attempts to sterilize legislation on behalf of the corporations they are attempting to regulate.
Given the record of scorn displayed toward progressives who organize with their own agenda in mind (e.g. Emanuel calling liberals "fucking stupid" as they ran ads against Democrats opposing the public option), it's no surprise that progressive voices would be reluctant to tug the conversation in their direction. Instead of incurring the fire of the Obama Administration, many probably would rather focus on the reactionary Tea Party faction growing within the Republican Party and simply tackle that instead of the failures of the Democratic Party during Obama's first two years in office. Unfortunately, this ignores the reality that Democrats have failed to rebuff the growing rancor of anti-government sentiment in the GOP and offer an alternative message; in fact, that Tea Party message is effectively dragging the Democrats toward supporting a political agenda more conducive to a vastly unregulated free market system that Democrats admit has gotten us into the mess we are in today.
Democrats have gradually become more and more the party of "no" to progressives. Their admission of running on a message that is anti-Republican is an indication that their campaign strategy for these elections will also be a strategy of "no." How is this any different than what Republicans have been doing as they claim Democrats are the party of "no"?
What we have in this country is a political establishment discourse that has devolved into discussions from Democrats on why the population should reject Republicans and a discussion from Republicans on why the population should reject Democrats. It does not allow for real talk on the issues any more than a domestic dispute between a husband and wife allows for real discussion on who was responsible for escalating the situation and why there was yelling and screaming in the first place.
To some extent, both parties are right: neither offer an agenda for a future that will go to the root of the problems this country faces and take on the private and powerful interests that are further entrenching these problems in the fabric of American society.
This failure produces a "trickle-down" effect that has a detrimental impact on the "netroots." Articles and postings like Eric Alterman's recent essay are published and proclaim that America cannot have a progressive presidency right now. They debilitate, demoralize and produce comments demonstrating an acquiescence to this meme.
The "netroots" will meet and focus on primaries and electing better Democrats, using blogs, Twitter and other social networking technologies to turn "red states" "blue", how to improve online organizing, the current state of progressive media, etc. There is no doubt that many will take home some valuable knowledge and insight they did not have before they attended. And most likely they will network with other people who are part of the "netroots" community and gain the opportunity to be more effective at what they do. However, this is an event receiving sponsorship from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which contribute to the maintenance and polishing of the Democratic Party's image.
There would be nothing wrong with these committees supporting this event if wedding this event to those committees did not automatically limit the scope of debate at a time when the dimensions of discussion in politics need to be expanded.
Only in America do political activists (especially ones who call themselves progressives) limit their visions for change to what can be passed legislatively this year or the next. Only in America do those committed to organizing consistently coach themselves to accept terms for organizing that will not alienate the very politicians who have contributed to the situations organizers seek to address.
An event that organizes those who are the most vocal section of society has great potential. But, the dominance of politically-safe sessions (in the aftermath of the Citizens United v. FEC decision, no abolish corporate personhood now workshop), the absence of any sessions on reforming the broken electoral system, and the lack of discussions around the very few differences between Republicans and Democrats and what to do about that reality warrants skepticism.
If the "netroots" leave ready to do more to defend Obama and Democrats from Republicans, this convention will have massively failed. But, if they leave ready to advance small-d democratic policies and items that often appear on proposed progressive agendas, if they leave committed to creating space in the public sphere for real progressive organizing to take place, there is a chance that this event will not have just been an opportunity for Democrats to revitalize support for their increasingly stale politics in this country.
Netroots Nation is again holding their political pub trivia tournament, hosted by Adam B at DailyKos and sponsored by AFSCME this year (Friday, July 23rd, 7 PM local time). Team OpenLeft took home the gold last year, and we'll be back to defend our title.
Commenters Master Jack and debcoop were on last year's team, but debcoop may not be able to make it this year, so this an open call for those who want to fill the roster spot (and if she can, you can be on anyway!). You'd join the rest of us front-pagers in going for blogospheric glory.
Past trivia questions can be found among these threads if you want to get an idea of how it goes. If you're good at political history and/or are enough of a political fact junkie to be able to hear the name of an individual like Bruce Springsteen and respond with the state in which he was born and who represents the congressional district in which he was born (answer: New Jersey, Frank Pallone), then this is your ball game. Plus, it's at a local bar, so it'll be a good time.
Drop me a line at adambink at gmail dot com if you think you're game enough. If I get a lot of folks, we'll have some kind of fun try-out. See you in Vegas.
I don't always have the time to compile these, but it's been quite some time since the last one. Past can be found here and here.
We are all on lots of organizational e-mail lists and sometimes it's difficult to have time to sort through them all. I unfortunately have to let a lot pile up in my inbox during busy days, and then try to take some time to clear them all out (if you want to know part of my secret, it's typing "in: inbox in: unread" in the Gmail search bar). I decided today was another day for that, and came across some actions I think are really worthwhile/creative, along with some I'm working on with colleagues, so here's a quick round-up for your perusal and action if you so choose. Special recognition and thanks to those who bought blog advertising on OpenLeft to help keep our lights on.
OpenLeft advertiser VoteVets has a new ad up, accompanied by a petition to get certain Senators to stop taking money from oil companies. This one is on Sen. Burr, and who the other targets and coalition partners are, along with more details, can be found here.
I wrote about this yesterday, but it's worth repeating- NBC is excluding same-sex couples from its Today Show wedding contest for no good reason. The pressure is working, as NBC has requested a meeting today with GLAAD to discuss the matter, after over 3,500 people have sent e-mails via change.org to the network, along with tweets at @todayshow. Please sign to e-mail yours.
Justin Krebs, a co-founder of Drinking/Living Liberally and a friend of OpenLeft who used to write in this space, has a new book out- 538 Ways to Live, Work, and Play Like a Liberal. I went to a book party here in DC to chat about the book, and it's fantastic. PBC has copies on sale so you can chip in proceeds to your favorite lefty cause. Get yours here.
Equal Rights Washington, whose ED is a smart and strategic colleague of mine, is mailing out free "I DO... support marriage equality" bumper stickers. You can get yours here.
OpenLeft advertiser As Mike wrote about this morning, MoveOn.org has launched a Fight Washington Corporate Corruption pledge to both demonstrate a groundswell of support for cleaning up the system, as well as to identify candidates who stand with progressives in support of clean elections, lobbying reform, and a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United (Disclosure: Mike and I are working with them on this project). 130,000 people have signed. You can do so here.
I've long been a student and advocate for campaign finance reform and general reform of our electoral system, from voting to lobbying to contributions, but have increasingly come to believe that we really won't achieve non-watered down reform of major institutions like health care and Wall Street until we reform the system in which reforms are attempted. And if you want evidence, think about how the past six months has felt on those issues.
Related, Common Cause and Public Campaign have launched a campaign that will spend between $8 and $15 million in support of the Fair Elections Now Act, which has 157 co-sponsors in the House and 21 in the Senate. The ads, which you can see here, will air in Seattle, Tallahassee, Denver, and DC, and are aimed at getting Democratic members like Washington-area Reps. Dicks, Baird, Larsen, and Inslee onboard. The groups are hoping to achieve a House vote this year.
In a factoid that may win you $200 on Jeopardy one day, it's also the first ad ever to make use of an iPad in delivery.
Also related, New York State legislature is considering a bill that would require corporations to get shareholder approval- including anyone who owns stock- before making political expenditures. It's a common-sense response to Citizens United, and has the support of Sampson and Silver in both houses. Working Families Party in New York State has an action alert that makes it easy to contact your legislators if you're in New York State.
OpenLeft advertiser If you haven't yet checked out Courage Campaign's Equality on Trial project, which focuses on the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case, they have an excellent Facebook page set up with all the up-to-the-day updates on the case, related issues, and the project.
Rep. Chellie Pingree has more updates on her legislation to force BP to pay royalties on all the oil it spilled. The widget below calculates a running total how much BP owes the American people based on $13 per barrel.
Click here to share on Facebook and here on Twitter. It's a great way to both draw attention to BP's handling as well as light a fire under them by the day.
Last month we launched a scholarship program with a few other netroots organizations to send three marriage equality online activists to Netroots Nation in Las Vegas. After myself and a panel of other judges (Markos/DailyKos, Julia Rosen/Courage Campaign, Rod McCollum/Rod 2.0, Joe Sudbay/AMERICABlog, Alex Blaze/Bilerico Project) narrowed the voting field, we have a set of ten finalists.
We're now opening up the voting to you in the netroots. You can check out their applications here. We've posted videos, blog posts and answers to questions on how they would advance the freedom to marry for same-sex couples on the page so you can have a little background. You can vote once every 24 hours for one person. If you have a friend or someone who's work you like, feel free to spread the word online to garner votes for him/her.
There really are some great contestants- some folks whose work I'm familiar with and some others who look like they would really benefit from the experience and help build our movement back home. There's also a lot of geographic diversity, which really is awesome. You can check them out and go vote here. Voting ends on June 25th.
Gov. Lingle of Hawaii, amazingly, still hasn't made a decision on whether to sign or veto a same-sex civil unions bill that passed several weeks ago. If she plans to veto, she has until June 21 to announce it, and until July 6 to actually sign it, veto it, or let it become law without her signature.
According to a University of Washington poll, 74% of Tea Party supporters say they agree with the following statement: "While equal opportunity for blacks and minorities to succeed is important, it's not really the government's job to guarantee it."
And 52% agree with the statement "compared to the size of their group, lesbians and gays have too much political power." Overstatement of the year.
Want to go to the Netroots Nation? If you're a marriage equality activist, OpenLeft and Freedom to Marry is offering 3 scholarships (travel + hotel + registration) to the best out there. I wrote up some of what we're looking for here, and the deadline to apply is coming up- Monday, June 7th. Applications can be submitted here.
I don't usually like Peter Beinart's stuff, but he has a really excellent piece on Zionism and how the next generation views it (it's from a few weeks back but I just found time to read it today). I 100% fit into the focus group demographic Luntz describes at the beginning of the piece.
Washington City Paper has a good cover story on the DC Voting Rights Act and some backstory on what ended up happening with the NRA screwing it over at the end when it looked like there would be a compromise. As one friend on the board of DC Vote put it to me, they essentially wanted everything except making it law that every newborn leaves the hospital with a Social Security card and a gun. I wanted that bill passed badly, but as a resident, considering the scope of what the NRA wanted, I realize lives are more important than one more vote in Congress. So the right decision was made here, and we'll just have to keep working.
Rep. Chellie Pingree from the coastal state of Maine blogs on why BP should pay royalties on the legislation oil they spill, not just that which they recover, refine and sell (current law). The royalties would be used to finance clean ocean-based energy projects. Her office tells me she plans to introduce legislation on the topic.
Chellie and Rep. Honda also just started the New Media Working Group of the House Dem Caucus, in an effort to make sure the Democrats never have a Ted "series of tubes" Stevens in their caucus. In all seriousness, I participated in a "speed dating" event with 5 other blogfolk last year, attended by about 60 House Dem communications directors and press secretaries. It was fascinating. I would say 8/10 people who rotated at my table didn't understanding of how to work with bloggers or online activists in general, and I bet a fair number didn't have a sound grasp of how to engage Twitter or other new media tools. Hopefully this will help.
There's been a lot of discussion about this McDonald's gay-themed ad, which is running in France until June 21st.
I actually think it's very positive for the community. A number of colleagues of mine disagree. What do you think?
A new poll from KCCI TV in Iowa shows that for what I believe is the first time, a majority of Iowans support the freedom to marry for same-sex couples- 53% in favor with 41% opposed. I am ever more interested in how this will play out in the 2012 Republican primaries. I'll even go so far as to bet that one of the candidate will get their pander machine running when an adviser tells them it's the "sleeper issue" to winning Iowa, and he/she comes out in favor of the freedom to marry.
Over at The Bilerico Project, Bil Browning has a 3-part series looking at the fairly new LGBT activist group, GetEqual (known best for chaining themselves to the White House fence, interrupting Obama at the Boxer fundraiser, disrupting a House Ed and Labor Committee hearing, etc.) New Managing Director Heather Cronk, formerly of New Organizing Institute, has responses up. I have mixed feelings on GetEqual, and probably will write a longer piece about all that sooner or later. True to that, I think there are some fair points and counterpoints on both sides. You can find all of the pieces so far here.
While I was working on No On 1/Protect Maine Equality, I had the privilege of meeting lots and lots of other online organizers- some from the straight community and some from the LGBT community. What was notable was how much talent for organizing there is out there, and how many new creative ideas. From the Volunteer Vacation campaign to Call and Drive for Equality to creative fundraising ideas, there were a wealth of organizing ideas. There were also a wealth of smart ways to build public support for marriage equality itself across the country.
That's what it comes down to- building support piece by piece across the country. In the 2012 Republican primary, I think marriage equality will be in the spotlight, as it's now legal in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Somewhere out there, there are some very smart organizing ideas to get Republicans onboard for the freedom to marry, and lots of other cool ideas that can incubating at Netroots Nation this summer. And that's what today's post is about.
I'm happy to announce OpenLeft is partnering with Freedom to Marry, a national organization winning marriage equality state-by-state, and DailyKos, The Bilerico Project, Rod 2.0, AMERICABlog and Courage Campaign in announcing three organizing scholarships for marriage equality activists to attend Netroots Nation. We conceived of this idea for two reasons (a) Like you've shown at OpenLeft, there are activists out there in the netroots willing to take a stand for marriage equality (b) There are smart organizers who can continue their work and start putting together good campaigns to win the freedom to marry across the country. We aim to help kickstart that.
Details:
If you're interested in applying, first, submit two blog posts OR one video demonstrating your work in support of the freedom to marry. Kind of like an e-resume, since this is online organizing, after all! The video can also be a short (2-3 minutes) recording of yourself speaking to camera describing your efforts, too. Be creative.
Second, respond to the questions on the application form here. Note especially that this is open to online organizers- you don't need to be a blogger per se.
A panel of judges from around the netroots including myself will narrow the field to ten applicants, and then you will have the opportunity to select the winners by voting.
Scholarships will include Netroots Nation registration, round-trip airfare to Las Vegas, and hotel costs.
Applications are due June 7th and winners will be announced June 25th. We're looking for the best out there, so please share far and wide, and be sure to apply yourself!
All other details are here. Hope to see you in Vegas.
STATE BLOGS
The "DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama" is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!
