Britt Blaser and I were just talking
by phone–he is up in Burlington, and I’m here west of Boston. We
had an idea: it would be great if the Sierra Clubs and Amnesty
Internationals would encourage their members to get involved by email
with the Democratic campaigns, and do it now, rather than later.
This could have the effect, overnight, of vastly increasingly the
density of electronic links among people of the progressive
persuasion. This in turn could result in a rapid, broad-scale
increase in the “social capital” of the progressive community–as
people get involved, meet each other, and find ways to contribute and
to stay informed and engaged.
The large non-profit organizations would not have to endorse any
particular candidate. They would be endorsing the idea of
electronic interconnection and political involvement across their
membership, with the presidential campaign or campaigns of each
person’s choice as initial electronic gathering points…
The idea here is to accelerate by a few months the broad engagement of
politically active, issue-oriented progressive and liberal people in the
campaigns.
