This is a brief diary, but I wanted to get the ball rolling. I've been wanting to post this for a few days, but Pontificator's YKos 2007 diary jogged my memory and/or lit a fire under my butt.
There was a little bit of movement in the direction of forming a Rural Caucus just after YKos 2006, but it didn't seem to go anywhere.
I am hereby doing a shout out to all Kossacks who are interested in forming a Rural Caucus with me so that we can get this going.
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There's a definite disconnect between the cities (primarily blue and on the coasts) and the rural areas of our great country (primarily red). There are issues unique to rural folks and rural areas that need to be addressed. There are problems with the methods the city Dem organizations use for contacting people, fundraising, and so on that make these methods difficult or unuseable for us country folks.
If we ever hope to start turning the rural areas purple or blue, these issues must be addressed and worked with or worked around. It's NOT all about "god, guns and gays", although that is one of the stumbling blocks. Please see my earlier diary, Breaking: Rural People NOT Fucktards After All, for previous discussion and links related to this topic and how to start having a real dialogue with rural folks.
Take Back Red California is one starting place (for California), and the California Dem Party has asked me to be a member of their Rural Caucus. I'm excited by this opportunity and look forward to bringing my experiences here for our benefit.
Right now, Yearly Kos is the brightest star in the galaxy as far as true grassroots action is concerned. Just look at what we did during the August Netroots donations push. Look at YKos 2006 and who decided it was an important venue -- Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Amb. Joe Wilson, the Center for American Progress, David Sirota, and too many more to mention here.
Rural folks need to be heard, and we need to talk about how to fix the issues important to us in a forum where people will take action at all levels, from their kitchen table to the halls of the Senate.
I've just set up a Yahoo Group for the YKos Rural Caucus so we have a place to connect and chat easily. Please join if you care about the issues important to rural folks: Clean air and water, universal health care, NAIS, farming and pesticides, eminent domain, how to campaign effectively in rural counties... you get the idea.
Let's do this thang.