Moveon.org national teleconference meeting at 304 North St

Sunday Nov 21, 2004

Moveon.org national teleconference for the purposes of determining the future of Moveon. They wanted the input from progressives across the country as to the issues we thought they needed to tackle during the next four years. Each party host had to have a computer or telephone to connect to the teleconference. The idea was for people to assemble, have discussions using the agenda that moveon.org had distributed, and vote on the issues and strategies they discussed.

The shell shocked liberals held two of these house parties. One on Burlington and one in East Calais. In Burlington we had six people. Three of them I’d never met before. Present were Vincent, Madalaine, Terry, Derek, Elizabeth, and Erica.

We successfully linked up to the teleconference at about 7:20 and listened to the presentations made by the moveon.org staff before breaking off to our own discussion.

I have to say that it was very interesting to see the map on my computer screen of where meetings were happening all over the country. Each party was represented by a dot on the map. The most of them were in the Blue states, but with a healthy scattering in the Red states. The only states almost devoid of meetings were in the upper Midwest and lower Midwest. The dots were sized according to the size of the party. You could move the cursor over a party and see how many people were registered for it. You could also as the voting happened, put your cursor over the dot for a party and see how the people there voted. The agenda was excellent. The way they had it laid out you really could run the meeting just by following the script they gave you. We ate cookies and pie people brought, drank coffee and gave it our best in the time we had.

Everybody was in agreement with the point in the moveon.org agenda for the meeting that they intended to work on voter reform no matter what other issues they were working on in the next four years. Also agreed on was that the concentration of power in media has to be ended. We discussed our concerns about Roe v Wade, environmental issues, economic security and education. I really enjoyed how to the point everybody was. There was that underlying feeling of a group that was very determined to do what they had assembled to do. Everybody wanted to hear what everybody else had to say. The needle on my bullshit meter didn’t even tremble once during the whole thing.

I mentioned my write in vote idea. That if in fact the American public could be sold on using this fundamental right, they in could in fact, even in the face of the special interests, reshape the political and economic landscape of this country. It’s really quite remarkable when the light does go off in people’s eyes. It’s like their attention is drawn to something they see all the time but had long since stopped noticing.

We followed the votes, entered on the computers linking them, as to the most important issue to work on during the next 4 years. I remember the most votes from the most parties was to articulate clear progressive values to the country. We had voted for that one too.

The three step strategy that we decided on was:

1. Articulate clear Progressive values to America

2. Media reform

3. Mid term elections: getting control of Congress out of Republican hands. This also being important because it will help prevent some of Bush’s more right wing Supreme Court appointees.

After the teleconference ended we talked a bit. I told the three people who we’d not met before about the shell shocked liberals and they seemed interested enough. As we said goodbye I sensed people feeling good, like we’d spent our time well and we’d accomplished something. And I’d learned a few things.

I think we should be looking closely into how to use this kind of technology.

I think we should seriously consider making moveon.org one of the key organizations we aid with fundraising, volunteers, etc.