van jones

I just got home from the American Dream Conference, and I have been pondering the role of meta-brands as vehicles of change for our movement, but specifically for young people and people of color.

I have been thinking about the examples laid out by Van at the conference, assessing our conversation about #occupywallstreet, analyzing our historical struggles in America, and even trying to refresh my memory about international movements for change.

I know that during the most recent progressive meta-movement that Van laid out, the 2008 Obama Campaign, young people and people of color were often the ground troops and swing votes that put the campaign over the top, but will likely be the last groups to truly benefit from the fruits of this struggle. In fact, I was recently told by a White House staffer that no one in DC fears youth orgs or the black grassroots, even though the turnout numbers in 2008 indicate that these important constituencies are indomitable forces. Not surprisingly, these groups suffer from breath taking unemployment and unprecedented debt.

I think there are a number of reasons that meta-brands might not allow youth groups and people of color to really win, win (substantive socio-economic change and policy wins). For example, building a meta brand on top of or behind the existing progressive infrastructures may unite an existing movement with talking points and branding materials, but it does very little to address the contradictions that exist inside of our campaigns, expand the tent or give new efforts a seat at the table. Although Van asked us not to critique him for his Power Point slide that laid out the current motive forces in the progressive movement, I was pretty perplexed that there wasn’t any recognition of youth groups in the presentation. (Although, there were a number of youth groups, including ours, that were invited to the stage.) Yet, the #occupywallstreet movement, which was often mentioned at this week’s conference, is clearly a youth driven effort. Even our own current movement’s infrastructure and leadership was first developed during the Civil Rights era when many of today’s strongest progressive heroes and sheroes cut their teeth as youth organizers.

And during the Civil Rights Movement, after years of being a leader of a meta-brand (although I am sure he wouldn’t have described it as such), Martin Luther King Jr. sought to take his organizing deeper and helped develop the Poor People’s Campaign, an effort to meet the specific needs of a certain constituency. While he enlisted the support of his many allies, he realized that the movement’s prior efforts to win for poor people were incomplete without a laser focused effort to end poverty. A meta-brand may have set that movement up for a big victory, but he recognized the deeper organizing was the winning strategy.

At the end of the day, meta-brands and movements may allow us to do a lot of important things like building economies of scale, uniting us under common communication points and even reinvigorating our current campaigns. So I don’t think it is wise to throw the baby out with the bath water. But my first instinct is to think that they are best used during election cycles, and that they don’t go deep enough to bring about the deep seated change that is necessary for people at the bottom. This doesn’t mean we should abandon the American Dream Movement, or any meta-brand that percolates to the forefront, including the #occupy brand. But it does mean that as leaders we should intentionally tackle the obstacles head on, and acknowledge them as we build our movements. If we don’t, we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.

I appreciate any response and critique of my assessment. I am struggling with this, and don’t want to blow up our causes, only make them better…and I acknowledge my analysis could be off.

Peace and love,

biko

• Friend of FM Cryn Johannsen reports on what happens when young people who are in debt with student loans get into an accident and can't work... a really really really sad story.
• Something from the League:
  What would the Green Movement look like if Van Jones were still in the White House?

  That's the question we asked of Cornel West, Malia Lazu, Julian Mocine-Mcqueen, Ethan Case and Chuck Creekmur. Check out 99problems.org for their thoughts.

• The incredibly attractive fake Republican Meghan McCain schools the GOP with 7 tips for Presidential Hopefuls
  

  "...Most young voters my age don't remember Newt Gingrich's claim to fame; after all, the Clinton impeachment trial was so ‘90s.
  What the Republican Party needs is a candidate unafraid to put the president up against the wall and call him out on all the damage his administration has done, especially to the economy, in the last three years."

  This post is around the same time McCain appeared on MSNBC and talked about the coolness factor in Presidential candidates. Politico: You are not cooler than Obama.

  Meghan McCain wants the Republican candidates running for president to stop trying to be cool. She hopes they will step away from the comfort of Fox’s Greta Van Susteren and befriend MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. And she thinks Tim Pawlenty is kind of wimpy.
  Along with a willingness to challenge the president, she wants candidates to remember that they are “not cooler than President Obama.” “No, you are not. No, seriously, you are not, not even you, Sarah Palin,” she advised. Instead, she wants a Republican to emerge as the “smart candidate, the serious candidate.”

  Of Palin, McCain wrote, “If she enters the race, there will be a proverbial tsunami of media coverage for months. Don’t panic and ride it out. The cream always rises to the top and at some point she is going to have to do something other than come up with clever sound bites.”

  It wasn't Maddow it was that one dude that isn't Keith Olbermann but here's the video:
  
  

  Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

• 2011 Grads Success not assured
• For Profits deepening debt
• Paying for college without loans. My solution - sell a kidney...
• So this is interesting - when I was pulling the clips last night I came across this article from the West Virginia Metro News: WV takes steps to monitor for-profit schools. The problem is the article is gone and I searched for the headline and couldn't find it. Maybe the for-profits sent people over to break their legs...
• One columnist says that your youth is an indicator that Now's the time to goof off.
  

  "Graduates of 2011, you don't need me to tell you that you are facing an uncertain job market. The economy has been tough, good jobs are scarce, and you likely have heaps of student loan debt. So I get that there might be a temptation to put your job search on hold and continue with your education while deferring your student loans. But (and don't tell my daughter who will be a college freshman in the fall that I am telling you this) let me make one thing perfectly clear:

  Stop going to school!

  Don't go to business school. And don't go to law school. Don't even go to dental school. No, what I want you to do is rule school out. There may be a time to go back to school down the road, in fact, hopefully there will be, but that time is not now.

  And while we are at it, rule out that first big job too. You will have plenty of opportunity - too much opportunity frankly - to work in your life. But not now.

  So, what should you do instead of going to school and getting a job? Let me give you a few ideas:

  For starters, you can goof off."

  I'm all for this ... but I'm sending him my "goof off" bills.

• What to do about young voters who feel abandoned? Good question. I know the numbers are showing the president is losing support among youth and as a result the White House has really stepped up its outreach hoping no one noticed they ditched us when the hard policy was happening (HCR... environmental stuff... etc...). The "hey what about me?!" narcissism of politics and voters.... Is it narcissism when you demand accountability?
  

  "Is there an explanation for such a development? It seems that young people feel the President is no longer focused on them. Other issues have captured his attention including issues related to older people. One young lady summed it up this way: “He made young people feel important, then he got into office and there was no one talking to us.”

• Young Entrepreneurs help fuel economy. Good time to mention Our Time's Buy Young campaign soft launched focusing on businesses that are run by young people that are sustainable and make products from recycled materials. If you sign up you get 30% off or more!
• Ron Paul says young people are tired of the wars
• As many of you know, student financial aid funding is at risk of being cut in high pressure budget negotiations - including eliminating almost 1.5 million students from receiving important grant programs like the Pell Grant. While members of Congress traveling home to their districts this Summer we must hold them accountable by telling them how much student aid means to us.

  Here is a new online action that helps you write a letter to the editor of your newspaper

• Fair Elections news - The latest Voter Suppression Update, provided by FELN and Campus Progress, is available. Some really really good news for Missouri, Maine, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina - but bitter sweat with some sad news about NC and Ohio... so much work to be done to help prevent voter disenfranchisement especially among young voters.

Other ORG news:

• On July 12th the Break The Chain Campaign is hosting the first CARE CONGRESS: the historic public launch of the Caring Across Generations campaign. This is your opportunity to join us at this historic gathering! You can register here.
  

  This year is the first year of the "age wave;" every eight seconds, an American will turn 65. In the coming years, more and more members of our communities will need care, just as more and more workers will need quality, dignified jobs. At a time when we desperately need new jobs, new paths to citizenship, and new solutions to persistent crises in care, a broad coalition of people from all walks of life are coming together to push for change.

  When: July 12 - 9:00 am - 5:00 pm [Meals Included]

  Where: The Washington Hilton - 1919 Connecticut Ave NW

  Who: Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and 700 people who care

A couple weeks ago, we highlighted the Briefcase Brigades project organized by young people across the country. Sarah summarized the project and its rationale quite well:

...[Y]oung people are dressing up for an interview and bringing briefcases to demand Congress comes up with a plan to deal with the youth jobs crisis. Since Van Jones mentioned the idea for these Briefcase Brigades at Powershift, over 31 groups have sprung up in 22 states.

Briefcase Brigades speak to the challenges we face that politicians just aren't listening to. We are the most educated and tech savvy generation, yet unemployment for Americans under 30 is 16.7%, double the national average. The average student loan debt facing graduates today is over $24,000. Our generation is graduating off a cliff - each year, graduates are stuck facing off in the labor market with unemployed graduates from the prior year.

Following the first round of brigades held on April 27, SparkAction has released a video capturing youth making their voices heard around the country.

Congratulations to everyone involved with this project, and a special thanks to Van Jones for suggesting this idea at Powershift. Let's keep this momentum going!

By Van Jones and Billy Wimsatt

We'll give you the punch line first:

Voter guides are cheap and easy and they help win elections. The right-wing uses them better than we do. Luckily, there's a new tool that compiles local progressive voter guides: www.TheBallot.org. Everyone should go to www.TheBallot.org right now. Find one, create one, then Facebook it, Blog it, and Tweet it like mad!

Please take two minutes right now and help us reach millions of 2008 Obama voters and inspire them to vote again in the next few days.

We feel real urgency because we've seen what the other side is producing.

It looks innocent enough at first.

A plain-looking one-page sheet entitled: Nevada Voter Guide For Christians.

So far, so good.

There's Democratic Senator Harry Reid, a good practicing Christian. We learn that he is: "Anti-Free Speech" "Pro-Homosexual" "Pro-Abortion" and the kicker: "Anti-Jesus."

Yep.

It's all marked there in the little chart with a "Y" by his name.

His percentage score for "Faith Friendly?"

A big fat: 0%.

Then we look over at Nevada's other Senator, Republican John Ensign, who during the summer was involved in a major sex scandal and was found to have inappropriately funneled money to his mistress.

Senator Ensign's faith-friendly rating?

You guessed it: 100%.

According to these voter guides (which exist in all 50 states), the vast majority of Democrats in Congress are "Anti-Jesus" and have a "faith friendly" rating of zero. No matter that the majority are Christians and people of faith. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Republicans are similar to John Ensign: They get a perfect score.

The goal of this campaign, created by www.PrayInJesusName.org is to fax these voter guides to 120,000 churches, to be distributed among congregations during Sunday services.

Was this propaganda paid for by the GOP?

Part of Karl Rove's multi-million dollar war chest?

Not as far as we can tell.

The voter guides state very clearly across the top: "This voter-guide is non-partisan, and neither endorses nor opposes any candidate for office. It simply reports the actual votes of Senate or Congressional incumbents, and lists their main (challengers). You should register to vote NOW to vote on November 2nd." The donation page for www.PrayInJesusName.org says: "Your donation to this ministry is tax-deductible under the IRS code."

The total budget for the entire campaign is only $36,250. They simply fax these one page voter guides to 120,000 churches and allow local congregations to distribute them.

As the website brags: "How many millions of dollars will be wasted on ads that don't mobilize Christian voters? For just 29 cents, we can equip and mobilize an entire church of voters. For just $29, we can mobilize 100 churches. For just a few thousand dollars, we can wake the entire nation. We don't need millions, just a few thousand dollars spent wisely, and SUDDENLY WE WIN."

Nevermind that this particular website and these voter guides appear to be in violation of IRS guidelines (someone should file a formal complaint). The larger point is that the right-wing has been using local voter guides for a long time. They're incredibly effective, and they cost almost no money.

"That's a really smart idea," you say. "Why aren't we doing that?"

Well... we're starting to. A new alliance of groups recently launched www.TheBallot.org to aggregate local progressive and non-partisan voter guides. More than 200 have been posted so far, from 42 states, and dozens of organizations. The best ones are personal voter guides created by local bloggers, political junkies, and informal groups that tell you in plain English (or Spanish or another language) the real deal on races and ballot measures all the way down the ballot to the School Board level.

Instead of wasting precious time getting offended by right-wing hypocrisy -- or even worse, responding with offensive anti-Christian bigotry -- please go check out www.TheBallot.org. Think of it like Wikipedia for progressive voter guides. The more people participate, the better it gets.

Is your town represented on www.TheBallot.org?

If YES, Blog it. Tweet it, Email it. Facebook it -go crazy.

If NOT, please forward this to your local political junkie and ask 'em to make a voter guide so folks in your town know how to vote. Not just for Congress, but down ballot: Judges. County Clerks. Ballot questions. The stuff nobody knows.

The hidden benefit of local voter guides is that it actually makes people understand what's on their ballot which makes them want to vote, and get their friends to vote --especially new voters: The Obama 2008 Generation.

There's no time to waste! Get out there and do God's work! Make a progressive voter guide today, or at least download one and spread the gospel.

Can we get an Amen?

Billy Wimsatt works on www.TheBallot.org and is author of Please Don't Bomb The Suburbs.

Van Jones is the Founder and former President of Green For All.

“This isn’t a wait until we grow up kind of thing. Our country needs our leadership now.”

On July 8, I had the privilege of attending the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington DC. Together with 1,000 young progressives from across the country, I listened to speeches made by some of our nation’s most inspiring leaders and participated in discussions about my generation’s role in our country’s most progressive battles.

Without a doubt, there are two issues that dominated nearly every conversation – climate change and healthcare. For the millennial generation, these issues are very real. We are, or know someone who is, uninsured. We know that the effects of climate change will begin during our lifetime if we don’t act now. We are ready to get involved and our country’s new leadership is ready for us to play a vital role.

As someone with a vested interest in the ongoing fight to pass a comprehensive climate change bill, I was particularly inspired by Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy and Special Advisor on Green Jobs to the White House, and Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi. Both gave significant credit to young people for the passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act in the House and called for our continued action in the Senate debate.

Speaking to crowd of college students and recent graduates, Jones kept his focus mainly on the massive potential for job creation in a clean energy future by saying everything our country can do that will be good for the environment will also be good for jobs. He also called on our generation to unleash our sense of innovation and entrepreneurship.

“We are relying on Barack Obama to get it done, he’s relying on you to get it started.”

Following the House vote on ACES, several articles have be published showcasing the work Speaker Pelosi did to assure at least 218 votes would be cast in support of the bill. With the final vote coming in at 219-212, it is clear that her work was justified.

During her speech, Speaker Pelosi admitted the process of passing legislation can be gruesome because of the significant amount of whipping needed to get the votes, but the end result is worth it.

“A lot of people don’t like to see legislation made…but I’m willing to take the heat if it means we get the bill.”

Other speakers at the conference included Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta, Daily Show Correspondent John Oliver, and President Bill Clinton. I complied my tweets from the day in a post here and comments about the conference are being added here.

Today is the big day. Hopefully the last day of the primary season. I'll have some overall thoughts up on the nomination process later today.

• Current TV tackles the Millennial generation and the coming political realignment:

• Why have anti-war protests proven so unsuccessful? David Sirota has some answers in The Protest Industry vs. The Players
• Kevin Bondelli follows up on his post here yesterday and outlines why Vote Pledges are important even in heavily Democratic districts.
• Banks are cutting down on loans and leaving community colleges and two-year college students out in the cold.
• A veteran runs the numbers and debunks McCain's fears about the Webb GI Bill.
• Wired runs a mini-profile of Josh Levy, formerly of Tech President but now an editor at Change.org. The story hits on the power of social networking to mobilize change, and Youth to Power merits a mention.
• The New York Times gets hip to the new face of evangelical community, and how young people are redefining the role of politics in their faith.
• Finally, episode one of This Brave Nation is live. In it, Carl Pope and Van Jones provide insight into the development of the progressive movement over the last half century and discuss how and why they became progressive activists. In particular, I found fascinating their discussion (2/3 through the video) about the role of culture in social change and why artists today seem less involved than in the 60s: