This is the kind of diary that occasionally makes Kos worthwhile.
On the afternoon of February 5th, as I was trying to get out the vote for Barack in Brooklyn for the 2008 primary outside my local polling stations, I sent a text to about 100 friends to remind them to vote in the day's primary. I was shocked at the number of responses I got that said: "Can't Vote. Registered Independent... More... Anyway, the end result was that a lot of people I know who had something to say in beer-induced conversation regarding Hillary vs. Barack (or for that matter, had a lot to say in the Republican races, or even the local races) had absolutely nothing to say in the voter's booth.Nada. Silence. Tree. Falling. In. The. Forest.
The same thing has come up recently as I plunge deeper into local politics...I think I'm running for office. Well, actually, it's a largely defunct office called the Brooklyn County Committee. The idea was started by a couple of young Brooklyn Obama Organizers who started this cool website, to get young progressive into elected office at the very ground level and exert grassroots pressure on the local democratic party. I would represent a three block radius of about 800-1000 voters in my neighborhood. All I have to do is get 20 signatures to get on the ballot, run unopposed (because most of the seats are vacant), and voila, I am an elected official in the Democratic party. The position is a bit odd, because each three block district is meant to have a male and a female representative, so I've been scouring my female friends in the area, looking for an electoral prom queen to my king, a fellow progressive lady who wants to collect twenty signatures with me and start a fruitful career in politics. But every progressively minded lady in my hood I've asked to join me is well...currently registered Independent...and therefore can't run with me.
Read the whole thing and check your registration and that of your friends. If Obama gets in its going to be even more important to try to take over the Democratic party from the inside out to keep him on the straight and narrow.
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