Pacific Views

Backyard Realpolitik v 4.35

You wouldn't be able to tell from the site, but I've actually been doing quite a lot of politicking lately. It didn't help that I've been in DSL limbo since the date of my last posting, but it's been an interesting reminder of how much time I usually spend online.

I felt really restless last Sunday, like there was something I should be doing, and I ended up calling nearly everyone whose phone number I have. Perversely, practically no one was home, but then I realized that this wasn't like me to feel an obsessive need to talk to anyone I could get hold of for no particular reason. (Though maybe I *should* call people more often for no particular reason. I'll have to mull on that.) And I wondered, "What is it that I normally do when I'm bored?" Followed immediately by the answer; read blogs and online news sources, and write posts about them.

Clearly, I needed to make use of my internet downtime to start some new habits.

Last week I started back to school, and the second day of class ran into someone in my advisor's office (my faculty advisor is incredibly cool) who was hip on the idea of helping organize the campus for a candidate like Dean. So that very day, we got a club chartered which will be a convenient front group* for all manner of politicking.

Plus, we might actually get to set up an official field trip to a local city council meeting, which would be kind of novel. And, oh yeah, lots of voter registration.

Then Monday, the day of the official Housecall, I rounded up two fellow chemistry students and brought them along. They were curious, but as yet uncommitted. It was a small gathering held by a new precinct committee officer that I'd met at the last district meeting. Afterwards, five of us plus a late arrival adjourned for dinner and had a nice time chatting about the call and some of Dean's positions.

That evening, sans email, I had to try and find out if there were any Meetups that needed an organizer. It turned out that there was one, so eventually an orphan venue was selected and I became a Meetup host this past Wednesday.

It was a little nerve-racking during the lead up, but it turned out to be a very intimate group of about six, and not so scary. It was slightly more towards a group discussion format, which made it easier to get to know each other a bit and I didn't have to do all the talking. Plus, there's a definite sense of satisfaction from carrying out a legitimate and above board political activity that feels so curiously subversive.

I did get to share a nifty piece of information that I heard through a fellow volunteer the other day, as well. In September, the WA state Democratic party signed up 600 new precinct committee officers. Eighty percent of them are Dean supporters. Not bad. It turned out that yet another of those new PCOs was at the Meetup.

Then Thursday was the first unofficial meeting of our political club, which was basically me, a political sympathizer from botany club, and the guy from the advisor's office. So, he turns out to be an errant Green, and says that supporting a Democrat for president in no way means that he isn't a Green anymore. Also, most of the other Greens he knows are migrating to the Dean camp, too. All fine by me.

Pretty much the only thing we accomplished was to agree that at some future point, we will definitely work on a voter registration drive. And other stuff, as long as someone organizes it.

This afternoon, at a science club meeting, I was officially handed responsibility for organizing voter registration as far their efforts are concerned. Tag, I'm it. And I talked about why it's also important to educate people about the caucuses while we're at it, and many of the slightly blank looks I got (much like the one on my face when it was first explained to me only a couple months ago) indicate that, yes, much educating to do.

Everything has to start somewhere.

*Many schools frown on overtly partisan student groups. Including, and especially, the one I attend. The administration invited Bush to speak there during the 2000 election, but very definitely wasn't interested in having Gore come around.

Nonetheless, campus activities are still best organized through an officially sanctioned club with a sympathetic faculty advisor. So if you were wondering what you need to do to organize a local college, that would be the place to begin. You can get boatloads of interesting things done by working through the system.

Posted by natasha at October 3, 2003 11:45 PM | TrackBack