Expanding the Scope of Participation

So today I want to riff a little on numbers 35-39 of my youth vote theses:

35. Culture is a progressive's natural advantage.  We should use it.
36. 95% of the people in these constituencies won't ever care about politics as much as you do
    
37. Asking them to participate in hard core political actions (canvassing, phone banking, etc.) as their first introduction to politics is doomed to failure and low conversion rates.
    
38. Politics must be made relevant to the life of a person if you want them to participate and make civic participation a habit.
    
39. This means there must be a ladder of participation providing substantive involvement for people at multiple levels of engagement.

Culture is a progressive's natural advantage.  From Hollywood to Madison Avenue, the creative class leans heavily democratic.  Most often, that translates into money for campaigns, or a pretty face on the trail.  Rarely does it mean employing the natural talents of that segment of the base.  We see it when campaigns hire political consultants to manufacture stale, uninspiring ads while guys like Bill Hillsman get locked out.  This is as true on campus and among young professionals as it is among the "adults." Yet if you look at the work of someone like Michael Moore, or watch An Inconvenient Truth, creative use of media (old and new) can be one of our biggest assets.  Considering their media consumption habits and the growth of new outlets for that creative energy online, this is doubly true when reaching out to young people.

I don't mean to traffic in stereotypes - there are certainly exceptions to what I'm about to say - but in general, political involvement on campus and among young professionals typically draws membership from a specific type of person: (ex)poli-sci majors and aspiring politicians/staffers/policy wonks.  The volunteer and leadership opportunities in youth activism are similarly limited: donate money, canvass, phone bank.  

I fully understand that democratic youth groups are under enormous pressure to justify their existence to the party and to political operatives.  That means they need to quantify their work and produce tangible results: voters registered and GOTV'd; doors knocked and phone calls made.  Volunteer efforts are generally focused like a laser on producing the highest numbers possible in those categories.  But that leaves a lot of people who (understandably) don't want to participate in those activities out of the Party.

It doesn't have to be that way, and I worry that by not reaching out and involving these folks while they are young, we're making more work for ourselves (and shooting ourselves in the foot creatively) further down the line.  These lost volunteers have a lot to offer, and Democratic youth groups, and the progressive movement generally, need to make an effort to expand the scope of what it means to volunteer to include the types of activities and talents that these other people who are left out can offer.

Usually I talk about this in terms of "social" activism - membership in groups like Drinking Liberally, or voter registration at concerts.  But that's only part of the equation.  There are a lot of potential volunteers who can contribute beyond voter registration or participation in dual civic/social functions.  Graphic design students or young professionals can volunteer to make high quality materials.  Web designers can upgrade the many, many out of date websites.  Aspiring film makers can manufacture creative video like that by Phil de Velis or the folks at Barely Political.  There are folks on campus throwing kick-ass parties, but they're making deals with local bars and clubs, not working with the College Democrats.  

These skill sets and deliverables are just as valuable to young and old progressives as 20 phone bankers for a day.  They can help build a better brand (and let's face it, College Dems and Young Dems need a better brand among our peers) and reinvigorate politics for those who find it stale and uninspiring.  These people are resources just waiting to be tapped.  Getting one professional graphic designer as a volunteer can link you to a whole network of such folks who might be willing to lend a hand.  By building relationships with film and computer science departments on campus (instead of just the poli-sci dept.), you could create a steady stream of volunteers who can provide free, quality work(maybe even for-credit) that fill large gaps in the capacity of our youth organizations.

When we talk about the problems facing youth organizing, we typically speak of structural problems such as the lack of institutional knowledge (lists, best practices, etc), bad management, turf rivalries between competing youth groups, and lack of interest from the local party.  These are all big problems, to be sure, but let's not forget that narrowness of vision, and a limited view of what participation looks like is just as much a problem.  Let's be sure that in the rush to meet quotas and quantify our work we take time to look beyond the next election cycle and restructure our organizations to create room for many different types of people and many different forms of activism.  This is particularly true of the budding cultural creatives among us.  Rather than treat aspiring Hollywood and Madison Avenue or more indie types as ATMs to tap once they've attained success (or worse, apathetic because they don't want to cold call strangers), let's build strong ties with them now, while they are young, and maximize this natural advantage we have over conservatives.

I'd love to hear any stories from College or Young Democrats who have tried to build these relationships.  Success stories or failures; there's something to be learned from each.