The draft Gore movement is now fragmented. Besides the two prominent national efforts, DraftGore.com and AlGore.org, there are now some 95 MeetUps some of which are starting to coalesce into state and local Draft Gore groups and will surely develop their own identities and strategies.
As the movement grows, the calls for unity are also growing. Just this morning in BloggerJohn writes
it is time that these separate expressions of a single passion be united to strengthen the cause.
He's right, but we're not ready for a centralized grassroots organization and may never be. With the possible exception of MoveOn.org, there is no legitimate leadership to take the reins of such an organization, and unless MoveOn does, there's simply no time to create national leadership on the fly.
This may not be such a bad thing. Instead we can unite the separate expressions of a single passion by creating a National Draft Gore Movement. It wouldn't be difficult, and you can help make it happen. Here's how....
Despite their apparent disunity, and differences of style, leadership, strategy, organization, and scale, the various groups are in fact all working for the same goal. They want Al Gore to run for President. It's that simple.
They need to make this unity of purpose crystal clear. It would be very easy for them to do this by prominently publishing
(1) a National Draft Gore Mission Statement and
(2) links to all the other legitimate (i.e., non-troll) groups that also publish it.
Here is draft 2.0 of a National Draft Gore Movement Mission Statement they could use to start:
The Draft Gore Movement is an unofficial, grass roots campaign to support Al Gore's nomination for President by the Democratic Party in 2008.
America needs a new President who will lead our country to sound new policies on all the pressing issues we must face. Vice President Gore is uniquely qualified for this mission because of the extraordinary breadth of his experience, his knowledge, foresight, integrity, and proven good judgment.
Our goal in 2007 is to increase support for Vice President Gore, organize supporters, volunteers, and resources across every state and community, and open his path to the nomination and the Presidency. We hope and believe that he will answer the call to serve the country and run for President in 2008.
(Version 1.0 appeared in an earlier diary.)
By this simple act, the different groups who now seem to be competing with one another would start to create a unified national movement. Gore supporters would be assured that they are supporting the cause by signing up with any one of the groups.
(I say this despite my personal belief that every Gore supporter, even those working with other groups, should sign the single largest national draft petition at DraftGore.com.)
In this way the National Draft Gore Movement can have the best of both worlds. It will have a clear unity of purpose and at the same time benefit from a diversity of different approaches and levels of effort. Let's see what works.
This will encourage collaboration and friendly competition among the various groups. It will also dramatize the breadth, size, and spontaneity of the movement, all of which will make it more interesting to supporters, the MSM, the Democratic Party, and, last but not least, Al Gore.
And who knows, maybe one day collaboration among the groups will lead to merger.
Kossacks, please take the poll, below, and if you support this simple proposal, here are three things you can do in 5 minutes right now to help make it happen.
1 and 2. Send emails to the two established national websites promoting Al Gore for President, AlGore.org and DraftGore.com (click on Contact Us).
Subject: E Pluribus Unum
Text: Please help create a National Draft Gore Movement by posting (1) the National Draft Gore Movement Mission Statement from DailyKos February 23, 2007 (diary by Neighbor2, "A Big First Step Toward a Unified Gore Movement") together with links to other legitimate national, state, and local groups that also post this statement, and (2) the words "National Draft Gore Movement" in a prominent place on your front page as a jump to the Mission Statement. Thanks for all you are doing to draft Al Gore.
3. Recommend this diary to keep it on the front page and make sure that the message is heard.
If you know of other groups who belong in the Draft Gore Movement, please email them, also. This is not intended to be an exclusive list of organizations.