Just spoke with Robert Borosage, a co-director of Campaign for America's Future, who is in Boston to help host the group's convention-related events. He reports that these forums, featuring speakers like Michael Moore, Robert Reich and Barbara Ehrenreich, have attracted overflow crowds.
"There's an extraordinary amount of energy on the left," Borosage says. "The reality of this election is that there's been a citizen mobilization: from the anti-war movement through MoveOn to this convention…There's great spirit." He contrasted this energy to the relatively tepid showing of convention protesters. "The real protests will be in New York--people are focused on the threat of an administration that's willing to take the country to war based on lies… and that has has produced the worst economy since the Great Depression."
With an hour left until Kerry's much-anticipated speech, Borosage praised John Edwards' performance the previous night. "John Edwards lit up the convention; he got people really revved up," he said. I asked him what he'd say to people still determined to vote for Nader, and he said to do so would be "a fool's errand."
Despite the success of their convention-related events, Campaign for America's Future doesn't plan similar events to accompany the Republicans' convention. Instead, they will be hosting a series of educational sessions in D.C. in September, with leadership forums to follow.
Borosage noted that his organization's efforts dovetail with the activities of groups like the Center for American Progress and media projects such as Air America to form the "beginnings of an infrastructure on the left," but that right-wing efforts to mobilize voters through church networks were backed by a daunting amount of funding. He urged progressive voters who are interested in funding and volunteering for voter registration efforts as the election grows closer to get in touch with ACT or USAction, or at the very least to email friends and family in swing states in order to urge them to the polls.
"MoveOn has shown that person-to-person contacts work amazingly well," Borosage said.
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Jessica Clark is a writer, editor and researcher, with more than 15 years of experience spanning commercial, educational, independent and public media production. Currently she is the Research Director for American University’s Center for Social Media. She also writes a monthly column for PBS’ MediaShift on new directions in public media. She is the author, with Tracy Van Slyke, of Beyond the Echo Chamber: Reshaping Politics Through Networked Progressive Media (2010, New Press).
