Political pundits and garden variety political junkies (like me) are still poring over the results of Tuesday’s election, which appears on its face and may be underneath the skin as well to have been a terrible beating for the progressive cause in America. Angry and upset Americans have endured a campaign in which their understandable alienation from “government” as they have experienced it has led them to regressive political choices (GOP and Tea Party) that will only make worse the conditions from which they are suffering. The people have been the victims of bad government (imperialistic and corporate-dominated) not those governmental actions so sorely needed to address their problems.

So how are progressive activists to respond to this debacle? Well, if they are true activists, they will respond actively, seeing the electoral results as actually an opportunity to return to their true vocation of advocating for the people rather than allowing themselves to become an adjunct of either branch of the oligarchic duopoly of what we call our two-party “system,” That system simply rotates the parties in power without really changing changing conditions in our country and our communities, just as we might regularly change our socks without changing our wardrobes.

As I see it, we really have only a small window for that opportunity to engage in people advocacy before we are swept up in yet another “choose your side or remain a spoiler” round of elections in 2012. In this window might exist a chance for a moratorium (say about a year) on electoral striving that will give us some space to put aside our differences as Democrats or third partyists or independents, as pro- or anti-Obama, and come together to work on the needs of the people: for decent employment and wages and health care, progressive taxation, environmentally safer conditions, justice for all minorities, a foreign policy in the mold of “good neighors,” not the school yard bully expressed in the policy of “full spectrum dominance.” In due course of time we’ll “choose sides” again (though next time there may be more than 2 sides from which to choose) but for now let us work within the progressive consensus of battling the dominance of tea party know-nothingism and coffee party complacency.

I’m hereby calling for the nationwide establishment of a “People’s Caucus” in every state, region and community in the United States, for adjunct groups of interested people throughout the world. The services of Campaign Corner will be put to this task, as it shifts gears from electoral campaigns to those campaigns devoted to the advancement of various progressive causes and reforms. There are Facebook contacts of the Corner and these will be solicited to have people to be “convenors” of a Caucus in every state (and in local communities in some cases, like Chicago or Houston or New York City): giving like-minded people a chance to meet one another if they can and to correspond if they can’t—all with the purpose of people trying to find for themselves what they can do about depressing conditions in their communities, their states, their countries and the world. Interested people who are not contacted through Facebook can find appropriate information about the project at the Corner’s website.

A preacher in the church I attend, after the benediction following his sermon, always ends proceedings by saying: “now that the worship is over, let the service begin,” and I’m saying: “now that the election is over, let the politics begin.”

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Jerry D. Rose is the founding editor of The Sun State Activist and Campaign Corner . He can be reached at sunstateactivist2@yahoo.com

Confucius said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Or, as a Confucius for our times, the late great Granny D, who knew something about walking journeys, says: “One step in front of the other can get you anywhere.” The agenda of Campaign Corner—to secure the election of progressive populist candidates in the face of regressive and elitist political tendencies—may be a daunting “anywhere” to contemplate. If ever the moneyed interests with their regressive political agenda appeared to be in the saddle, it would seem to be now, with the Citizens United case seemingly having opened the “floodgate” for more corporate and other special interest money to wash across our elections.

So what is the “single step” that can begin this journey, what foot needs to be put in front of the next to bring us out of this quagmire of plutocracy? Answer? PANCAKES! Well, maybe not literally something cooked on a hot grill. It might be a shared pitcher of beer or a morning gathering at a local greasy spoon for coffee and bullshit. But if the people are to regain their voice in the politics of the country, their journey will begin at kitchen tables and other venues where all great movements begin: with people actually talking among themselves and learning in their talk that they are in fact but pilgrims on the same path toward the discovery of a truly human society where they believed that only inhumanity could prevail in their accursed times.

A couple of days ago, I took a single step of this sort locally; not that it was the first such effort, in fact borrowed the term “political pancakes” from another such event in another part of the country. In operating Campaign Corner, I have been fortunate enough to accumulate nearly a thousand Facebook Friends nationally and world-wide, including about 35 from the area of own hometown of Gainesville, Florida. To these people, plus 8 or 10 others of my other local friends, I issued an invitation to come to my home where we would have pancakes, fruit salad, tea and coffee (the literal beverages, not Tea Party or Coffee Party) and lots of talk about local politics. 14 actually came, not a bad turnout for a first meeting in the dog days of July, when many Floridians flee to more equable climates.

In our county (Alachua) the main electoral concern for our August 24 primary is a “non-partisan” election for County School Board with 12 candidates for 3 seats and we shared our views about these candidates, as well as about the possibility in this year’s election of unseating a moss-back Republican congressman from our district, and some preliminary discussion of the several “amendments” that are likely to appear on the November 2 ballot in our state and county. As I should have anticipated from the fact that several of us were holdovers from the 2004 Kucinich presidential campaign that I co-coordinated locally, the talk was rather heated and sometimes a little disputative. (At one point at a Kucinich meeting, a woman who knew Dennis personally said that he would not like the direction of this meeting.) But talk we did as talk we desperately needed to do. It wasn’t quite like it was said that, when the Methodist Church was first being founded in England, the founders would come to a meeting in one carriage but, after the acrimony, they would leave in two. So far as I know, everybody left in the same “carriage” that brought them to the meeting, and we had accomplished that “single step” that, locally at least, could be said to have launched our thousand-mile journey.

This prosaic pancake breakfast at Jerry’s house is not being portrayed as any world-shaking event. But it is my way of urging that people throughout America (and even overseas among those interested in U.S. politics) will find their own ways of gathering to put human flesh on the bones of political activism as so often portrayed in the cyberspace of internet forms of communication. I am convinced that Barack Obama was elected President largely because his campaigners, especially on college campuses, worked through peer groups of people who liked to meet to eat, drink and play together. More than once I expressed a degree of cynicism about this campaign, wondering who paid for the “beer and chicken wings” that were the drink and beverage of choice in many a campaign “house party,” knowing full well that labor unions and financial corporations were the mainstays for financing that campaign.

So yes, that Glorious Revolution by means of which governments in the United States will once again be “of, by and for” the people is coming, and sooner than most people can even imagine. The people are ready for it, they are “fed up” with the corporate/military dominance of our political lives, they are ready to cut loose from the duopoly of two-party collusion to keep the people under that dominance, and candidates are stepping forward everywhere to offer to lead that revolution. But it all starts with a pancake.

July may look to campaigners like the summer doldrums, what with only one primary election scheduled (in Georgia on July 20, my birthday) compared with the 14 to come in August and 8 in September plus of course the big enchilada general election everywhere on November 2.  And yet it’s an important, maybe a pivotal, month for progressive populist campaigners.

Campaigners have a chance to hone their progressive credentials by taking stances on the issues of the time. A confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan should elicit insistence from progressive quarters that the “artful dodger” nominee not be allowed to dodge issues of civil rights and limits on executive privilege, especially as related to the “war on terrorism,” and especially in view of her own immediate background as Solicitor-General in being the “government’s” representative in claims of such privilege.  As Congress ducks away from a real “stimulus” economic package in response to the deficit hawks, and passes a sabre-rattling support of sanctions against Iran;  and as states throughout the land consider cloning of the Arizona version of “immigration reform” and move to cut social services to pay for useless wars abroad, there are opportunities everywhere for progressive candidates to advocate for progressive stances on issues in all political matters, foreign and domestic. On these matters, let the leadership of both parties “triangulate” a centrist solution to problems that will be no solutions; let progressives stand on the solid ground of approaches that are both principled and workable.

July is an important, maybe a pivotal, month for “populist” campaigning as well.  It is the month when voter registration closes for 13 of those primary elections in August*.The earliest of these closings are  July 6 for Michigan and July 7 for Missouri in these states’  August 3 elections.  Later in the month, registrations will close as follows:

July 19 for Kansas’s Aug 3 election,
July 16 for Tennessee’s Aug 5 election;
July 12 for Colorado’s Aug 10 elections;
July 27 for Connecticut’s Aug 10 election;
July 20 for  Minnesota’s Aug 10 election*;
July 19 for Wyoming’s Aug 17 election*:
July 26 for Florida’s Aug   24 election;
July 28 for Arizona’s  Aug 24 election;
July 25 for Alaska’s Aug 24 election;
July 28  for Louisiana’s Aug 28 election.

* Washington’s registration for Aug 17 primary ends Aug 9.
**Minnesota and Wyoming have election day registration

Campaign Corner will issue alerts to Friends in these respective dates as their registration closing (as well as their election) dates approach. .

I’m a true believer that registration (and of course turnout) is a key part of any populist campaign.  There is a kind of conventional wisdom which says that candidates should deal only with “likely voters,” which usually means voters who have voted consistently in the recent past.  The trouble with this is that these consistent voters have likely voted consistently for the centrist candidates of the Democratic Party and are unlikely to vote for your progressive candidacy.  This may be conventional but it is not necessarily a wise rule in this extraordinary electoral season with widespread disillusionment with the two parties of the our “two party” system.  Of  course our political duopoly depends on voters staying within in the bounds of the choices offered by candidates whom these two parties  and their corporate financiers throw up—or staying home if they don’t choose to make an unhappy choice.  With registrations a relatively low percentage of the voter-eligible population, there is a pool of potential progressive populist supporters that can be tapped. and a “get in the registration” campaign is perhaps as important as the “get out the vote” one on election day.  If so, these are campaigns that must be mounted, typically, some 28 to 30 days before elections, so the registration deadlines as listed above for the August elections (and an August 1 list of such deadlines will be published for September elections) are key dates in the campaigners’ calendar, at least those who will be competing in primary elections.  Of course a similar deadline will loom in early October for the Nov. 2 general election.

So, like a football season that begins in preparation in the “doldrums” of summer, there is no slacking for the month of July, and we at Campaign Corner will talking to candidates and friends and of course hoping to hear from same.

Who’s counting? Where elections and much else are concerned. we’re a culture of counters: you know, the “biggest” air crash is the one in which the largest number of lives were lost, the “biggest” movie this year was the one which took in the most dollars at the box office. So too with elections, we want to know much money candidates are raising, how many individuals and groups are endorsing them and of course, ultimately, the number of votes they get in their election campaigns. So be it with this Campaign for Campaigns, Campaign Corner. Here are some numbers in which you might be interested.

1. The easiest first: campaign funds raised: zero, nada, zilch and by design. For a project promoting de-emphasis on fund-raising, this seems appropriate enough. Campaign expenditures: maybe half of the pittance I pay my webmaster to operate this and other websites, maybe $100 per week.

2. Candidates who have posted their campaigns on the Corner: 49, with several expected to be added in the next few days. State breakdown of where they are and for what offices they are running is below.

3. Facebook “Friends” of the Corner: Facebook is currently listing 743, and these have just been arranged state-by-state as shown in numbers for each state below.

4. Offices being sought by registered candidates:

U.S. Senator 6

State Governor 5

House of Representatives 27

State legislatures and assemblies 5

City and County offices 5

5. Friends and candidates, state-by-state (Note: number for Friends is the number for whom Facebook records indicate location; information not always available; also the number on state-by-state lists to communicate with people in a certain state about election matters in their particular state. Number of candidates from that state in parenthesis)

Alabama 4

Arizona 12 (1)

Arkansas 3

California 86 (7)

Colorado 12

Connecticut 2

District of Columbia 8

Florida 66 (6)

Georgia 12

Hawaii 2

Idaho 2

Illinois 24 (4)

Indiana 5

Iowa 6

Kansas 4

Kentucky 8 (3)

Louisiana 3

Maine 4

Maryland 8

Massachusetts 15 (3)

Maryland 8

Michigan 13 (1)

Minnesota 7

Mississippi 2

Missouri 17

Nebraska 1

Nevada 9 (1)

New Jersey 9

New Mexico 2 (1)

New York 19 (3)

North Carolina 10 (3)

North Dakota 2

Ohio 12 (3)

Oklahoma 2

Oregon 28 (3)

Pennsylvania 17 (1)

Rhode Island 2

South Carolina 9 (2)

Tennessee 7 (2)

Texas 22 (1)

Utah 2 (1)

Vermont 3

Virginia 10

Washington 9 (1)

West Virginia 9

Wisconsin 6 (1)

Missing in action (0) Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, New Hampshire.

..

Outside USA 24

Well that’s it for June 24, 2010. Judge for yourself where we need to pick up more numbers in terms of candidates and potential supporters. It appears to me that we need to work especially to expand the number of state and local progressive populist candidates. Democracy begins at home, and too many of our state and local offices are the fiefdoms of local plutocrats and their minions. It’s already (in Florida anyway) a long hot summer and look for things to get a lot hotter as the public swelters under the current miseries of a failed political leadership and looks ever more hungrily for alternatives. Maybe it’s time for each of us to look around in our respective states and nudge our progressive populist friends to become friends and candidates on Campaign Corner.

Editor’s note:

The following article appeared in the Easton MD Star Democrat.  It  concerns Richard Davis’ campaign for a congressional seat on the kind of “populist” basis that is promoted on Campaign Corner.  It illustrates the power of “earned media,” as a local newspaper, at no cost to the candidacy, in effect takes the place of bumper stickers, yard signs and campaign ads in promoting a campaign: an example of “smart” (effective) campaigning tactic. Davis’ campaign is posted on Campaign Corner at http://sunstateactivist.org/campaigncorner/?page_id=444

Got a campaign contribution? Dr. Davis says give it to charity

By STEVE NERY
News Editor, Easton Star Democrat.

Dr. Davis doesn’t desire contributions.

That’s Dr. Richard Davis, the Libertarian candidate to represent the 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and he thinks people can spend their money on more useful things than political campaigns.
Despite declining contributions since he first ran for Congress two years ago, Davis, a dentist from Hurlock, still occasionally receives monetary offers.

His response: Make a donation to a charity instead, in honor of his campaign or the Maryland Libertarian Party.

“Rather than expend money on ads, yard signs or bumper stickers, I want to see that publicity benefit local communities regardless of the outcome of the campaign,” Davis wrote in an e-mail. “My campaign is largely about returning maximum control to local communities, and anything that strengthens those communities from within is as valuable as what I hope to accomplish in running for Congress.”

Davis said he just recently came up with the idea of directing donations to charities, after people kept offering him contributions despite his public stance that he would not accept them.

“I figured maybe I can do some good with this,” he said. “If they really want to give money, let’s put it to something useful rather than to yard signs and bumper stickers.”

Davis wonders what the 1st District might look like if all the campaign contributions from the 2008 election went to local communities instead of the candidates.

U.S. Rep. Frank Kratovil, D-Md.-1st, spent nearly $2 million on his successful campaign, general election opponent State Sen. Andy Harris, R-7-Baltimore and Harford counties, spent more than $3 million, and state Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-36-Upper Shore, and the former incumbent, Wayne Gilchrest, each spent more than $1 million leading up to the Republican primary, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

“With the economy on the Shore like it is … think of what you could have done,” Davis said. “I think there’s too much money going in and too much money coming out of the process.”

Davis said he agreed to run again when asked by the Maryland Libertarian Party.

“For a totally unknown, I thought I did reasonably well last time, plus I’m still thoroughly unhappy with what the two major parties are doing,” he said.

He may spend a little of his own money on travel expenses and the like, but it again won’t be anywhere near the $5,000 minimum required for filing an FEC report, Davis said.

“I’m not looking to buy votes. I would rather have people voting for me because they want what I believe in and not because they happened to see an ad,” he said.

Davis received 8,873 votes last time, compared to 177,065 for Kratovil and 174,213 for Harris. He didn’t win the election, but he won the title of most cost-effective candidate  [-] Harris’ campaign spent $17.36 for each vote received and Kratovil’s campaign spent $11.26 per, while Davis spent only his time.

While he’s not willing to spend money on signs and stickers, Davis is willing to meet with any group interested in hearing his views. He said he’s especially open to any organization that wants him to speak on a specific topic or answer questions. He can be reached at 410-943-8314 or at rjdavislp@gmail.

There has to be a better way for this country in the electoral process other than the “traditional two party system”. I envy other democracies around the world because at least they have voter choice and change can really happen. I don’t understand when we have choice in the purchase of tv’s, cars, burgers, clothes, even toilet paper, but why can’t we have voter choice??

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Jesus Aguilar is a Friend of Campaign Corner who lives in Los Angeles.

(Campaign Corner founder and editor)

When one surveys the scattered races from coast to coast in primaries on Tuesday, June 8, there clearly were encouraging signs for us along with indications that there is a long way to go if Voices For the People are going to prevail in this year’s elections.

To start with “our own,” candidates in California’s elections who have posted their campaigns on Campaign Corner, we had five “horses” in this race, and three of them did very well indeed. Susan Adams, a progressive Democrat, won re-election as a Marin County Supervisor. Pat Meagher ran unopposed in the Democratic primary in the 41st CD and will run against incumbent Republican Jerry Lewis in November (a not-impossible task, but she’ll need all the help she can get). Green Party member Michael McCue won re-election to a seat on the Studio City Neighborhood Council. Jack Lindblad and Ben Emery running for Assembly District 39 and Congressional District 4, ran honorable races but received low vote totals, and they should be applauded by us all for running those races.

The vote on notorious Proposition 14 is a mixed bag of bad and encouraging news. The measure passed 54-47%, and if its provisions are put into effect they virtually mark the end of progressive populist candidacies in the state. It mandates a single “primary” election in which all registered voters may vote (including those who have no party affiliation), and in which the top two vote getters, from whatever party they may come, will have a “run off” in the general election with no write-ins, third party or independent candidates allowed. The possibility of under-funded and not major party-credentialed candidates doing well in these elections will to little to nothing. It was passed with huge funding from the state Chamber of Commerce and the campaign funds of Governor Schwarzenegger (is there a difference in those monies?), with the Governor’s all-too-accurate assertion that it will promote the election of only “centrist” candidates: you know, those good ol boys that got us into the messes we are in. The campaign used the hypocritical appeal that it was “empowering” the state’s independent (party unaffiliated) voters, when it actually will have the opposite effect of eliminating any genuine “independent” candidates from the state’s elections. The “good news” in this is the unexpectedly close election as well as the fact that an “army of lawyers” is standing by to challenge in court the denial of the right of political expression for political independents.

But now the real highlight of the day, from my point of view: the “shocking” election in South Carolina of the ultimate populist campaigner, black unemployed Army veteran Alvin Greene who beat out an establishment Democrat in the race for the U.S. Senate nominee of the Democratic Party. Greene had no money, no website and did practically no campaigning, yet got 59% of the vote. The South Carolina Democratic Party went into a major dither, and quickly came up the “information” that Green was “facing charges” of obscenity for allegedly showing a pornographic picture to a co-ed and inviting himself to her room. Some even intimated that Greene may have been a “Republican plant” to produce an unviable Democratic opponent. I hope Mr. Greene gets himself a website and submits it to this Corner, as he doubtless will need all the help from free sources that he can get.

Finally, a sub-highlight: the election (in South Carolina and Nevada) in the Republican primaries of two Tea-party leaning candidates for major offices. This may be bad news for the country, if it presages a movement to the far right in the Republican Party that will almost certainly produce a movement toward the center or center-right by the Democratic Party. But it could be good news for prospects of progressive candidates if the Democratic Party abandons its thin charade of being a party “of, by and for the people” and leaves a yawning open field of opportunities to move into the land that is vacated by the Democrats.

Stay tuned and stay working, it promises to be one hell of a season, after Tuesday’s “end of the beginning.”

I “joined” the coffee party because of the stated credo: the Government is not the enemy, it is the way we address our problems together. I attended a Houston general meeting in April, which was billed as a “strategizing” meeting. It turned out to be a group workshop on how we could all be better people. Laudable goal, except that during the discussion, one participant shouted out that “All candidates lie about their positions”, and it was seconded by another. The statement, of course, was antithetical to everything that had been “discussed”. I was the only person that objected to the statement, saying that I was a candidate and I didn’t lie about my positions. Haven’t been back since. I’m more for direct action, rather than theorizing about how we can all be better people. I gave the moderator my ideas about how we could work to common goals, but the theoretical discussions dominated.

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…Ted Ankrum is running for Congress from the 10th District of Texas, opposing incumbent Republican Michael McCaul.  His campaign is posted on Campaign Corner.  http://sunstateactivist.org/campaigncorner/?page_id=413

This article is slightly edited from a comment on Jerry Rose’s article, “Tea, Coffee or We the People?” on Principled Progressive.  http://sunstateactivist.org/ssablog/?p=510

After failing to win her Primary, Blanche Lincoln pulled off a narrow victory yesterday in the run-off in Arkansas.  She’ll face a tough fight to retain her Senate seat in the November general election.

Blanche Lincoln has said that her win yesterday means that Arkansans know their votes can’t be bought…referring to the large amount of support Bill Halter received in the race from unions and progressive activist organizations.

But don’t be fooled.

Lincoln’s votes in the Senate have been bought, by corporate interests.  Blanche Lincoln dropped her crucial support for a public option in health care and helped kill the public option, which would have helped the millions of working people in Arkansas and the tens of millions throughout America who need good, affordable health care and simply will not be able to afford it without a public option.

Lincoln has made much of labor support of Halter from outside the state of Arkansas.  But again, don’t be fooled.

Arkansas is a “right-to-work” state and has a low rate of unionized employees relative to other states.  As an aside, that’s one big reason that there are so many working poor in Arkansas, people whose situation in life would be improved by union organization and the good pay and benefits that come with unionized workplaces.

But it’s precisely because there is such a minuscule union worker power and influence base in Arkansas that the support of unions nationwide was sought by, and given to, Bill Halter.

In the end, Blanche Lincoln is just another corrupted, sold-out incumbent politician who has survived to remain in the political mix.  She’ll either squeak out a win in November, and continue her own brand of bad right-wing lawmaking against the interests of working people and America, or lose to a Republican who’ll do even more harm to the common good and long-term future of our Country.

We must vote out the incumbents because what is good for our Country will not be done in Washington until the crowd that has caused the problems are replaced by new representation who will do what is right.  This is a lesson that, despite all appearances to the contrary, that the majority of us who vote have not learned.

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Jim Holbert is a candidate for U.S. Congress 5th district of Kentucky (see listing on Campaign Corner.) This was originally posted to: http://jackoneilforum.com/

Editor’s note: Rivera is an activist against violence and bullying. His “easy essay” seems, however, to speak to a necessary call to courage for progressive populists, who tend to take a certain amount of “abuse” from our peers for our refusal to go along with the crowd in confining our electoral choices to those candidates who are thrown by the Democratic and Republican branches of the Corporacratic Party.

By Carlos Rivera

.

People who are in pain

and are not afraid to cry

share with people also hurt

the chance to stand beside

at one guardpost.

..

These are the witnesses to bullying

target and victim

who will turn the other cheek

because the law says you must,

and so the choice is made

to suffer

not from desire,

but from necessity.

..

Together we can take by the choice

to stop the abuse

and fight the bullies

with a law of our own

that scares them to death,

because it exposes them to light

where they hate to be.

..

But the duty of standing tall

requires courage that

is hard to find.

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Carlos Rivera lives in Tempe, Arizona. He is a Facebook Friend of Campaign Corner. He may be contacted at crlsrvr2@gmail.com