Attended a MoveOn "houseparty" where we listened to Michael Moore who was pretty much just flabberghasted about the sales of his movie and had a few ideas (nothing really new) of what we should do such as helping people register to vote, calling them on phones to get them to vote, and taking voting day off to go help people.
Most of all though, it was nice to be surrounded by people who are just as fed up with the Bush administration as I am, as well as to hear other points of view from a very diverse group. All in all I think it went well and I hope to attend events with the same people in the future.
Also a thanks to dailykos reader Houstonia for opening her home to all of us that came.
The first thing is the strategy MoveOn wants to use of having phone parties to call people on July 11th. I don't know if I agree with it, because I hate being called for anything that I am not expecting. I cuss out enough phone spammers that I'd hate to be one myself, even if it's for a good cause like getting people registered to vote. I'd personally prefer going as a group to places that university students would hang out at, and get them registered to vote and involved. If I remember correctly from when I was that age (not
that many years ago) I was fairly apathetic. It was only after 9/11 in fact that I really cared. I think that colleges are a mostly untapped resource, despite how liberal the most vocal students appear to be. For each PETA loving hippie there are at least ten average joes out there who don't think that being political is for them. I think these people have to learn sooner rather than later that their inactions will result in a lower standard of life for them, as Bush being elected did for me. At the time of 2000, I was pretty firmly in the libertarian, "Bush, Gore, what's the difference?" camp. Today I am still not a Democrat, nor do I plan to be, but I am definitely against Bush because he has done far worse than Clinton did or Gore would have done.
Anyway, it's good that people are starting to get fired up and starting to want to do something. I hope we can all make a difference.