MyDD

Update: I've added the "95 Theses" to the FM Wiki. Take a look and help edit this document so that it is as accurate, informative and tight as possible.
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My first post at MyDD is live.

It's sort of a 95 Theses of the youth vote/movement. Similar to the 95 Theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto.

I'll post it here in full tomorrow, probably as a wiki. The topic is much to big for a single blog post, the and structure I chose makes it ideal to be wikified. And it is most definitely a draft in need of refinement. I'm looking forward to the discussion at MyDD. I hope lots of folks comment, and if you're reading this, I encourage you to go there and leave your thoughts.

I've got a bit of exciting site news. Mark spilled the beans in the comments yesterday, but if you haven't yet heard, I've accepted a spot as a weekend front-page writer for MyDD. That means that I'll be posting less here on the weekends, or what I write will first get posted to MyDD, and then reposted here a short while later.

This does not mean that Future Majority will not have content on the weekends.

AliceCheshireCat will still be blogging, along with Alex UA, and Josh Gorman will soon be back from hiatus to write on the weekends. And I'll be here blogging everyday during the week. This could mean a lot more traffic for Future Majority, and I hope y'all are as excited as I am about it. My first post will be tomorrow, I'll let y'all know when it goes live.

Now for some news:

• Hillary has launched her first youth outreach program - Club 44. It's aimed at young woman - one of the primary constituencies of Hillary's campaign to date (Women for Hillary is the only affinity group prominently displayed on her campaign website).
• The Young Democrats are ridiculing the latest temper tantrum thrown by their counterparts at YAF.
• Young Voter PAC is holding a fundraiser next week. They support candidates friendly to young voters. You should support them. Plus there's an open bar . . .

No posting from me for 2 weeks, and now 4 in one day. I guess I'm recharged after the madness of early November and a bad head cold.

I'm about to head out the door to drive down to DC for RootsCamp, but I had to small items two post before I go.

I posted this morning about the DailyKos Community's hostility toward young voters, so it's only fair that i now direct you to a post by Chris Bowers that glowingly reviews the current and future potential of the Millenial Generation to fueling the progressive movement. Nothing new to folks that have been reading us here, but a great piece none the less, and really nice to see it front paged on one of the bigger progressive blogs.

Finally, let me offer some constructive criticism once again to the College Democrats. Don't help your opponents get media coverage, and don't ever repeat their frame.

You probably heard that the College Republicans launched another outrageous stunt last week, offering a "white's only" scholarship at Boston University. The College Democrats responded with a press release.

So the College Republicans received national media attention and sparked debate among young voters and older voters alike. The College Democrats' responded, and got some national coverage. But for every news hit CDA got, they only gave the college republicans even more coverage.

We got whupped again by the more media savvy Republicans.

Chris Bowers at MyDD is asking for opinions about a negative ad by Young Virginians for Racial Equality(no website yet) responding to George Allen and his foot-in-(racist)mouth comments.

The ad isn't great. It's slow, the jump cuts are poorly done, and the whole thing has a bad green-screen look to it. And I don't feel like the young virginians in the picture are speaking to me culturally. There's something not authentic about the speakers, even though the actual message is right on.

I think the most remarkable thing about the ad is that it was made at all. Ads directly targeting young voters like this are somewhat new (the exceptions being MTV/Rock the Vote's non-partisan Choose or Loose and a few ads in swing states in '04 by Compare Decide Vote). Distributing them via YouTube is even newer. I don't think it stands much of a chance of going viral, as Bowers asks, or even altering the narrative in the Allen campaign. That damage was already done when the original "macaca" comments circulated through YouTube.

I put in my .02 here. You should too. Help Young Virginians make a better ad.