Getting involved in party politics is easy.

You show up.

You ask a logical question or two.

And then all of a sudden you're up to your ears in the party.

I cannot emphasize enough how incredibly simple this is.

The most important and difficult part of this process?

Showing up.

You must be present to win, or so says the Zen koan.

I attended a local party meeting tonight for the first time.  I'd struggled with getting information about this gathering; they had no public notices of any kind anywhere, not even in the newspaper.  A friend's father who's been active in the party for his entire life was kind enough to tell me when and where.

Other than taking a wrong turn somewhere en route to the meeting location, it was easy.

I walked in at 7:00 p.m. sharp, signed my name, gave my phone number, recited the Pledge of Allegiance along with the members in attendance.  They went through their tightly scripted monthly business and were calling for an adjournment at 7:25 p.m.

I raised my hand.  I asked the questions I'd been holding in my hot, grubby paws, generated during my last DFA Meetup and the DFA meeting with Howard Dean last month. 

And all hell broke loose.

Suddenly, two other newbies piped up, members of MoveOn who'd had the same questions and were in attendance at this local Democratic meeting for the first time.  They got my back and asked more questions.

The old timers (and I do mean old) piped up with a corresponding rash of questions.  This was more energy and activity than this group has seen in a very long time; it certainly wasn't difficult to discern this.  There were looks of shock-and-awe, stunned disbelief, torpor disrupted.  Many older men shaking my hand and older women patting me on the back, hugs all around, a local judge throwing money at the clerk to pay for the dues of these three newest members.

You'd have thought we'd won an Olympic gold medal or something.

Now I'm on a committee and we'll have to have results inside the next four weeks.  I will be the center of attention next month; I have to have a presentation prepared.

Wow.  Easy.

Almost TOO easy.

Now get off your keister and do the same thing.

Mosh the vote, babe.

10:23:20 PM    comment []