It's become a bit of a tradition for me in the last five years to pick a night during Netroots Nation, hole myself up in my hotel with a bit of food (Pizza Lucé this time) and write a diary. Sure, tradition is good...but I'm starting to feel like Netroots Nation and the Netroots in general are a bit of a broken record. I've sat through five conventions now, countless panels with all sorts of speakers all trying to answer some variation on the following question: "How do we get all of the various progressive segments together and leverage our power for political and social change?"
Stop talking. Stop navel gazing. Just DO it already.
...yes, I have a point. I promise. Click? Please?
Five conventions. Chicago. Austin. Pittsburgh. Las Vegas. Minneapolis. (I missed the first one in Vegas...oops.) I've been to panels aplenty in the last five years, and today it started in the first panel I was in at 9:00 this morning: Netroots Nation Syndrome. Well, Netroots Syndrome, and it's becoming a running joke. At the end of every panel there's always the obligatory Q&A session wherein the unwashed masses get to ask the panelists their questions. Er, "questions." What usually follows is someone's three minute diatribe on their favorite issue and why EVERYONE should be supporting their favorite issue. Want to talk about torture accountability in a panel on gay issues? Sure! Just wait until the Q&A and you can say whatever you want. No one ever asks any questions anyway, right? And yet, they're all non-verbally asking the same question.
Hundreds of different activists, bloggers, organization staffers, candidates, elected officials and innocent bystanders all navel-gazing at the same question: how do I get YOU, the person on the other side of the room, to help ME get MY issue handled the way I want? And many of the panelists answer it. Hell, there are entire panels that are actually devoted to answering the question: how do we build coalitions so that all the little splinter groups in the progressive movement can actually make progress with the issue they care about?
Just...stop already. STOP with the navel-gazing. STOP with sitting quietly through an entire panel about someone else's pet issue so you get your 30 seconds to talk about yours. Stop talking. STOP setting up entire mini-conventions devoted to perpetuating an echo chamber full of people who already have each other's cell numbers and email addresses. STOP compartmentalizing yourself as An Environmental Blogger or an LGBT Blogger or a Labor Issues Blogger. STOP talking about yourself, and listen to the guy next to you as he talks.
Start LISTENING to people from other groups. As progressives we agree on 95% of the relevant political issues out there today. It's those 5%, the unsolved issues hanging over our heads that are going to require elbow grease. Make friends with a climate blogger in your state or a choice issues blogger in your city or an LGBT blogger in the next county. Share your best practices, your resources, your manpower and your doorknockin' skills. Stop tuning out other activists and start tuning into what we can do together to get the (various) job(s) done. Is the local LGBT organization having a phonebanking night to mobilize people for the marriage equality amendment on the ballot this year? SHOW UP, even if you're a reproductive rights kind of guy/gal. Concerned about the new power plant they're threatening to build in your town and planning a protest? Invite the gays, the reproductive rights folks, the progressive Christians, and the labor activists.
Stop yammering on about YOUR thing. Make YOUR thing everyone's thing. In return, everyone will make YOUR thing their thing.
And for God's sake, a QUESTION contains the words who, what, when, why or how and ends with a ?