by Justin Krebs
Ever since I co-founded the Living Liberally network in 2003, we've been one of the more laid-back parts of the progressive movement infrastructure, less concerned with rules than with doing what was most effective to build progressive social capital in conservative areas. However, we have had one rule set pretty firmly in place - we never formally endorse a candidate. The whole point of Drinking, Eating, Screening, Laughing Liberally, etc., has been to provide a place where folks can define progressivism for themselves, and deciding what candidates fit that marquee isn't our job.
So now that one of our staff members, Josh Bolotsky, is working full-time for a serious political candidate, I've been asked a lot about these rules lately.
Now, to be fair, Josh's serious political candidate is Wonder Woman, and she's running in a mock-campaign set up by the New Organizing Institute as part of its Bootcamp training, which serves as a sort of weeklong trial- by-fire for up-and-coming progressive campaign activists.
And yet, all the joking aside, it's hard to distinguish from a real campaign - there's been big-name endorsements by liberal politicos, and extensive field plans, and sophisticated GOTV operations, and professional media operations...really, just about the only thing about the campaigns which aren't real are the candidates.
So, while I as an individual personally urge you to support Wonder Woman today, Living Liberally itself can not make an endorsement. However, what Living Liberally can do is what it's always done, and that's celebrate cases where candidates take progressive brain-power and social capital seriously, including the netroots - and that's just what the Wonder Woman campaign has done.
Instead of deciding they knew what a progressive public-transit policy looked like, they asked several leading DC-based policy blogs and advocacy organizations - and finally crafted such a position with Greater Greater Washington and Streetcars For DC. Instead of deciding they knew what a pro-gender-equality urban policy looked like, they reached out to feminist writers online - and eventually adopted a plan laid out by Jill Fillipovic of the awesome blog Feministe.
Same for social justice, same for making government accessible online, same for a whole range of issues.
In other words, they've taken the progressive netroots a hell of a lot more seriously than most "real-world" campaigns do.
I think that's worth rewarding:
vote.wonderwomanfordc.com
And if that hasn't persuaded you, any campaign that uses this as their
final web-ad is just beyond awesome: