Easy Ways to Get Involved
Posted by
Tue. Jul 06, 9:31 PM
If you're looking for some way to help defeat Bush but you haven't figured out a way that makes any sense, here are some good ideas:
1. Moveon.org is an effective organization that allows you to get involved to the extent you have time, and to know that your contribution is useful and makes a difference.
For next Sunday, July 11, they are planning a series of house parties to help register new voters. In a close election, one of the best ways to get more votes is to get more voters. All you have to do is show up at someone's home, make a few phone calls to voters who aren't registered, and have a good time with the others who are there.
Find out more at http://action.moveonpac.org/phone/
2. From Michael Moore's web site, michaelmoore.com:
MIKE'S PLEDGE
Take the pledge to do the following four things:
1. I Will Register 10 People to Vote This Summer.
You can get voter registration forms at most city and county clerks offices and most DMVs and Secretary of State offices. Pick them up today and carry them on you. Begin asking everyone you know (or don't know!) if they are registered. If they're not, register them on the spot and send their registration card in (be sure to follow all state regulations; e.g. some states require that you have to live in the same county that you are registering someone in). RocktheVote.com can provide you with the regulations for each state and can also set you up with all the tools you need if you want to do a larger voter registration drive of your own.
Remember some people are afraid to register, often because they don't want to be called up for jury duty. Remind them that juries are now called from the driver's license lists. Think of creative ways to sign people up. Grab them coming out of "Fahrenheit 9/11"!
2. I Will Spend One Weekend In October In a Swing State.
Plan your fall color vacation trip now with the family! Nearly all of us live within driving distance of at least one state where the vote is expected to be extremely close. Make it a fun weekend. Pick a town, book a room, and show up at the local party or candidate's headquarters and let them put you to work (going door to door, leafleting shopping centers, making calls to voters, etc.). If you already live in a swing state, make it two weekends in October! DrivingVotes.org can even help you plan your trip!
The important thing is, if you live in a place like New York or Texas, you gotta head over to Pennsylvania or New Mexico. That's where they need the help (note to my Dean friends: leave the orange stocking caps at home).
Here are the swing states for the 2004 election, listed in order of importance:
1. Ohio
2. Florida
3. Pennsylvania
4. Michigan
5. New Mexico
6. Arizona
7. New Hampshire
8. West Virginia
9. Missouri
10. Iowa
11. Wisconsin
12. Nevada
13. Maine
14. Minnesota
15. Washington
16. Oregon
17. Arkansas
3. I Will Adopt 5 Nonvoters I Know and Take Them to the Polls.
You know who they are. Your slacker friends who have given up on the whole rotten group of politicians who run this country. Or they're the people you know who have had their lives made full of hardships thanks to the policies set by those very politicians. They too, have given up. And who can blame them? Why should they waste two minutes on voting?
Of course, that is just what those in power want them thinking. The more of us who give up, the more the rich and powerful can run amok over our lives. And there is perhaps no election in our lifetime more important than this one.
Pick five of the people you know who probably aren't going to vote. Acknowledge their despair and cynicism. Don't try to talk them out of it. But gently give them pieces of information over the next few months.
And then make a plan for Election Day. Take them out to vote and out to lunch (you pick up the tab!). Or have a party that night for those who voted that day.
Or get more creative. Offer a six-pack to anyone in the office who votes (make sure you're not working in cubicles full of Republicans!). Promise to have sex with a nonvoter - whatever it takes!
4. I Will Take-Off Work or School on Election Day and Volunteer to Get Out the Vote.
First of all, Election day should be a national holiday. Everyone should automatically get the day off from school and work. Since it is not a holiday, the only answer is to treat it like one. Ditch work, skip school, and hit the streets!
Whatever else you do on election day, do not forget that you've got to have lunch with your non-voting five�it is part of ensuring that they will cast their votes.
Take your car, plaster it with signs that say, "DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE TODAY!" and drive around town. Make sure people get the message.
Or, you could rent a U-Haul truck, load up the back with sofas and drive around town offering people a ride to the polling place. You don't need to proselytize about your candidate, just do it as a service to the country and with the dream that someday, we'll have a president who was elected by more than a quarter of the eligible voting population.
Whenever you find yourself in public on election day (which should be often), talk very, very loudly about how much FUN you had casting your vote.
Go to the grocery stores, the malls - any place where people congregate - and nicely engage them in conversation. Get them talking about voting. If they didn't vote, encourage them to. Don't preach to them, just talk honestly about what voting means to you.
Whatever you do on your "day off," don't relax. It's not a vacation, it's a chance to change an election. And isn't that more fun that sitting on the couch watching game shows all day? It's certainly better than being at work. So hit the streets! And don't worry... if your boss or your teacher gets mad at you, just tell them you were fulfilling your patriotic duty.
Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.