Highlights from Van Jones announcing the launch of the Rebuild the Dream Movement last month. Full video here.
This Saturday and Sunday, dozens have progressive organizations, including Daily Kos, have worked together to coordinate 1,300 house parties all over the country.
These parties are the start of a huge effort to build thousands of grassroots groups around the country that will share ideas, strengthen ties between local progressive activists, and build a lasting national movement that can fight back everywhere.
It's called the American Dream House Meeting. It's the start of a movement to shift power back to the American people and away from Wall Street, millionaires and big corporations. If you live in the United States, there is almost certainly a house party near you. Just click here to find a list of events within 30 miles of your zip code and sign up to attend.
The plan is simple: get people together with their like-minded neighbors and have them start exchanging ideas about how to fix the country. You can see some of the ideas people have already submitted, and also submit some of your own, on this website here: Contract for the American Dream.
Afterwards, all of the 1,300 groups will figure out how they want to start taking action on their own locally, and in coordination with all the other groups nationally, in order to turn their favorite ideas into reality.
And that's really it. As much as we like to talk about things like smart messaging, clever use of technology, negotiating tactics, and building better political infrastructure, in the final analysis politics really isn't that complicated. Ultimately, you just need to marshal many resources—people, media, money—as you can in support of your cause. For progressives, we are probably never going to be able to equal our well-heeled opponents in terms of money and media, so we have to emphasize getting as many people involved as possible.
That's why I'm going to attend one of these parties near where I live in DC. I just don't think we are ever going to be strong enough to shift power in this country away from Wall Street, millionaires, big corporations and conservatives unless we get a lot of people to stand together and take coordinated action. This new movement, with over 1,300 local events nationwide, is the best chance I've seen to make that happen in a long time.
So please, click here to find a list of parties within 30 miles of your zip code and sign up to attend. We can fight back. Victory over the forces of war, austerity and inequality really is possible. Let's start working together to make it happen.