YES WE DID! A couple hundred of us from the Claremont area banded together with a few million of our compatriots across the country to knock on doors, make phone calls to strangers, donate $ and generally make a lot of noise. And it worked. Barack Obama will be our country's 44th President. HOOORAY!
So... onto the question of the moment. Now What?
For some of us, we can return to our old lives and go about our usual business with a big old smile on our faces -- we have earned it! For others, there is a desire to continue their civic engagement.
I started this blog as a way for those who are interested in continuing to work together towards creating a better community and a better country to talk with each other about how that might work. Do we want to remain one unified group, and if so, what do we want to focus on? Or do we want to join forces with another community organizing group (or groups)? For example, Bob Gerecke, President of the Claremont Democratic Club, would love to find a way for our two organizations to work together.
So let's begin that discussion here -- what's next for this loose-knit group I've taken the liberty of re-dubbing Claremont for Change? Please post your thoughts to this message. I'll check in every couple of days and moderate as needed with new postings.
(Also, a couple of notes. For those of you interested in Universal Healthcare in California, there is a forum on November 15th from 10am to 3pm at the Hughes Community Center -- for more details or to attend, please contact candshester@aol.com
To stay involved with the Obama administration on the national level, they have launched a new website: http://change.gov/)
Thanks again to everyone for your hard work and dedication!
1 comment:
There are now 3 volunteer groups centered on Claremont which worked actively to elect Obama: Claremont for Change (C4C), Claremont Progressives (CP, which is the local MoveOn team) and the Democratic Club of Claremont (DCC). I'm president of the DCC until the end of February.
We 3 have kept in communication. I'm on the email distribution list from C4C and CP, and the leaders of C4C and CP are on the DCC's. We've helped one another in various ways, largely by notifying our own volunteers of opportunities within the other group. We haven't really coordinated, i.e., we haven't planned to avoid overlap or conducted joint activities. Several members of my club have actively participated in C4C and CP.
That's not a bad thing. We don't have to have only one group. Each has a different emphasis and different "culture".
Each group needs to have a clear mission. CP's is to pull the country to the left by electing the most progressive candidate who has a chance at the office (national or state); that usually means the Democrat, and in the primary it means the most liberal Democrat. DCC's is to elect the Democrat, and in the primary it usually means the Democrat who has the best chance of victory (although we often disagree among ourselves on who that is), not necessarily the most liberal Democrat. DCC also tries to pull public opinion and elected officials to the left through letters to editors and to officials; DCC went so far as to develop and distribute a "Claremont Manfiesto" of progressive political principles and programs and to found a local nonprofit think tank named "The American Institute for Progressive Democracy" to develop and promote progressive ideas and strategies to implement them.
What's the mission of C4C? Is it to elect and re-elect a specific individual? Is it to promote racial harmony by electing minorities? Is it to elect brilliant pragmatists? Is it to elect the most progressive/liberal candidate or the most nonpartisan candidate? Obama has many dimensions. Was one of them the "glue" which pulled C4C together? Or was it the unique combination, which Obama alone will ever have? Do you want to influence what Obama does in office, or is it enough that he's there and can be trusted to do the right thing? Do you want to influence Congress, too, either who's elected or what they do when in office? Do you want to influence State elections and policies, too?
I think that your mission is the first issue which must be resolved.
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