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Dean For America.
Apr. 2nd, 2003 11:56 pmTonight was the Meetup for Howard Dean. Dean supporters across the country meet at 7pm on the first Wednesday of every month to organize - in many places, including Maryland, well in advance of any official campaign presence in the state.
I had a lousy day for a variety of reasons, so I wasn't in the best of moods when I left work. Fortunately, I was required to claim my car from the garage and re-park it a good hour before the Meetup began. I spent the hour sitting on a bench, looking out at the water across the Fells Point market plaza and enjoying the glow of the setting sun on the bricks. It was perfect weather, clear and in the low seventies. I'd calmed down considerably by the time I found the bar where the Meetup was being held.
All told, about 55 people showed up. The Meetups have been going on for a few months now, and several people already had campaign tasks they were working on - for example, identifying public events where we can pass out leaflets, researching campaign expenditure laws, holding fundraising house parties. Oddly enough, one of the people who's already quite involved is my old high school friend Prescott. I knew he lived in Baltimore, but somehow we've never managed to get together. I guess we're likely to see a lot more of each other on the campaign.
At some point in the future, the Dean For America campaign will open a Maryland state office. We're not sure when that will be. Maryland is currently trying to move our primary so that it will be earlier in the process, before Super Tuesday - and if that happens, you can bet that we'll have an official Dean headquarters sooner rather than later. Our goal as a grassroots group is to be able to hand them an organized, active, productive, financially solvent system with a ready-made corps of volunteers.
It seemed to be a politically savvy group. Lots of people have experience working on local and state campaigns, and understand the structure of party politics in Maryland. There was some rah-rah stuff in the meeting, and a lot of informal conversations beforehand about what inspires people about Dean, but for the most part it was a meeting focused on the practical aspects of how to make things happen. I had been wondering if the tone would be more like an anti-war rally, given that I think most of Dean's volunteers are probably motivated by opposition to the war, but there wasn't all that much in the way of rhetoric.
Which is what I was hoping for, honestly. I don't want to sit around and complain about how bad things are. I think about how bad things are a dozen times a day. I want to work to change things. I need to work to change things. And I think that the electoral process is the most promising way to do it.
I had a lousy day for a variety of reasons, so I wasn't in the best of moods when I left work. Fortunately, I was required to claim my car from the garage and re-park it a good hour before the Meetup began. I spent the hour sitting on a bench, looking out at the water across the Fells Point market plaza and enjoying the glow of the setting sun on the bricks. It was perfect weather, clear and in the low seventies. I'd calmed down considerably by the time I found the bar where the Meetup was being held.
All told, about 55 people showed up. The Meetups have been going on for a few months now, and several people already had campaign tasks they were working on - for example, identifying public events where we can pass out leaflets, researching campaign expenditure laws, holding fundraising house parties. Oddly enough, one of the people who's already quite involved is my old high school friend Prescott. I knew he lived in Baltimore, but somehow we've never managed to get together. I guess we're likely to see a lot more of each other on the campaign.
At some point in the future, the Dean For America campaign will open a Maryland state office. We're not sure when that will be. Maryland is currently trying to move our primary so that it will be earlier in the process, before Super Tuesday - and if that happens, you can bet that we'll have an official Dean headquarters sooner rather than later. Our goal as a grassroots group is to be able to hand them an organized, active, productive, financially solvent system with a ready-made corps of volunteers.
It seemed to be a politically savvy group. Lots of people have experience working on local and state campaigns, and understand the structure of party politics in Maryland. There was some rah-rah stuff in the meeting, and a lot of informal conversations beforehand about what inspires people about Dean, but for the most part it was a meeting focused on the practical aspects of how to make things happen. I had been wondering if the tone would be more like an anti-war rally, given that I think most of Dean's volunteers are probably motivated by opposition to the war, but there wasn't all that much in the way of rhetoric.
Which is what I was hoping for, honestly. I don't want to sit around and complain about how bad things are. I think about how bad things are a dozen times a day. I want to work to change things. I need to work to change things. And I think that the electoral process is the most promising way to do it.
