Help Me Build A Progressive Grassroots Network for the State of California

[brava]

We live in a perilous time when democracy itself is at risk. The only way we can possibly take back our country is to become united as a people and work together as individuals and collectively. At this point, we don't even know if there is going to be an election this fall. If you've been reading the papers, you'll know that the government is angling for a way to postpone the elections. Well, "We the People" need a contingency plan should elections be suspended. We just can't lay down for this, no matter how plausible their excuses might seem.

Over the past few months I've worked to establish Democracy for California (http://www.democracyforcalifornia.com) as a grassroots project to build a progressive network, linking every district, every city, every town, and every neighborhood together. The problem with our system is that it's just too damn big. We need to bring it down to size. In order to do that we need the tools that would help us connect locally within the larger framework of a network. It's all a question of having the right infrastructure. They have theirs, we have to have ours to level the playing field. Once we have a network structure in place, I know we will become a force to be reckoned with, but we can't act if we can't connect, and we can't self-organize if we have to depend on special interest groups that are serving no purpose other than to splinter us into smaller and smaller factions.

California can become a model network for other states to emulate, and since Democracy for California is linked to Howard Dean's organization, Democracy for America, a national network can easily spring forth.

I've laid the groundwork by setting up a site as a springboard, a workbench, and as a central organizing hub, but I can't build a state-wide network alone. I need your participation and your help.

What you can do:

1. Donate. I need the resources to pay for licensing fees and hire a team of net savvy designers to build the network of online community portals. It's a complicated and time intensive process that needs collaborative team work on a full-time basis. I don't care if you donate as little as $5, for if enough people give what they can we can pull this off in a reasonably short period of time. The Neocons have donated hundreds of millions to think tanks, and PR firms. Moreover they have a powerful network base -- the Christian Coalition. Bush has all the government agencies at his disposal, paid for by our tax money. What do we have going for us? Not much. We are too fractionalized, we have to come together and become our own think tank, our own media, and our own Network.

2. Participate, participate, and participate.

So I'm asking with a great sense of urgency for every Californian to become radically engaged in this project. Remember what Howard Dean said during his presidential campaign -- "The Power is in YOUR hands." That's an abstract concept if we don't actually use the power, and we all need the tools that would release our own individual talents and strengths.

Help me put these tools in the hands of every Californian and every citizen in America. Help me build a network of enduring online communities, from the bottom up, "of, by, and for the people."

Time is of the essence. I'm asking everyone to plug into the network today. Become engaged, form collaborative teams to work together on all levels, and donate like democracy depends on it, because it does!

http://www.democracyforcalifornia.com

[Frances]

1. Are you aware that progressives in Maryland have a group

that sounds something like what I think you want to create? I think it's called Progressive Maryland. You may want to check it out.

[brava]

2. There is no similarity

Progressive Maryland is an organization that apparantly has to do with housing and minimum wage, etc. There really is no similarity with what I've described.

Democracy for California is not an organization, and it's not top down. As I said, it's a project for autonomous local online communities forming a network by being linked to a State and National hub.

[brava]

3. A sobering essay

Hopefully this essay, written by Mike Ruppert, will make the urgency of creating a network more real.

"What had been merely a rumor has now become fact.

The Bush administration has asked for legislation enabling it to postpone the November election as a result of a terror attack. While worded very carefully to suggest that an attack must take place for such a move; I do not see either of the below stories unequivocally state that, if granted, these powers might not also permit elections to be “postponed” on merely a well-publicized threat. Don’t believe the press stories. Read the legislation when it is introduced to see what it says there. If that discretion is included then we are at the edge of an abyss more dangerous than anything we have ever faced.

These powers, if enacted, will go to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS would also be the entity to decide when, or if, postponed elections would be held.

Allowing suspension of the elections on just the threat of a terror attack would create a hole in the legislation big enough to drive an oil tanker, or an open dictatorship, through. Since the legislation has not been seen yet we do not know what it will say. Once introduced, the bill would then go into Senate and House Committees (Republican controlled) where the language could easily be modified to give discretionary power to the Administration. At that moment the Constitution would overtly cease to have any operational meaning at all. The separation of powers would vanish.

Judging from the news stories tonight we will probably see the legislation introduced fairly quickly. From the instant it appears, this legislation must be tracked daily, even hourly, at http://thomas.loc.gov.

Does any one of us doubt that if threatened or desperate, the administration would use those powers without hesitation?

I ask those who read this to stop for a moment and consider what it would mean for all of us on this side of the fence if the Bush administration both acquired and used the power to suspend the election -- with or without an attack. What restraints would be left to prevent some of our worst-case scenarios from coming true? Why even maintain the illusion of democracy? All vestiges of accountability will have been removed.

We should each evaluate our own situations accordingly. <b>Hopefully most of us will see that we have no choice but to bond together more than ever before. To quote Ben Franklin: “We must all hang together or else we shall surely all hang separately.”</b>

This is the moment at which it all becomes very, very real. Although there is strong Democratic Party opposition appearing with derisive statements from Rep. Jane Harman and Sen. Diane Feinstein, my initial assessment, after watching CNN, FOX and MS-NBC, is that the press is already “selling” us this legislation. Fortunately, early stories also report that the act would also require a constitutional amendment.

However, with this Supreme Court we can be assured of nothing. Yet, knowing this, we can be sure that there will be many chances to fight and beat this travesty. There will be many places at which our skills and resources can function to create and implement a coordinated response.

All the efforts put into 9/11 and into the anti-war movement will need to pale by comparison with the effort that must be put forth to prevent this legislation from passing. Every lesson learned about organizing; mobilizing; reporting; strategy; education; and influencing congress (if that’s possible), needs to be remembered and applied now. There will be many tests to come.

May whatever form of divinity each of us holds dear give us guidance, wisdom and strength as we consider this.

For almost three years FTW, along with many other brave souls, has been saying that 9/11 was just the beginning. Tonight it seems that the next stage – whatever that will turn out be – is knocking tonight at everyone’s door. Do not give up. Do not be afraid. If all this is true and comes to pass, then everything is as bad as we have been saying all this time. So we had that much of a head start, didn’t we?

We are not defenseless. The cause is not lost. There is always a sense of relief when a dreaded event finally arrives because – only in that moment – can anything be done about it.

I don’t usually quote Dianne Feinstein but she was right when she said that America holds elections in the middle of wars, earthquakes and disasters. No matter what, we must demand an election this November. Even the debates about which candidate is or isn’t better, or whether one will or won’t make a difference, are now moot.

Stop. Catch your breaths. Steel your hearts and minds in preparation. Soon we’re all going to find out what we’re made of. If we do not have an election this November then the world we have been fighting to change until tonight will become only a “pleasant” memory compared to the world that will follow."

Mike Ruppert


http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/061204_election_delayed.shtml

[brava]

4. Eeegads

Nobody "gets" it.

Let me put it this way, the Internet is our last great hope. If people don't get this then we are really, really done for.

Is fear the only motivator? Does everybody need to be good and scared before they can be moblized to act?

If you don't believe me then listen to Joe Trippi.

(Excerpt from a recent interview: http://www.alternet.org/election04/19198/)

Ahmed: You have an incredible amount of hope and optimism about the Internet as a tool for democracy, for change in general.

Trippi: I believe that it's the last hope. If we are held hostage to broadcast politics, there is no hope. I really believe that. The only hope is for the American people, or enough Americans – we need two or three million Americans – to get connected enough.

Ahmed: Are you talking about electoral politics, or beyond that?

Trippi: Yes, way beyond that.

Ahmed: You talk about everything in your book from corporations to online companies like eBay...

Trippi: eBay is not an auction site, it's a community. I think that's what we need to do – build an active community, a community that's actively involved in policy and the future of the country.