Reply #12: Well, maybe not in terms of winning over establishment Dems [View All]

[deutsey]

But our Meetup, for one, is staying together regardless of what happens to Dean and we're going to continue on as the Progressive Meetup.

The people who have joined this group are longtime activists, Dems (including an elected councilman), Greens, people who have never participated in the political process before, young, advanced in years, etc. We would not have come together had it not been for the Dean campaign.

Jim Hightower writes: "The significant thing about the Dean Phenomenon is not Dean, but the phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of progressive activists--especially young people and other Web-active folks" came together because of the promise of the campaign, not of a candidate.

And as Howard Zinn says, real change always comes from people's movements (civil rights, anti-war, women's, labor, etc.), not from our so-called leaders (who often follow when the movements are strong enough). Too often it doesn't seem to matter even if people DO vote (i.e., 2000).