Vast Left Wing Conspiracy

In light of all the criticism on this site, I wanted to post something that looked at solutions. Or more specifically, at a relatively new piece of infrastructure that seems to be working.

Exhibit A that money is being invested in programs that are expanding progressive capacity is Represent - Penn State's non-partisan voter registration/GOTV organization. Now, I know what many are probably thinking - non-partisan = not effective. But this groups seems to be non-partisan the way that the Center for American Progress is non-partisan.

The group was founded through the Young People For Fellowship program, a majority of its leadership is progressive or legitimately non-partisan, and the Penn State College Republicans refuse to participate in the program.

An examination of their programming shows some solid goals, creative tactics, and even more progressive ties.

Represent will also be hosting a variety of events throughout the fall that is meant to increase student awareness of the upcoming election.

"We are looking to do a 'rock the vote' charity event where a bunch of different bands will play," Cross said.

Represent will also be hosting the Pennsylvania Political Hip-Hop Convention in October that will be open to all Penn State students, Cross said.

. . .

Represent also works closely with the United States Student Association and the Pittsburgh League of Young Voters.

So you have a program funded by Young People For, giving money to College Democrats at Penn State, being used to do culturally-based GOTV work on campus, and coordinate with PA subsidiaries of the National Hip Hop Political Convention and the League of Young Voters.

There's a long way to go, and we'll have to see how successfully they GOTV, as well as what emerges from their coordination. One thing I'd like to see is a Campus Progress publication spring up at Penn State. But this is what the beginning of the young VLWC looks like.

A conversation began on this blog a few weeks ago about the effectiveness of Music for America's model for reaching and activating young voters. It started here, with a segment of Alex's thesis devoted to his experience volunteering with MFA in 2004. Both MFA's executive and communications directors posted replies to Alex. It continued here, in a response Alex wrote. In the comments section, a conversation evolved between Alex, myself, and Mark Ristaino, MFA's current communications director, about the problems with MFA's organizational model and execution (disclosure - I'm MFA's founding communications director but have not officially worked at the organization for over a year and a half, though I do give advice occasionally).

This is an important conversation. MFA has a list of 70,000 young voters. They've been present at over 4,000 music events since October 2003 and registered approximately 20,000 young voters. No other organization dedicated to engaging Millenials/"Echo-Boomers" is more integrated within the fabric of youth culture and touches so many people on a nightly basis.

Yet in many ways the organization is dysfunctional. There are problems with the volunteer process, little cohesion to MFA as a movement, and for many volunteers it is a dead-end, providing no way to move further into the ranks of the progressive movement. As a result, to quote Mark "employees and young activists and partner bands start to get disillusioned with politics due to MFA."

This post is an effort to keep this conversation going. As I noted above, MFA is uniquely positioned to reach young voters in the 2008 Presidential cycle. Parts of it are broken, but I hope that it is fixable. Below the jump I've summarized the conversation thus far, and I invite readers to contribute their own ideas. We have a rare chance here to openly discuss with the current leadership of MFA ways to correct the course of the organization well in advance of 2008, when once again MFA could have a significant impact on the outcome of the election.

As Alex noted in his thesis, this is not meant to as an attack on Music for America or any of the other groups that worked extremely hard during the election, but a critical critique of the problems people face when they attempt to become more involved. If we are to regain majority status in this nation we have to look at ourselves with extremely critical eyes.

Join the conversation.