My letter to our grass roots group

[betweenwars]

And I hope it does you all some good:

Hi All,


First, take a day or two and be disappointed. Be angry. Be sad. Hike up a hill and scream out. Hug someone.

As you do, here are some things to know about what you all did--and by "you all," I mean not only you callers and planners and voter-register-ers and rally-ers, but even those who just thanked someone for doing this work.

If I remember right, XXX County in 2000 had over 11,000 votes, and Bush won at a ratio of about 10 to 1

This year, our county's turnout was over 17,000--quite an increase. Bush won, of course, but the ratio was 11,849 to 5341.

That is huge. Pennsylvania was called for Kerry before 11pm.

The point is that the remarks of students and local dems as well as the numbers above show that you did make a difference. That's a fact.

We can talk about what we want to do after the sting passes a bit, and I think we should hold a meeting later in the month for the regulars and anyone else among you so we can hash out our next steps. I'll propose right now that we consider creating from the street lists a local Dem database, to which we can send, say, issue information and even invitations to a local potluck. We'd start small in that way, building a base of activists and contributors, maybe even fielding a candidate for mayor or some other local office, or acting as a way to raise community awareness. We can then try this in several towns. I think this is a managable way to build on what we know we can now do.

An individual's political energy runs high and low; it's the organizations that we create that work like batteries. They store that energy--they hold the databases, the contacts, the resources; they're a place to go and get things done more easliy even when there are no elections pending.

That can be for tomorrow--a tomorrow we can shape, one in which we can have an even greater say. I'm really proud to have been, for the first time, actually "active" in a campaign, and, in spite of the occasional wave of sadness today, I am overjoyed to have been in this with you.

Best,
M

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Please pass this on to them too? *s*

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