There may be an extra diary or two today, depending upon the enthusiasm of the Four Corners Kossacks, or as they proudly refer to themselves, the FCKers. Why the enthusiasm? Because of our guests that we've been hosting in Colorado. Come one, come all, to participate in an open thread for fans of Colorado, members of the various Colorado groups (including Colorado COmmunity), and perhaps we'll be joined by the FCKers themselves (who are in the middle of an event this evening).
Come on over the Colorado Curlicue to join in.
This week we have been joined by Daily Kos royalty - Navajo and Meteor Blades have come to Colorado to boost our participation and they have hosted three events - Denver on Sunday afternoon, Colorado Springs on Monday evening and in Durango as we type (and read, and post).
I've got a couple of pictures to share - they're not very good, but I was taking pictures against a bright backdrop (never, ever do that unless you have good equipment and have some skills, neither of which are on display).
Navajo, leading off (again, my apologies for the poor picture). The Mercury Cafe in Denver which is a great place for food, for various interests (they have a large dance floor on the upper floor, for classes including belly dancing), and the owner is a supporter of progressive causes:
The purposes of the visit are the following:
There are far more people registered for Daily Kos than most people realize, and far more visit the site without ever registering for an account. 50,000 people have Daily Kos accounts with a Colorado zip code. Within the Denver metro area, there were in the neighborhood of 2500 accounts (I can't recall the exact numbers, and besides, the Denver metro area can vary depending upon definition and I don't believe Navajo went beyond 10 miles from city center, which wouldn't include Boulder, Longmont, Castle Rock, Loveland or Fort Collins, all of which are cities sometimes included in the Denver Colorado Front Range community. If we can get our share of the 11 million separate user visits to Daily Kos on a monthly basis to register for accounts for Colorado, we can have a huge progressive impact as a network to communicate, coordinate and influence events in this state.
The eyes that see Daily Kos don't just mean individuals - most of the eyes belong to people who are members of groups that also have progressive purposes. I know people who belong to groups like the ACLU, the various state and local Democratic party groups, citizen action groups and more who visit the site. What Navajo wanted to do with this meetup was to encourage those members to come to Daily Kos, create accounts and then create groups that will highlight their particular interests. This will help them to advertise their interests and with diaries and posts, will draw in people of similar backgrounds but perhaps don't realize others share their passions as well.
With Daily Kos the biggest progressive blog in the nation (and world, but let's not get ahead of ourselves), with the groups function and with networking, Daily Kos can be a meeting place that has an impact beyond the cybersphere, encouraging meetups, encouraging letter writing on progressive issues, introducing people to their representatives (and wannabe representatives), organizing various campaigns and protests, and even just sharing many of the other parts of fellowship that our community takes pride in, including the things like the Saturday Morning Garden Blogging started by Colorado's own Frankenoid and other diary series.
Meteor Blades followed, and expanded upon the potential role that Kossacks can have in Colorado:
His prime purpose was to encourage participation beyond the keyboard. Yes, there are the ways that people can blog, diary, comment, send emails and participate in the process that we know about. Meteor Blades has a long history of activism. He was here to encourage our members (and those who will be joining) to not just do the above, but get involved in the process of elections. Those who have an interest should consider running for offices at all levels of the political spectrum. Per the US Census, there are more than 511,000 elected offices in the United States, and there is no reason why someone who's a progressive should not be considered for each and every one of those. That works out, btw, to one for about every 600 people (man, woman and child) in the US. Those that aren't ready to run for office can contribute by talking up the campaign with their neighbors and friends. They can register voters. They can circulate petitions. They can solicit funds (always mindful of the rules) for the campaigns. They can make phone calls or knock on doors. They can stand on street corners waving placards. They can write letters to the editor for every level of paper, from city-wide to grocery store rag.
One of Meteor Blades' prime interests, and past successes, is in getting every precinct to have a Democratic precinct chairman - someone to represent the precinct to the next higher level (district, city, etc), someone to organize the caucus, the representation for candidates for the various meetings and someone who will organize people to go out and spread the word about progressive ideas. Who is your Democratic Precinct chairman/woman? Have you met them, talked with them, volunteered to help them? If the position is vacant, can you fill that role, or do you know someone you can recruit for it?
He doesn't want to settle on a 50 state strategy, or a 435 Congressional District strategy. He wants all 170,000 precincts (give or take) to have Democrats in charge, preferably a progressive Democrat. We have too much at stake to just cede this election and the 2020 census to the Republicans. We've seen what they've done in Wisconsin, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and the rest of the states when they've not been opposed.
Finally, before I turn the floor over to you, here is Leftcandid, the fellow who started off the group Colorado COmmunity. In his words, he joined, looked for a group for Colorado folk and when he didn't find one, he created one. That's really all anyone has to do - it's easy, Leftcandid would be happy to help you form one for a geographic area, like Boulder, Aurora, wherever, or for an interest, like Colorado Politics, or even a non-political subject.
With that, I open the floor to you. We'd love to hear about the other meetups, we'd love to have you not only recommend this Open Thread diary, but also keep an eye out for any other Colorado writers and recommend their diaries. Some are reposted to Colorado COmmunity, but I do admit to missing some. Please help us keep Colorado connected and strong.