Matt Singer's blog

A lot of Future Majority readers no doubt heard about Andrea Huerfano, the 23-year-old democracy activist from Colombia arrested last week and detained. Andrea, a threat to no one but the forces of apathy, had moved to the U.S. with her family after her father was threatened with political violence. Her father died while waiting consideration of his asylum claims.

Last year, Andrea won a hard fought position as a PolitiCorps fellow, where she spent 80 hours per week registering young Americans to vote, a right she herself lacked. She went on to volunteer in Ohio in the fall of '08, continuing to register voters and kick ass for America.

The good news is that Andrea's deportation has been stayed. This happened because of actions of hundreds of young Americans, many of whom have had the pleasure of serving alongside Andrea. Here's the release the Oregon Bus Project just put out:

YOUNG ACTIVIST FREED FROM DETENTION FACILITY

YOUTH MOVEMENT COMES TO THE AID OF A YOUNG COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

Portland, OR – On December 8th, while paying a traffic ticket, 23 year-old community organizer Andrea Huerfano was detained at Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, and faced imminent deportation. Thanks to the efforts of young organizers from a coalition led by Bus Project, PolitiCorps and Students Working for Equal Rights, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that she will be released this afternoon.

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Andrea's family fled from political threats in Colombia in 2001 with a valid visa, bringing her and her younger brother to the United States before her first year of high school. During her second year at Florida State University, while the family's political asylum was still being adjudicated, Andrea's father died of liver cancer. After his death, Andrea and her mother and brother pursued political asylum status based on his experiences in Columbia. They submitted their plea to immigration Judge Teofilo Chapa. Although the national average denial rate for applications for asylum is 58%, Judge Chapa denies 88% of the asylum claims before him. Their claim was denied.

After hearing word of her detention last Tuesday, an impromptu coalition of non-profits, advocates, students, lawyers and individuals from across the country came together in support of Andrea. Hundreds of people across the country were recruited to petition for Andrea’s release, putting phone calls into ICE offices in DC and Florida.

Andrea will be released on a "stay of removal" this afternoon and will have six months to assemble her case.

"We'll continue to work closely with her during this next phase, but for now – we just want to express how grateful we are for the incredible outpouring of support, advice, resources, time, and love," says Caitlin Baggott, Director of PolitiCorps, "Andrea deserves a chance to achieve her American dream."

Even as her status in the United States became increasingly uncertain Andrea continued to be an avid volunteer and community activist. She donated her time to numerous organizations, including Florida Immigrant Coalition and the DREAM Team coalition while a student at Florida State University. After graduating from Florida State University with a bachelors degree in international relations, she volunteered for five months with the International Labor Rights Forum and the International Rescue Committee, where she helped case workers work with with individuals who had been granted asylum. In the summer of 2008 she earned a competitive a Fellowship to participate in PolitiCorps, a prestigious political training program in Portland, Oregon.

“Andrea’s passionate commitment to American democratic values and her reliance and optimism in the face of adversity make her one of the most exceptional young leaders I have ever had the privilege of knowing,” says Alex Tischenko, a former supervisor of Andrea's, regarding her deep involvement in civic engagement. During her fellowship with PolitiCorps in 2008, she spearheaded efforts to educate low-income communities about criminal justice legislation in Oregon. She was considered one of the hardest-working and most promising Fellows in the program. Andrea continued on to support "get out the vote" efforts in Ohio during the 2008 general election.

For more information about the Andrea’s case, please contact Mollie Ruskin or Caitlin Baggott at the Oregon Bus Project at 503.233.3018

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Thank you, all, for your help.

To help more young Americans (citizen status pending), check out USSA's DREAM Act page.

Update -- A friend correctly points out that the gripes here are with the negotiations in the Senate. The House bill treated young people quite well and on par with seniors. My apologies for failing to distinguish.

Original Post:

If one needed proof that the importance of youth has yet to really penetrate the minds of Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill, look no further than the deal cut on health care. Substantively, I'm one of those heretics who thinks that the public option had been so watered down that its removal doesn't condemn the bill. The insurance regulations -- preventing pre-existing condition discrimination and rescission, for example -- and subsidies plus the longer term efforts at cost containment make the bill a big net win for the country.

But as the public option was stripped out, Democrats saw a need to take care of at least one demographic:

Beyond that, the group agreed--contingent upon CBO analysis--to a Medicare buy in.

That buy-in option would initially be made available to some uninsured people aged 55-64 in 2011, three years before the exchanges open.

In other words, young voters got a public option...for their parents.

The fundamental decisions around this legislation shouldn't simply be about constituencies pursuing their own narrow interests. And, even without a public option, the vast, vast majority of young people will be significantly better off with the passage of this bill than they were without.

But it is disappointing that Democrats would turn their back on a generation that placed so much trust in them. Beyond that, it is politically stupid. Democrats are preparing a narrative that won't work to reach one of their biggest target audiences. Given the heavy overlap between all three of the Rising American Electorate constituencies -- youth, unmarried women, and people of color -- the reality is that Democrats are setting themselves up in a less-than-great way politically.

So the question young people may want to ask themselves is, How can we get Democrats to pay attention to our self-interest? We can't even convince them to care about their own.

The Harvard Institute of Politics has released their latest round of youth polling. The numbers are already being headlined that youth still support Barack Obama even as they disapprove of his policy goals. Nowhere is this dynamic more visible than healthcare. Polling this year has repeatedly shown youth to be among the most favorable constituencies for health reform -- no surprise given how many young Americans are uninsured.

Forward Montana, the young voter organization I helped found in 2004, made health care a priority in 2007 after our members and volunteers told us loudly that the issue was a priority for them.

So what happened? The answer, based on the data, is extremely unclear. Despite disapproving of Barack Obama's efforts on health care (44-52), the reality is that young people overwhelmingly support they components of reform:

• 60% favor requiring individuals have health insurance provided low-income Americans receive assistance to help pay for premiums.
• 57% support a public option to compete with private insurance companies.
• 76% want health insurance companies to be required to extend coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions.
• 63% favor an employer mandate.
• 59% want to fund the system through a surtax on wealthy Americans.

So where's the objection? Good question. It may be the speed with which Congress has tackled the problem. It may be that Republican misinformation is playing a role (Dick Morris is bragging about successfully turning young people agains health reform after all). It may be something else. Frankly, the data set is too limited to tell.

What do you think?

My friend Ezra Klein, Millennial heath wonk wunderkind, takes a shot at the question, "What will happen with health reform?"

He sets up the answer as an analogy to the jobs recovery bill and concludes:

The result will probably be a historic win when compared to the status quo, but I doubt it's going to feel like that for supporters of the initiative.

There is no small irony here. A major progressive thought-leader on healthcare reform is saying that he thinks we'll secure a major victory but that many progressives will not embrace it.

Reading Ezra this morning (whose sentiments I think are spot-on), I remembered another recent conversation I had with another Millennial leader whose work is mostly outside the youth-engagement community. He understood the frustrations of his many Boomer and Xer compatriots upset at the Obama Administration over some footdragging, but thought that his older friends didn't really "get it." The Obama Administration got handed one of the biggest piles of shit in history and are cleaning it up as quickly as they can and lots of different things: global warming, getting out of Iraq, equal rights, voting reform, etc., have taken a temporary backburner while we try to fix the economy and get our healthcare system sorted out. We're still in Year One of an Administration and major things are happening.

This same divide is one I've witnessed with Forward Montana's grassroots healthcare work in Montana. Our efforts come under fire by many of our traditional advocacy allies because we aren't demanding single-payer, but we repeatedly go back to the 18-30 year-olds who comprise our base and ask what they care about and single-payer has yet to come up in one of those conversations. Support for Max Baucus's white paper actually runs pretty high among our crowd.

Now, I should say that I'm not sure who is right: the older activists or my Millennial peers. But these different viewpoints highlight something else we've all long suspected about our younger activists rising through the ranks -- we are far more comfortable with working within institutions and accepting the defenses of elites than our predecessors in the activist world.

There are, of course, exceptions. Young activists don't just mimic Jane Fleming Kleeb, we also have David Sirota in our ranks. And it is also possible that this divide simply mirrors long-running divides between the young who would go into elected office and the young who are better situated to raining criticism down on the powers that be. To some extent, of course, we need both.

The author prepares for Trick or Vote in 2007

Pop Quiz Time:

1. What is the single most effective way to mobilize voters?
   a) Visibilities
   b) Sitting on a couch and bitching
   c) Talking to ‘em face-to-face
2. What holiday always immediately precedes Election Day and has a built-in tradition of door-knocking?
   a) Halloween
   b) The 4th of July
   c) Festivus
3. What does everyone love?
   a) Rick Rolling
   b) Costumes!
   c) Voting
   d) All of the above

All of us who work in the field of youth engagement face big competition. The biggest competition we face – for volunteers, for attention – is not from one another’s organizations either. It’s from the Wii (which is sweet) and the bar scene and friends and loved ones. Our biggest challenge is overcoming that noise and building a politics that is fun and exciting and relevant to people’s lives.

That’s what makes Trick or VoteTM so freaking sweet. It’s the Best Way on the Best Day.

It’s actually such a sweet idea it doesn’t even really need an explanation. But here it is in a nutshell: Get some people who are a bit too old to trick or treat (go as young as high school and as old as the retirement home for your recruitment), rally ‘em in costume, meet in a centralized location, train these folks to canvass effectively, and knock some doors.

In short, we combine a cultural more (knock doors on Halloween) with hard-minded political research (knocking doors is an effective voter mobilization tool).

The result?

• More volunteers. In Portland in 2004, 850 canvassers assembled for the largest mass canvass in the history of the state. By all accounts, this year will be even bigger.
• More virgin volunteers. Out of that same crowd in Portland, more than one-in-three were first-time political volunteers who came out of the woodwork for a program well-suited to help our fellow citizens lose their voter virginity.
• More conversations. On Halloween evening, people are home – either waiting for trick-or-treaters or getting ready for their parties. They’re even prepared to open the door. And they’re definitely ready to engage in a conversation. All of which means that we don’t just hit more doors, we hit more doors in a more effective manner.
• More voters. Do the math -- more canvassers, more conversations, and more doors? More people are hitting the polls.

The Bus Federation wants to take Trick or VoteTM national this year – and we can do it with your help. If you’re part of a local or national organization that is serious about doing Trick or VoteTM, get in touch soon so we can coordinate our efforts. Contact Alex Aronson at the Oregon Bus Project @ 503-233-3018.

Just looking for a project for the fall and think you could pull off a kick-ass Trick or Vote in your hometown? Or even just want to assemble 15 of your closest friends and friends-of-friends and friendly-friends-of-friends’-friends and go hit some doors? Drop us a line. I swear to you, you’ll be glad you did.

Major props, by the way, to our friends at the Bus for this innovative program -- Trick or Vote is their brainchild.

Answers to the pop quiz: 1-b, 2-c, 3-a

Matt Singer is the CEO of Forward Montana, dedicated to training, mobilizing, and electing a new generation of progressive leaders. Forward Montana is a charter (get it?) organization of the Bus Federation.

Matt Singer is the CEO of Forward Montana, a state-based organization dedicated to increasing youth involvement in progressive politics.

Watching from afar, the massive pushback on the Yepsen BS in Iowa has been heartening. These college students have the right to caucus. Period. All the efforts to imply otherwise are voter suppression, plain and simple.

All that said, I'm left wondering why the Obama campaign isn't fighting back more with student surrogates. No doubt the campaign has some native Iowa leaders in their Students for Obama who could swing back -- and help demonstrate the extent to which the Obama campaign wants to empower students.

The Iowa PIRGs have done a great job putting students in the vanguard of their pushback of the Presidential campaigns -- and students fighting for the student voice makes for great copy.

So from here in Montana, a big hats off to the PIRGs, Young Dems, Rock the Vote, and everyone else fighting for the right to caucus.

Matt Singer is the CEO of Forward Montana, a home-grown non-profit that trains, mobilizes, and elects new progressive leaders in Montana.

When Forward Montana started back in 2004, we were an all-volunteer operation. At the beginning, we also thought it likely that we would stay that way. The core group had skills -- raising big checks was not one of them.

So we worked in coalition to move from youth voter turnout by phones to using doors instead. And then we launched a giant confirmation battle targeting the student member of the board of regents and won -- something that hadn't been done in 20 years, much less by a volunteer operation.

There's an energy to volunteer operations, including campus groups, where people who aren't making any money feel empowered to make the decisions regarding what the organization does. Strangely enough, getting staff can almost kill that initiative. When you're all going broke for the love of it, there's solidarity. When people start getting paid, it's easy to establish unnecessary hierarchies and for others to assume that the people getting paid can get the work done.

Matt Singer is the CEO of Forward Montana, a home-grown non-profit that trains, mobilizes, and elects new progressive leaders in Montana. This isn't his assigned guest-posting topic, but he can't help himself.

The New York Times has a new poll of young voters available. The poll was done in partnership with CBS and MTV.

Some of the news is wholly unsurprising. Young voters "are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage." In other words, we're all a bunch of dirty, f*cking hippies.

Until you read the next sentence: "The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion."

wHa?!?!?

Matt Singer is the CEO of Forward Montana, a youth-directed non-profit that trains, mobilizes, and elects a new generation of progressive leadership in good ol' MT.

Jake Thorn wrote earlier of the ideal way to organize on Facebook

A temporary group, geared for a short-term purpose, action-oriented, discarded as soon as the group’s goal has been accomplished.

The unfortunate part of this statement is that it is a self-reinforcing "doom loop" that exacerbates one of the most difficult aspects of organizing Millenials.

Anyone who works with young voters knows the difficulty of building identification with an organization. At Forward Montana, we have our own members and interns regularly ask, "What are you guys doing next?" The notion of ownership, membership, and involvement is a bit foreign. And this makes the task of building infrastructure insanely difficult.