Here's my first contribution to Huffington Post's "Off the Bus" media program. Hope you like it. Please go take a look and become a "fan." Thanks.
The Adams Morgan strip has some of the best night life in Washington DC. It's Friday night and the line outside of one of Adams Morgan's hottest clubs, LEFTBANK, stretches down the block. The doors of a cab open and a leggy trio quicksteps from the cab into line behind me, heels and skirts high, necklines low, lips shining and sticky. They're joking about John McCain's recent political impotence, and I smile at a thought. This is not my father's Democratic Party.
In fact, it's a debate watch party held by "The Progressive Happy Hour Crew." I'm now certain there's more energizing people than policy matter or issues or even vision. There's more happening here than Obama's star power. I seem to have stumbled into a nexus of politics and culture which largely skipped the lefties of my Gen X.
The new generation has come in style to cheer on Obama but tomorrow they go to work; by the scores, they will head across the Potomac to help turn Virginia blue.
Progressive Happy Hour has been building momentum for this election for months. DC is just across the river from Virginia, and Virginia could win the election for Obama. It's so close in Virginia that it all comes down to ground game. The idea is simple: recruit volunteers to work in key counties to drive turnout for Obama. The focus is on seven key counties, especially Prince William (PWC). In 2005 PWC went blue for the first time in recent memory when it backed Tim Kaine for Governor. PWC also put Senator Jim Webb over the top in 2006. Webb's victory put the Democrats in the Senate Majority. Both of those elections were by very tight margins. Webb won by fewer than 10,000 votes. In tight elections, the difference is canvassing.
Last weekend, 200 volunteers knocked on 7,000 doors. Progressive Happy Hour hopes to knock 100,000 doors by Election Day. The key to success is the flowering of involvement of a civic-minded new generation "Generation We".
As they come into their own, this new generation promises to become the most active and engaged since World War II. Danelle Safran is a case in point. She and her cohort from the University of Maryland MBA program know that they can have a real impact by canvassing in Virginia. Obama is up by 20 points in Maryland, so the real action is in Virginia. "Obama is really close. Virginia could be the Ohio of 2008. We're going to key suburbs, wherever we can make a difference. Canvassing is the highest priority for us. The semester is starting, but there's nothing more important right now. If Obama wins Virginia, he wins the election. The campaign is very well organized and people are really open to talk with us. We knocked 1000 doors last Sunday. We'll do 10,000 before the election. I wish I could do more."
Progressive Happy Hour organizer Brian Komar insists that in the cycle of history, "the Next" Progressive Movement is on the rise. He hastens to emphasize that this is the "next" progressive movement, not the first. It is merely the latest in a string of successful movements for progress. "In fact, change doesn't come from parties. It comes from movements. This movement will bring the change America needs. Young people are always the early adopters, and this time younger people are paving the way. This is a movement for the common good. We're in it together. This is people vs the privileged. America is ready to lead by example again." Brian continues, "My sincere hope is that this movement becomes multi-generational, but the new energy powering the progressive movement now is younger folks."
A lot of people are coming to the same conclusion. Paul Bedard at US News and World Report:
Some call the 95 million Americans ages 18 to 29 millennials. But after studying their interests and uncovering their desire to better the nation, entrepreneur Eric Greenberg came up with what he thinks is a better name: generation we. "They are not a 'me' generation; they are the 'we' generation," he says. "They are about the greater good," he adds, noting that they're really jazzed up about the environment and the energy crisis.
Generation Y, the Millennials, "Generation We", whatever you call them, young progressives are set to transform American politics. This generation is highly engaged, strongly partisan in favor of Democrats, and deeply committed to making connections, building community. In their book "Millenial Makeover," Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, identify this generation as matching the archetype of the "Greatest Generation":
"Civic." A generational type described as "dominant and outer-fixated". The members of this generational type are reared in a highly protected manner so that an orientation to societal challenges, problem solving, and institution building marks their adult lives. The Millennial Generation is the Civic generation of the current cycle, as the GI Generation was of the previous one.
In Virginia, Generation We accounted for 9% of voters in 2004, but 17% in 2006. This approximates GenWe participation growth nationwide.
Julia Cohen is another one of the "Progressive Happy Hour Crew". A long-time youth organizer, and former VP of Rock the Vote, she's now organizing the grassroots marketing for the indie film Battle in Seattle, a Charlese Theron film which dramatizes the 1999 protests at the WTO. "Virginia is bright purple, it's blue in the urban north and red elsewhere, there are key areas where we can really move the electorate. In 2004, the only group in Virginia that John Kerry won was young voters. They voted with us in 2004, 2006, and in the 2008 primaries. Now young people are getting used to voting for Democrats. If you get a voter to vote with you three times, that voter is yours for life. We're under-polling young people. Polls don't reach cell phones. We're in an age of new politics. This is the most target marketed generation in history, the most connected. They are all about building community. Obama is reaching them: text, moble phones. Look at MyBarackObama.com. Obama has the founder of Facebook working on the campaign. Obama understands this generation, and his campaign is providing young voters with the tools to build communities, clans, family."
David Mercer, a long time party leader and card-carrying denizen of Hillaryland couldn't be more excited about Obama. "This is a story about movement building. We are building cultural, lifestyle events and driving people towards the point where they can have the most impact. Through November, that's canvassing in Virginia for Obama, but we're not going anywhere. The women's movement, youth movement, environmental movement, energy, environmental, choice and advocacy -- Obama brings them all together and that's what's going to put Obama over the top. He has brought a whole coalition together. Obama is such a strong leader, we're seeing it now, and people are beginning to really understand it. Look at the campaign he's run. There have been so many occasions to doubt unity, and despite the doubts that many of us have had Obama has been steadfast. Redstate, bluestate, party, coalition, independents - they'll all get the message of unity. Unity goes beyond party politics. It's going beyond our immediate concerns and our current problems, and it goes to what makes us American. As a diehard Hillary supporter, I'm looking forward to Obama's victory because of what it will mean to young people and to the world. We're setting the future and the world is about to see a new leadership in America."
It would all seem like so much hyperbole, or so much talk, but it's an organized movement filled with passion and targeted action. My proof? It's a Friday night in Adams Morgan and no one's drinking. No one's talking. The screens are tuned to the debate. The faces of a new generation are watching a well-reasoned, aspirational, responsible, leader make the case for a new future in America. Progressive Happy Hour is no joke. Every young voter in this room can sense a new future being born. They're willing to work for it and they know that the election is just the beginning.