campaigning

I started writing "Una Carta Abierta a Barack Obama" about a week ago. It was at the same time I wrote my love letter to John Edwards and my pointed rant to the junior Senator of New York about Billary. Yet I had a heck of a lot of trouble putting my words down.

First, it was my ambivalence between writing in English and Spanish. Whenever I started in English, I'd have to stop. Words failed me in my adopted language, like they always do when I am working through a profound realization.

What was most interesting is that words in prose failed me.

My area of expertise in Latin American Studies is not only history but aesthetics. More exactly, neobaroque aesthetics in contemporary Latin American poetry. I know it's a mouthful, but I have a reason to invoke them : poetic language is considered not just revolutionary, but mind altering and conscious raising. Poetic language for the likes of a Jose Lezama Lima, Severo Sarduy or David Huerta, is a tool for altering consciousness, for exploring the multiplicity inherent in identity and for exposing the duplicity in "what you see is what you get".

Just got pinged through the grapevine : Barack Obama is on his way to Nuevo México. Could this mean an endorsement by Bill Richardson is next?

Stay tuned!

I recently wrote about the Indigenous Democratic Network (INDN's) Prez on the Rez project trying to bring together voters from Indian Country with our Democratic candidates for President.

Another project of theirs is training of candidates and activists who want to work on campaigns. These kind of training camps have been quite successful not just for INDN but for other groups like Progressive Majority and Democracy for America. Here is a letter I got from INDN as well as a flyer for their Campaign Camp 2007:

Campaign Camp is the country's only training seminar to train American Indians in the art of political campaigning - whether as a candidate or as campaign staff. This year, Campaign Camp will be held August 20 - 25 on the reservation of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, near Palm Springs, California.

The training will include sessions on fundraising, targeting, direct mail, message, field organizing, canvassing and phone banks, using a voter file, working with tribes, local and state parties, building a political resume and GOTV, to name just some of the topics covered. Participants will be trained by the best and brightest campaign professionals in the country, and will hear speeches from political leaders and personalities throughout the week.

Our first Campaign Camp was hosted in October 2005 by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Minnesota and was hugely successful in recruiting and training winning candidates. The camp was attended by the nation's best and brightest campaign professionals to prepare 109 people from 21 states and 50 Indian Nations to work on campaigns and run for public office. Support for the conference was astounding, with presentations by DNC Chair Governor Howard Dean, radio personality Al Franken, and 3 members of Congress - Stephanie Herseth (D-SD), Mike Honda (D-CA), and Jim Oberstar (D-MN).

In the aftermath of Ralph Nader's colossal, nation-damaging ego trip of 2000, I still maintained that his earlier career was a good one and that there were still good aspects of his legacy. I cited the PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) movement as an example of something founded by Nader that has been of great benefit in American politics. Three things have soured Nader's legacy even more: his 2004 attempt at a repeat of the 2000 ego-driven disaster (this time without help from the Green Party, to credit them with learning a valuable lesson); the full scale of disaster that the Nader-enabled Bush administration has proven to be, fully in line with my warnings in 2000 and contrary to the Nader claim that Bush and Gore were equivalent; and finally, the decline of the PIRG movement into an anti-labor, union-busting political machine that seems to be betraying its roots.

I didn't so much come to this story as have it thrust upon me from several sides. A discussion with a new New Democratic Majority member about what kind of canvassing options were available for pay brought up the PIRG efforts, which I knew were paid, and a comment from Michael Bouldin that he had heard they had become horrible to work for, a kind of progressive political sweatshop.

That was the first I heard about PIRG's decline. Some 20 years ago I tried canvassing for CalPIRG in Los Angeles. It was to be a holiday job, combining my need for some income with my interest in politics. I went through their training and trial period. It was hard work, but exciting. I remember coming home each night of that brief period so keyed up that it took a couple of Guinesses to calm me down for bedtime. We worked from a script and started by working with experienced staff. My partnered staff member liked my style and delivery, saying that I seemed to be a natural. I didn't really find canvassing that enjoyable, but with his encouragement I really felt I could do it.