This morning, navajo launched * New Day * — Will now be known as Connect! Unite! Act! How Involved Are You in Local Politics? with a new mission statement:
A daily series, Connect! Unite! Act! seeks to create face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups regularly socialize but also get out the vote, support candidates and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert influence on the powers-that-be. Visit us every morning at 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time to see how you can get involved. The comment thread is fun and light-hearted, but we're serious about moving the progressive political agenda forward.
What a giant step forward!
navajo is formalizing what so many of us have come to recognize: It is indeed possible and even preferable to couple our serious organizing efforts to get out the vote with some daily lighthearted fun. Here's more:
It's time to have our morning series' name more closely reflect our community building efforts. I've produced an interactive map to replace the long list of groups that have organized over the years. That useful list can still be found at this link and will be updated along with the map above. The new interactive map, which Jen Hayden suggested as an improvement, will open our series each day. I look forward to adding to it with new groups as they form.
I'd like to invite all the readers of Daily Kos to assist us with our mission. It will be very helpful to our progressive movement if we have a Kossack group in every congressional district. As already noted in our mission statement, we need to get out the vote, support candidates and engage in other political actions in our local surroundings. Relaxing, socializing and enjoying conversation in these groups is a happy side note of building these communities.
We need more group leaders and assistants in addition to the 55 we already have. We need folk to join these new and existing groups. I envision a leader for each state and then leaders for each region and/or major city within that state. We can't have too many groups.
So as you're in any of the comment sections of any diary at Daily Kos please be on the lookout for Kossacks to be placed. For example, if you read someone's comment mentioning where they live please point them to our series. They can join or start a new group. It goes without saying that we need more boots on the ground and the difference to be made is locally with the reverberation affecting national politics. And to quote Markos and his often repeated message, "If our voters turn out, we win." Let's mobilize Democratic supporters.
I'd also like to ask for your support in recommending any diaries that are announcing and organizing meet-ups. You'll be helping attract more eyes to the diary and the writers can always use the positive reinforcement.
Would you share our new map [in navajo's diary] on facebook and Twitter?
Thanks to all our faithful readers and with your help we can grow this movement to make a difference.
If you haven't already done so, be sure to
click through to see that awesome interactive community map! Then join me below for a community effort that is determined to make a difference in selected local races.
Weeks ago, Frankenoid announced that the Saturday Morning Garden Blogging group will be celebrating their Ninth Anniversary on February 22nd and talked about why community matters:
Many times newcomers to dKos can't quite figure out why we have all these groups for gardening and home repair and crafting and painting and books: this is a site for politics!
Let's show them why community matters: at the most basic level without community there is no purpose to politics and it becomes nothing more than a scrim behind which factions scramble in a zero-sum game for short-lived political advantage.
So one last time, KTK is helping to spread the word that the SMBG team has planned a fundraising opportunity for the 2014 Mid-term Elections that focuses on local elections. As
Frankenoid explains, Kossacks are invited to present a local candidate and their campaign for consideration:
It is a mid-term election year and now — during the subdued primary process — is our chance to get not just Democrats, but more progressive Democrats, into our state, county or municipal offices.
Call it planting the seeds for a harvest next November.
Kosmail the group before Thursday, February 20th, with some information about your candidate, the position being sought, and a link to a donation page. I'd really appreciate it if you could put it in ready-to-plug-in format so I can just do a copy and paste into the diary — and you can encourage your candidate to come and participate.
What a terrific project! Let's help to plant those seeds of change. If anyone needs assistance with formatting information regarding your local candidate before submitting to the
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging group, please feel free to post a comment here, and someone will come along to help.
ETA: Here's Frankenoid's diary from this afternoon: delete your #@&$ing opinion, kos!!1! Let's try to get it on the reclist.
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.