*For a little context, this was originally posted at FLAPolitics, where I will begin discussing soon, how my father, the new chair of the Marion DEC is attempting to change the party there.
"I think we can end the divisions within the United States. What I think is quite clear is that we can work together in the last analysis. And that what has been going on within the United States...-the divisions, whether it's between blacks and whites, between the poor and the more affluent, or between age groups, or over the war in Vietnam - that we can start to work together again. We are a great country, an unselfish country, and a compassionate country."
-Robert Kennedy (some of his final words before being gunned down minutes later)
Matt just wrote an awesome diary about the true power of Unions in America: building community. I'm going to expand on what I believe is the most important concept for us in the progressive movement: community.
I'll post on what's been happening with the Marion DEC hopefully sooner rather than later, but I want to focus on a particular situation which has recently surfaced which reveals the lack of a community concept within our local party and perhaps in other county parties around the state and nation.
My father, the new Marion DEC chair, has been touring various clubs throughout the county. He's using a dynamic power point presentation to articulate to everyone his vision for the party: to make it "people powered." Basically, no people - no victory, the more people - the greater the chance of victory. Pretty simple. Right now he's focused on targeting a small number of base areas within the county to organize.
However, one of our (best) clubs has a little bit of a problem with this. They're located in a gated-retirement community. They say they had a 76% turnout in 2006, far above the county average of 51%, so why should they help out other areas of the county?
This is a common viewpoint among our gated-community clubs here in Marion County, and its a very unfortunate one. Why should we venture outside our walls and help elsewhere? The answer is simple - you need them.
Elected officials are not selected solely by gated communities. While they're turnout tends to be higher and politicians do tend to visit them regularly because of their high participation, they're still not everybody. Besides, has any Democrat won in Marion County by solely focusing on retirement communities? No. How has this strategy of remaining behind the gates worked? Miserably. There are 4 Republicans and 1 (newly-elected) Democrat on the County Commission. There is nothing but Republicans on the "nonpartisan" School Board. 3 of the 5 countywide elected offices are held by the Republicans. All but one state house member and one congresswoman are Republicans at the state and federal levels.
In other words, its time think outside the box gated-community and begin to look at the far lower turnout of Democrats in the base areas of Marion County, which are all non-gated communities. By working hard with potential activists and volunteers within these areas, we improve the lot for all of us by being able to collectively elect Democrats who, quite frankly, actually give a damn about us. In addition, this will help alleviate what I believe to be the greatest sin of gated-communities, which is isolation. Folks within gated communities consciously realize that there are other people beyond their walls. They have families, needs, hopes, and dreams, and they should never be written off by anyone, not the least of which are politicians.
Indeed, this is the higher goal of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement. If the country is to be saved, we have to start thinking like a community. This is why the blogosphere is so powerful, it fosters strong, digital communities which have tremendous power when they get together and fight.
It is also the worst nightmare of those on the far right. Bringing the downtrodden, the written-off, and the abused together is the kind of thing which threatens their very relevance and survival as a political force. They feed off of ignorance, malice, and hate, the byproducts of division. Deprived of it, they lose strength and slowly fade away.
This is our mission: to rebuild the American community through a new brand of civic activism, founded on both the traditional tactics of retail organizing and the new face of online power.