Netroots 2014: A Conversation with Progressive Leaders

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John Hudak | July 22, 2014 3:45pm

This weekend, as part of an ongoing project on political parties and grassroots activism, I attended Netroots Nation, a progressive political action conference. I had the opportunity to sit down with one organization in attendance, Democracy for America (DFA). DFA is a progressive grassroots organization that describes itself as a “member driven, people-powered PAC.” I spoke with the organization’s chairman, Jim Dean (brother of 2004 presidential candidate and VT Governor, Howard Dean), and Charles Chamberlain, the organization’s executive director.

What are the benefits of Netroots Nation for an organization like yours or for progressives in general?

Jim Dean: For us—like everybody else—it’s a chance for everybody to get together and to communicate with each other, like we do throughout the year, but not face to face. For DFA, we’re involved in a lot of coalition work, and so that networking is really important not only for our partners but for finding other people. We also have a scholarship program that we have been running, since about two or three years after it started. Several years ago we started sending anywhere from 30-40 people here. That’s really good for us to be part of because we actually get a lot smarter about what people are doing in their communities. I’ve often said our best ideas come from outside of the office—that’s not entirely true because we have some really smart people here (in our office)—what those folks are doing is really what matters. Netroots is really a paradigm of that. It really gets us into that in a big way.

Charles Chamberlain: Some of this event is about looking at what we’ve done and looking at best practices—what worked and what didn’t. Some of this event is about direct skills training. Some if this event is about planning for the future, and it’s about looking at what are the big issues coming up and where we’re going to be. It’s about discussions that lead to big picture and lead to small picture or sometimes both.

What are the biggest issues you’re going to be chasing in tougher races to get traction among voters?

CC: We know that income inequality is the biggest issue of our time. Economics matters. We need to rebuild our middle class. The difference between what a CEO makes and what a low-wage worker makes in this country is offensive. It’s not sustainable. The answer to the question of what are the issues that work, aren’t actually different in a blue state like Oregon or a red state like Texas or Kentucky. The reality is, we polled expanding Social Security in Kentucky, and of course the majority of Democrats supported it. But so did the independents, and so did the majority of Republicans…in Kentucky. The majority of Republicans in Texas supported expanding Social Security. This is a winning path, and in fact, if Mary Landrieu or Mark Pryor loses, one of the reasons they lose is because they haven’t embraced expanding Social Security. If they would run on that issue, they would be attaching themselves to a very popular issue that would have a real impact on income inequality and make a real difference.

Read more at: http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/fixgov/posts/2014/07/22-netroots-2014-progressive-leaders-hudak?