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Local Party Campaign 2010 Linda Chavez-Thompson for Lt. Gov Hank Gilbert for Agriculture Commissioner Barbara Ann Radnofsky for Attorney General Jeff Weems for Railroad Commissioner Hector Uribe for Land Commissioner Rebeca Martinez for 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Rebecca Bell-Metereau for SBOE District 5 Jim Sharp for Supreme Court, Place 3 Blake Bailey for Supreme Court, Place 9 Keith Hampton for Criminal Court of Appeals Edmundo Castellanos, Justice of the Peace, Pct 2 Cesareo Guadarrama, Commissioner, Pct 2 Other Democratic Party Links for Activists
The White House is Open for Questions Contact info for State and Federal Senators and Representatives Texas Democratic Party Grassroots Handbook 2009 San Antonio Area Progressive Action Coalition Learn to Lobby by Rep Mike Villareal American Civil Liberties Union Friends Committee on National Legislation Center for Media and Democracy Americans United for Separation of Church and State Progressive Democrats of America Texas Criminal Justice Coalition Texas State Teachers Association |
Don’t think of an elephant! Don’t think of an elephant! once you’ve heard a statement like that how can you not think of an elephant? That’s exactly what Prof. Lakoff wants you to understand. That’s exactly why when discussing topics like the environment, energy, security, taxes and the economy we as progressives must first frame our argument in terms that appeal to the “nurturing parent” model he describes. Conservative family values are those of the strict father family – authoritarian, hierarchical, every man for himself, based around discipline and punishment. Progressives live by the best values of both families and communities: mutual responsibility, which is authoritative, equal, two-way, and based around caring, responsibility (both individual and social), and strength. Here’s an example of just how it works, when someone rants about trial lawyers making so much money of the backs of businesses that provide good jobs, you describe them as public protection lawyers who are the last defense against negligent corporations and are professionals. The opposite of a public protection lawyer is a corporate lawyer who typically makes $400 - $500 per hour and we pay higher prices for goods and services. When someone complains about “gay marriage” ask them if they would want the government to tell them who they can marry. Then explain that once government has crossed that barrier into telling one group of people who they may and may not marry it’s not much of a step to start telling folks who they have to marry. Prof. Lakoff really makes it clear why we think the way we do and how to set the stage when talking to those who haven’t drunk the kool-aid but have voted for Republicans to understand that we’re really the ones who share their values and want what they want. The book is 119 pages and a quick read that is written at a level that the average reader will understand the underlying psychology, appreciate the nuances and be able to make use of what they’ve learned. JC Dufresne ____________________________________________________
So you think you want to be a community organizer? This book is written by one of the all time great community organizers, Saul Alinsky. I’ve read that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both students of Alinsky’s methods. Mr. Alinsky tells some war stories to illustrate his points but primarily discusses the thinking processes that lead to actions. Instead of trying to specific tactic for every situation the reader might encounter its better to get the reader to understand his reasoning so it can be used for every situation not just the ones that are foreseen. The first chapter starts this way: At 196 pages its not light reading but its packed full of discussion of the how and why of organizing. There’s really only one assertion in the book that I disagree with and it’s that Alinsky claims that he has no fixed ideology, that he accepts no fixed truth. In fact I believe that his ideology is that the Have-Nots should hold the power and they must do anything to get it. Given the results of the Haves holding all the power I can’t say I disagree with that ideology. JC Dufresne _________________________________________ Listen to Your Mother By Robert Creamer Wow, this book has it all. Robert Creamer, a veteran of local, state and federal campaigns both for candidate and issues, takes the reader through the steps of creating a grassroots campaign. Mr. Creamer uses anecdotes based on his own experience in life and running those campaigns to educate and entertain the reader. One of his points is that it’s not the job of the voter to be interested in policy wonk discussions but rather the candidate or movement to make an emotional connection with the voter. I found that he does a great job in the book of practicing what he preaches. Creamer discusses political psychology as it relates to persuadable voters, maximizing the effectiveness of Get Out the Vote campaigns, how to get the media to cover your candidate or issue campaign, how to conduct legislative issue campaigns and campaigns aimed at government agencies or corporations. I consider this book an essential part of a campaign manager’s toolkit for understanding political power and activism. JC Dufresne Taking on the System By Markos Moulitsas Zúniga Written by the founder of the most widely read progressive blog, The Daily KOS, this book discusses how the web can be used to empower grassroots activism in ways impossible just a decade ago. Mr. Zúniga explains how to influence the gatekeepers in traditional
media and government to affect change in our society. He also reminds
us all that we don’t need permission anymore than he did to start
a movement, write a blog or campaign for office. Zúniga’s mantra is anyone can do it, just be prepared to
be surprised at what you may be called on to do and what you’re
willing to do once you get started. JC Dufresne ____________________________________ The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist
Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington David Sirota’s “The Uprising” is a great introduction to the various modes of activism available, he takes you across the political spectrum from Bernie Sanders socialist views to “The Minutemen” and their stand on illegal immigration. The time frame he uses is 2005 to 2007 so the examples he cites are fairly current allowing you to see how what he discusses applies to the world today. At just over 300 pages in moderately large print its a pretty quick read especially as Sirota is a good story teller. This is not a how-to book so you won’t learn a lot about running an activist organization but he provides a great introduction to the topic so think of it as Activism 101. I found the section on the New York based Working Families Party and their brand of Fusion politics intriguing though unfortunately don’t see a way to use their model here in Texas. Apparently one of Sirota’s heroes is a fellow named Saul Alinsky who was an organizer from the 30’s to the 60’s and wrote a few books. I’ve put Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” on my reading list and will review it in the future. JC Dufresne _______________________________________ The Conscience of a Liberal Princeton University Professor of Economics and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s looks at economic equality and the liberal politics that support it. Krugman argues that America's post-war middle-class society was not the automatic product of a free-market economy, but was created... by the policies of the Roosevelt Administration. By strengthening labor unions and taxing the rich to fund redistributive programs like Social Security and Medicare, the New Deal consensus narrowed the income gap, lifted the working class out of poverty and made the economy boom. Our government and economy went awry, he contends, with the Republican Party's takeover by movement conservatism, practicing a politics of deception [and] distraction to advance the interests of the wealthy. Professor Krugman argues that conservative initiatives to cut taxes for the rich, dismantle social programs and demolish unions, have led to sharply rising inequality, with the incomes of the wealthiest soaring while those of most workers stagnate. Krugman's argument deftly combines economic data with social and political analysis; his account of the racial politics driving conservative successes is especially sharp. This book “really spoke to me”. – Duane McCune It’s a great read and while it gets into some statistics Professor Krugman keeps it accessible. – JC Dufresne _________________________________ Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and
the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century Excerpt from Review In this time when we may be watching a new generation of political organizers becoming motivated and trained through the Obama campaign, it's instructive to look back at other moments when a cause motivated numbers of people not just to sign petitions or call elected officials, but dedicate significant portions of their lives to activism; when organizing became central to a movement in new ways. There are doubtless any number of moments and movements that could be considered in this light, but for those of you who read Zack Exley's recent piece The New Organizers, Part 1: What's really behind Obama's ground game, Randy Shaw's new book Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century will be particularly relevant. If you read Exley's article carefully, there's a name you will have seen. We saw glimpses of the potential for this kind of organizing campaign in MoveOn's 2004 and 2006 volunteer operations, the Dean Campaign and even the Bush and Kerry campaigns. And there are great examples of this kind of organizing if you go back to the social movements of several decades ago. But the Obama campaign is the first in the Internet era to realize the dream of a disciplined, volunteer-driven, bottom-up-AND-top-down, distributed and massively scaleable organizing campaign. For anyone who knows how many times this has failed to happen, this is practically an apocryphal event. Marashal [sic] Ganz, who is an advisor to the national field campaign, and one of the main architects of the team model, said he's been waiting 40 years for it. Read more. |
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Last updated February 20, 2009 |
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