So my boyfriend and I took a walk down to check out the National Equality March this afternoon and take a walk in it for awhile. Lots of cheer, good spirit, diversity of age, which is great. Lots of people I know wouldn't be caught dead doing any kind of "activism" who were holding handmade sides. Very encouraging.
The event itself was poorly managed- probably the result of throwing this together essentially at the last-minute, and on a shoestring budget (more about the history of the March here). Poor speaker equipment, lack of videoscreens, etc. Plus, it intermingled with a large breast cancer walk, so any numbers you'll see (I've heard Capitol Police are estimating 150,000, while March organizers are claiming 200K, so it's probably something in the middle) are likely to be a bit inflated with crowds mixing. Congrats to organizers on an event that looked pretty good, considering they way it was put together.
But I want to stop short of "a success" and think about that for a minute.
I was fascinated by how many friends of mine who work in the LGBT movement and have opposed the March for months as a poor use of resources that was poorly put together, were on Twitter, e-mail listservs, etc. today gushing about how brilliant, awe-inspiring and successful it was. Some are doing it out of complement to organizers, some caught up completely in the moment.
I think being complementary is warranted to some extent, but there is a difference between success as an event and success as a venture. What is the definition of success here? I put together over 60 events on a national book tour for The Progressive Revolution, nearly all of which were called "successes" by attendees and in my own opinion. But I would be the first to tell you the book was not a smashing success in the sense that it was on the NYTimes bestseller list or anything. That is not to say it wasn't a success in terms of a venture, and wasn't worth doing, as a tiny percentage of all books get on the NYTimes list, but that it wasn't equal to the gushing enthusiasm I saw at our events.
The same gushing enthusiasm is being outpoured to the March by some of its harshest critics, who are quick to call it a success. I will call it a success as an event, sure. I will wait to call it a success, and worth doing again, in terms of what it actually does. It's fun to come to DC and party at clubs, shout at tall white buildings the next day, then go home. Success for our movement is a lot different. And it's difficult to quantify what makes this a success, the way historians attribute civil rights legislation in part to Dr. King's 1963 march. We'll have to wait a good while to see whether this made a huge difference in terms of getting our movement equal rights.
Until then, let's call the event a job fairly well done, remember not to use the way in which it was done as a model for the future, and exercise wisdom and patience in thinking about whether it's worth doing it in the future based on what it gets us.
This is because of the great support y'all and folks I've met across the country have given the ideas in the book and created the buzz to convince our publishers that it's worth putting out there in audio.
I'd appreciate it if you'd help me spread the word. You can download the book on Amazon via Audible.com by clicking here, or you can get it at the iTunes store and put it on your iPod, iTouch, Zune, burn it to a CD, or listen from your computer. It also makes a great gift for those too busy to read.
I have two more updates on the Pacific NW trip front:
1. Matt Singer and the great folks at Forward Montana have kindly booked me to speak at Fact and Fiction in Missoula on Thursday, July 23rd. All the details are here. Come on out for a lovely evening of discussion and the latest news from DC.
2. Adam and the good people at the Oregon Bus Project have expanded the fun of just me into me + Steve Novick + Carla Axtman = This Is Your Brain On Politics, a rousing discussion of creating change out of our existing tools. But never fear, it's still at Bipartisan Cafe, the venue that most fits my personality and message.
All the details are here, and the invitation is below the fold. Sunday, July 19th in Portland. Come on out and spread the word.
I've been out of town for a wedding since late last week, sorry it's been quiet on my front. Will have a bunch of thoughts the rest of this week on multiple fronts.
Wanted to tell all here that I'll be headed out to Oregon, Washington, and Montana in late July to talk about The Progressive Revolution, financial system reform, and lots of other stuff. Plus, we'll get to see Glacier National Park, which my wife and I are pumped about.
The first event is in Portland on Sunday, July 19th. Adam and our friends at the Oregon Bus Project have gotten a kick out of booking us at the Bipartisan Cafe, which in 26 cities we've been to has to be the most hilariously ironic name. I'm looking forward to it. Details here.
We'll also be in Seattle on Tuesday, July 21st to hang out with Goldy and the good people at Drinking Liberally. Details here.
We'll also be heading to Missoula, MT, planning still in the works on that.
I'm headed later today down to Raleigh/Durham for what will be the last book trip for quite awhile (and it'll be fun to celebrate my birthday tomorrow in a great town). I chatted with Matt Comer yesterday, a good friend of Adam's and the editor of Q-Notes, the Carolinas' LGBT newspaper, to discuss the upcoming trip and prospects for LGBT rights in the next several years.
I'll be speaking at the NC Policy Watch "Crucial Conversations" luncheon tomorrow at noon (lunch served at 11:30). They've had some pretty excellent programs and speakers in the past, including Rep. Brad Miller recently, so I'm pumped. You can RSVP for lunch (cost is $10) here.
Tomorrow night I'll be speaking at Regulator Bookshop in Durham at 7 PM, sponsored by Traction, the Durham-based political social networking group (they used an interesting model- fun- for social engagement, and quite successfully). You can check them out here. Our friends Lanya Shapiro and Cara Wittekind of Traction (who did me the great honor of doing a lot of the research for the book while interning here in DC), are very kind to have us down there.
I just came to the end of my last extended (11 day) leg of my book (The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be, for those of you who haven't been following along) tour. From here on in, I will be doing some quick 2-3 day trips to specific places (next week - Austin, the week after that - Raleigh/Durham), or occasional speeches at conferences.
Some fun photos Adam took of this leg are up at our Flickr page here.
This last big leg was a fascinating, exciting, and exhausting tour that included 12 different book events in 8 different cities, along with 6 media interviews, 4 receptions (where I didn't speak about the book), and 12 meetings with various activists/politicos/bloggers/donors. The 8 cities we spent time in were Boulder, Denver, Sacramento, Sonoma, Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Diego, and LA. Our events included progressive organizations hosting receptions, bookstore talks, county and state Democratic party gatherings, a Drinking Liberally party (at which I saw my esteemed colleague Paul Rosenberg), a lecture at an elite law school, and a fancy downtown luncheon club. 14 different organizations, wildly diverse in nature, co-sponsored the events. I learn an enormous amount from being out on the road like this. Through all the diversity of cities, formats, co-sponsoring groups, and the demography of the participants, certain common things keep coming through over and over again.
I just got back from a long book tour swing, thoughts about which I'll have up shortly, but wanted to let OpenLefties from Austin know I'll be heading down there this Wednesday, May 6th at 7:30 to speak at Book People, one of my favorite indie bookstores in the country (up there with Stacey's (RIP) in SF, Boulder Bookstore in Boulder, and Tattered Cover in Denver, among others). If y'all are around, come on by to hang out. I'm having some really intense discussions about the state of things in DC and around the country, particularly on banking, which I find fascinating.
If you're in the LA area tonight, David Dayen (dday) and the good people at Drinking Liberally are hosting me at the bar Trip, at 2101 Santa Monica Blvd near Pico. Stop on by and share an Amstel. 7 PM until we shut the place down.
If any of y'all are in the Denver area, I'm headed there tomorrow for two events to discuss my new book, the history of movements for progressive change, and today's political climate.
I was planning on using my last few calm days at home this weekend to write some stunningly brilliant new blog posts, as well as go to the DC rally sponsored by A New Way Forward. But I got stuck home by the stomach flu, and did very little besides reading and watching TV.
Tomorrow, though, I'm forcing this grumpy old body back on the road for a second book-related trip to NYC, and a much anticipated first visit to Buffalo(!), the home of OpenLefter and book tour director Adam Bink. I'll try and do some writing while I am on the road.
Come and see us at the following places over the next few weeks. You can get more information and RSVP if necessary via the hyperlinks:
I just got back from my longest trip yet on my book tour promoting The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be. Outside of a quick trip to a Netroots Nation regional meeting in Denver, all of my book travel up until now has been to heavily Democratic cities on the east and west coasts, but this trip was right in the heart of the heartland: Missouri (a swing state leaning red), Kansas and Nebraska (2 thoroughly red states), Iowa (a swing state leaning blue), and the most thoroughly blue Midwestern state there is, Illinois.
Adam took some photos from the trip you can check out on our Flickr set here.
After this all-American, politically diverse, trip, I have certain things I can feel confident in reporting on:
• I continue to be heartened by the great response to the book's message - really good crowds, really responsive people, great questions, incredible passion about changing the country. There really is a movement building everywhere - yes, even in the red states - for big progressive change.
• The populist feelings about the banks are very strong. My biggest applause line every place I spoke was "If you are too big to fail, you are too big to exist." Even though I was speaking to strongly pro-Obama audiences, people were very troubled by his banking policies.
• In spite of the economy, people are still fired up enough to be coming to fundraisers. I was a speaker at three different fundraising events - for the Nebraska Democratic Party in Lincoln, the Iowa Citizen Action Network in Des Moines, and Citizen Action Illinois/USAction in Chicago. All of them were successes, with a combined crowd of over 400 people.
• People very much want to be involved in changing America. There was no sense at all that folks are passively waiting for President Obama to take care of things. Every single event I went to - every single one - someone asked a version of the question "What can we do to help change things?"
It was a great trip, and now I'm back in D.C. for a couple of weeks before heading out again. I look forward to continuing to spread the message about the history, and future, of the progressive cause in America.
I'm on a Midwest swing of my book tour and unlike my other trips so far, I am running into some Republicans at my book events (as well as spending some time with relatives who are Republicans). Part of that, of course, is that I am close to home, and in places like Lincoln, NE, people come out to see the hometown boy who has gone to the big city, even if they are of a different political persuasion. And part of it is simply location: there are simply a lot more Republicans per capita in Nebraska than there are in most of the cities I've been to on the book tour (SF, NYC, Boston, etc.).
It has led to some interesting questions and conversations which I love. There are few things I like better than a fun debate.
I have a nephew who is a very conservative Republican, and is also a strong debater. He has read The Progressive Revolution, which must have been tough for him to take, and is planning on writing me a long response, which I look forward to getting. But in the meantime, he pushed me very hard on the whole hope vs. fear theme of my book, said it was a cheap shot, that progressives have been using fear in their arguments as much as conservatives.
It's a worthy argument. More in the extended entry.
There is one more event I forgot to mention this morning that should be a blast. Tomorrow night, Friday, a bunch of my old friends in Des Moines are throwing a book party for me at Don Rios Cantina. If nothing else, it should be a fun night of excellent Mexican food, Iowa politcal tales, and my book tour director Adam Bink insisted there be a TV close by to watch scrappy Syracuse take down overrated Oklahoma (his alliteration, not mine). "The Book Store" on Locust Street will have copies of my book available at the event if you haven't gotten yours.
When I was out in Denver the weekend before last for the Netroots Nation in Your Neighborhood conference, Darcy Burner turned to me at one point (after a really fun and raucous dinner with about 20 people from the conference) and to me in a burst of pure spontaneous enthusiasm, "I just love grassroots progressives." What she said.
Being on the road promoting my book is a blast because I get to meet so many interesting people. I wrote earlier about Deb Kozikowski and her organization because I got to spend a lot of quality time with her, but there are so many interesting people you just meet briefly that I'd love to spend more time getting to know some day:
I'm currently in Amherst (which I was told immediately when I landed that it's pronounced with no "h"), which along with Northampton is a great lefty town- campuses, excellent, highly interesting food, great progressive folks who are all very nice. And apparently it's only an hour and 15 or less from all the places up here where I have friends but don't get to as much- Brattleboro, VT, Albany, NY, Hartford, CT. Tonight I'll be hanging out at the local Drinking Liberally along with the great Bill Scher, who had me on LiberalOasis Radio a while back, and am looking forward to an excellent dinner at the place Hillary took Chelsea when they were looking at colleges, interestingly enough.
I want to let all the Boston-area folks know that tomorrow, Wednesday at 7 PM, Shai Sachs over at MyDD and Reading Liberally-Cambridge, along with ActBlue, will be hosting me for a discussion about my new book and opportunities for progressive change with the Obama Administration. It's at The Democracy Center at 45 Mt. Auburn Street near Harvard Square. Stop on by.
I'm headed up to the great commonwealth of Mass next week on the book tour. If you're around, please come on by, I'd love to meet some OpenLefters from up there. And if y'all would promote the events to your networks, it would really be great.
The reason I'm doing all this traveling is to build the progressive movement- not just in terms of the message of the book, but in terms of the fact that I'm giving all the proceeds from the sale of the Progressive Revolution into projects to build progressive infrastructure. If we work together to push hard enough, we'll be able to build the infrastructure tools we need to create the serious, lasting change we need right now.
Schedule below, hope to see y'all there. All are free and open, and some involve excellent food and drink.
Just got back from CA, but heading back out west this weekend- the good people at Netroots Nation are putting on the first-ever Netroots Nation in Your Neighborhood, a one-day mini-conference of discussion, networking, and drinking (yes, drinking, see the schedule). It's in the Denver suburbs, in Westminster.
I'll be out there for an afternoon panel on how we progressives can take advantage of this moment and create what I call in the book a "Big Change Moment", a major shift in our politics and policy.
The schedule is here, and registration is only $10, so for OpenLefties in the area, come on by and be sure to say hi. It'll be worth your while, lot of good folks coming. I'll also having books there on sale courtesy of Tattered Cover, an awesome indie local I frequented during the convention.
Having spent almost all of my 30-year career in politics very consciously staying behind the scenes, it still feels a little strange running a campaign for myself. Although I have not, and never intended to run for office myself, promoting the ideas of a book about the progressive cause feels exactly like a campaign. It is a really fun process, extremely challenging and exhausting (especially given the ... the book industry is in), but exciting nevertheless because I feel like I am contributing something to the bigger movement. Like every good campaign, we have the basic campaign components in place: field, media, events, online strategies, organizational outreach, and a consistent message. The only thing we don't have involved is an advertising strategy, but I even have an idea about that, which I'll relate below.
Speaking of Chris' post on the number of readers we have in DC, Google Analytics tells me we have a whole bunch of readers out in the Bay Area. For y'all, I have good news- we're taking the book tour for The Progressive Revolution out to the Left Coast on Sunday.
Netroots Nation, Commonweal Institute, Equal Justice Society, and a number of individual friends are throwing a book party this Sunday 2/15, 6-8 PM, at Mercury Lounge in San Francisco, 12th and Folsom. Booksmith, a great local indie seller, will be selling copies, and I'm told there will be sweet potato fries served. We're at a little over 100 RSVPs, so be sure you RSVP here and come hang out.
