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Democrats at Work

Warrantless wiretapping, the continuing war - the Democrats in Congress don't seem to be getting much work done. Fortunately, other Democrats are picking up the slack.


Connecting community service and political activism is a terrific idea, especially for engaging younger voters who are highly likely to view community work as a more effective outlet for change than the political process. Democrats Work is building bridges to ease those people into the political process while generating a positive image for the party in communities across the country- even in "red" areas like Arkansas. More great news coverage after the jump. Click here to see if there's a Democrats Work chapter in your area.




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August 20th, 2007 9:06pm
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awesome

Submitted by Jake Thorn on Tue, 2007-08-21 00:36.

Sounds kind of like OneCorps. This should be the norm.

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[[http://www.losethelabel.org/user/3|-6.00, -4.15]]

A lot like One Corps

Submitted by Michael Connery on Tue, 2007-08-21 07:53.

Yeah, it's a lot like One Corps (John Edwards campaign/service operation). As far as I know, they started around the same time.

You raise an interesting point. It should be the norm. John Edwards is increasingly looking like a longshot for the nomination (though he's still chugging along in Iowa, so I don't discount him). When Dean flamed out, his campaign formed DFA, which became a permanent hub of grassroots organizing. Will the same thing happen to One Corps? If not, there's a huge opportunity for Democrats Work to step in and capture that group of people.

One Corps and other stuff

Submitted by Thomas Bates on Tue, 2007-08-21 13:28.

Mike, thanks for the post and your thoughts.

You're right, what we are doing - namely making service a visible and sustained part of political action - is like One Corps. In fact, we've worked with One Corps chapters in a few areas to do some joint work together, most notably in Georgia. I suppose our branding is a bit different - we're not linked to a candidate and have chosen to identify ourselves with the Democratic label - but the impulse is the same. Our goal is to make service part of the DNA of what it means to be involved in politics, which is something that Edwards stresses in his speeches and his actions. Just like there was in the Dean campaign (which, incidentally, had a service component called Dean Corps), I hope there is a continued outlet for this type of work for his supporters, regardless if Edwards is president or not. (We've also worked with DFA chapters and Dean Corps folks in California.)

Our model is to work with local progressive and Democratic organizations on the ground to help mobilize volunteers for service projects in their communities. (So, for example, when we have an event in Denver - like we do this weekend - we partner with the Young Dems groups, county party organizations, elected officials, etc., to help them keep their folks active and engaged.) We want to keep working with One Corps members - whether they stay as One Corps or are on the Democrats Work email list or are active with their county party or go to Drinking Liberally or started a service club in their high school - because they clearly understand the power and value of linking service and politics. We hope we can find them and convince them to keep putting their values into action . . . as we like to say.

We are trying to expand what it means to be "involved in politics" to include service, which, as you said in your post, resonates with young people who are much more inclined to be involved in community service than in the purely "political" world. We want to move politics onto that turf instead of trying to drag folks onto the standard "politics as usual" ground. If we can link service to political action, politics - and the Democratic Party and the progressive movement - will be much better for it.

Democrats Work - Putting Our Values Into Action