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Future Majority's 2008 Presidential Youth Campaign Series

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“How can we best create a space on the Future Majority website that is a think tank for youth campaigning - tactics, strategy, policy - that includes candidate or Dem. campaign participation?” ~Mike Connery

Stemming from a number of convergent factors—momentum building off the record youth voting trends of 2004 and 2006; a growth in GOTV youth organizations and projects; the ongoing Iraq War controversy; new and innovative social networking technologies; a half-decent crop of candidates; and the “Bye-Bye Bush” election—the 2008 election cycle is already shaping up to be a watershed in the history of youth politics.

The question arises: how can we who are committed to forwarding this movement help the 2008 Presidential youth campaigns realize their highest potential while also wikifying our “movement memory” for future election cycles and generations of youth? How can we also use this as an opportunity to unify the progressive youth politics movement so that we can leverage our collective political weight to make significant headway on pressing issues that are directly affecting young voters?

A discussion has recently arisen about the possibility of Future Majority serving as a virtual platform for this process to take place. Such a project would entail bringing together campaign youth staff, young voter experts, and young voters themselves to engage in dialogue about tactics and strategy, share stories and lessons from the frontlines, and seek advice from “youth elders” and campaign veterans.

There are many ways this process could be facilitated and structured. This is an idea still fresh in the making, so share your creative vision and help make this happen.

How can we most successfully set this up with the resources and networks currently available? How should FM host this process and what should the format be? What site designs will need to be implemented to make this happen?

Lotz of questions still to be raised and explored!

Update by Mike: I’ve added this to the Big Ideas section of the DIY Wiki. As this post moves off the front page, let’s make sure the discussion keeps going over there.

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April 22nd, 2007 8:58am
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Building the Think Tank

Submitted by Michael Connery on Mon, 2007-04-23 09:36.

So I obviously think that this is a great idea, and I can see a number of audiences and ways to roll it out. This is all within the limitations of my time, the volunteer efforts put forth by all of you, and the kindness of folks who can help upgrade the website (design and code).

W’ve got a number of forums available:

  • the blogs (one author with discussion in comments)
  • the wiki (collaboratively building best practice documents with discussion in the comments, maybe occassionally promoted onto the front page)
  • Drupal has forums/group modules that can be turned on if we want

I can see a number of formats:

  • Interviews (with staffers and those in the grassroots)
  • Reviews, like those currently on the front page re: SFBO
  • How To/FAQ articles in the wiki
  • Case Studies

I think the audiences (based on readership) look something like this:

  • campaign staffers (yes, they read the blog, so what you say here can actually make a difference)
  • grassroots campaign groups (students for Barack, Barack the Youth Vote, Students for Edwards, Students for Hillary, etc.)
  • young progressive looking to start some shit but unsure how to do it
  • non-electoral youth groups looking to coopt new tactics that campaigns pilot
  • funders

What we need to figure out is the best format - and maybe its really just a jumble of all these formats. Maybe its just an amalgam of good interviews with grassroots leaders and campaign staffers, and due diligence on our own part to spotlight case studies and record best practices. Or maybe it means we need to build out something new on the site to accomodate this conversation.

The idea here is really to make sure that all the excitement and energy generated by campaigns and:

  1. Increase the effectiveness of the “winning” campaign in the general election
  2. Make sure that what happens is recorded and channeled into something useful for campaigns and youth groups beyond the election.
  3. Maybe forge ties between the Democratic candidate staffers so that when the primary ends, we can all smoothly transition to working for the winner and the larger progressive vision.

After all, each campaign will be trying different tactics, and all will be grappling with similar problems. If we all work together to solve these problems and share best practices, whichever candidate emerges will be the stronger for it.

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on pulling this together. In the meantime, I’m going to be doing it the best I can - by contacting the campaigns when I write about items relevent to them, by talking to folks running the grassroots operations that are unaffiliated with the campaigns, and keep trying to make Future Majority the best progressive youth blog it can be.

Ok, this is jumbled, but I’m in Chicago on business and don’t have more time to post or clean up what I’ve written. More later, but let me know what y’all think for now.