We all know the story of our own libertarian Democrat
Ben Masel, who is running for Senate in Wisconsin. And tonight, we learned that
Joe Shaw, known as joeesha, is
running for city council in Huntington Beach, CA.
I've seen other diaries from kossacks that are throwing their hats into the ring, from running for ward leader to announcing for Congress. We've got Kossacks that are crashing the gate within DECs and state party organizations across the country.
But we don't have that much in the way of calling attention to them. And attention matters.
Take Ben Masel, for instance. After he posted his
diary about how the Wisconsin state party was denying him a speaking spot at the convention, the power of the vast throngs here was made manifest in the form of calls and emails, and Ben now has a confirmed convention spot.
We have one hell of an organizational structure going here. When one of us calls for help, dozens can respond--whether that help is financial (campaign contributions), physical (petition gathering, canvassing, phone banking), or even spiritual (O! Brothers and Sisters, WYFP). But unless we have some sort of Bat Signal, every call for assistance will be in an individual diary, which will probably scroll too quickly off the roll for it to make the impact we need.
So here's the idea:
We need a Gate Crashers site.
I'd be more than willing to set one up on Blogger (though I don't know about naming it, since I don't want to infringe on Markos's copyright). But we need to have a central hub for our candidates to reach us, through the din of the diaries.
Because, when it comes down to it, the people from this community that decide to run for office, at all levels of party and government, are what this whole exercise is about. We come here to talk about what we want to see in our candidates, and what strategy a real progressive should be using. We root for underdogs, and we promote outsiders. It's the only way we can change the party and, by extension, the system itself.
A successful political party is one that provides the resources for its candidates to help them win. This site, for all intents and purposes, is a party within a party. We can field and support candidates across the country, winning a thousand small skirmishes within the larger battle for America's soul. But we have to get started, and soon.
I know we don't always support everything our homegrown candidates do or say, but those that are willing to crash the gate usually need a boost to overcome the advantages of the entrenched elite. We can give them a real shot within our party, and then, once they have their chance, we can judge them on their merits as candidates.
So, who here is running for office? How many candidates do we have? Are you running, or do you know of another Kossack that's in a race? And, finally, who here is capable of stepping up and helping a Gate Crashing candidate in their area, or of becoming one themselves?