Rob McKay: Small Is the New Big in Progressive Politics - Politics on The Huff... - The Diigo Meta page

• 21 May 08
  

  Levy Rivers

  politics networking

  • The grab for this group of voters has generally been coordinated by a seasoned team of professional campaign staff operating in war rooms and spending millions in mobilizing voters. But new efforts among progressive voters, musicians, and grassroots groups are saying the way to be "big" in '08 is to "go small." And how resources are spent in this election and after, could determine whether the Democratic Party is about short-term voter excitement or permanent citizen engagement.
  • This new group of efforts focuses on local leadership, small circles, and cultural organizing. They are taking their strategies from the anti-slavery movement, groups like craigslist, and most surprisingly, a new Christian movement. "
  • 3 more annotations...
  • • Potts and other organizers note that while overall church attendance has steadily declined since the 1990s, a new form of church has taken off--the house church. Unlike traditional churches, the house church movement doesn't meet in a specific house of worship, but instead, as the name suggests, in people's homes.

    • They note the key to the success of these churches is threefold:

      
      
      

      1. Shared values rather than on autocratic rule.

      
      
      

      2. Peer circles, rather than as a large, rigid, top-down hierarchy.

      
      
      

      3. Leading through inspiration rather than by formal authority, allowing, but not forcing, others to follow them.

    • As Potts, who is organizing with musicians during 08, puts it "The conservatives have churches every Sunday, progressives have concerts every night." From an organizing perspective, concerts are for progressives what churches have been for conservatives.

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