Hey Kucitizens! After the election, win or lose, then what?

[eridani]

Proposal for discussion at the 3/4 meetups in WA state.

After the caucus, after the convention, after the election

There is widespread consensus that the Kucinich campaign is about more that this particular presidential race. We are in this for the long haul, a project to change the face of American politics.

Just to start things off, and anticipating that a lot of other people will join in, I'd like to suggest the following strategies.

After the caucus, there is still a great deal to be done to get Dennis elected.
1. We need to support the delegates we elect through the county, state and national conventions.
2. We need to continue to advocate the Kucinich platform points through the convention process. (What role can non-delegates play here?)
3. We should think about how we can direct our energy toward assisting the campaigns of other states.
4. We should continue to do fundraising events for the national campaign.

We have three possible future outcomes here. 1. Dennis gets the nomination and wins the general election. 2. Dennis gets the nomination but loses the general election. 3. Dennis does not get the nomination.

I suggest that regardless of which outcome occurs, Kucinich campaign workers should stay together, organized as a formal group. Because the energy raised by our campaign should not dissipate just because our major effort here in this state is finished on February 7th. Because our individual causes, the unions, the churches, the food banks, SNOW, Health Care for All, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Black Box Voting, civil liberties and so forth, however worthy of our ongoing time and effort, are weakened by being unconnected to each other and to electoral politics. Because the cause of renewing the American public sphere is bigger than the Kucinich campaign, as he would be the first to tell us.

We should discuss organizational structure and dues at some point. I'd like to suggest that there will be some who want to participate at the level of establishing and voting on organizational priorities, and others who will want to be loosely affiliated via occasional email or newsletter updates. For the former, there should be dues or other indications of commitment required.

What's in a name? Some possibilities--Kucinich Democrats and Friends, Green Democrats and Friends, Another World Is Possible, Washington Social Forum (as part of the World Social Forum), Living Democracy (name of organization in India.) The name should reflect the purpose, which is to promote the Kucinich platform one way or another, both inside and outside of the Democratic Party. We have three major factions now--those who are enthusiastic about taking over the Democrats, Green Party people and others who want to go back to other parties if the Democrats don't have the sense to nominate Dennis, and those who have always resisted affiliation with any kind of electoral politics, preferring demonstrations and/or working on single issues as the most effective kind of political action.

I think that being inclusive is important. That Dennis Kucinich can be a Democrat, and get things done effectively as such, is a very good advertisement for the possibilities of finding and supporting more Democrats like him. But there will also be people running for office as Greens, Progressives (newly formed in WA state), independents or other that will be worthy of support as well. Remember that Dennis has strongly advocated voting reforms that make third and fourth party participation easier, as an essential element of our ongoing political conversation. (My other half commented after the Wednesday night rally "You know, the Green Party is what the Democratic Party should be, and the Libertarians are what the Republicans should be.")

We should be backing progressive people for public office, and those of us in a position to do so should consider running themselves. For a start, I'd suggest backing the campaign of Andy Stephenson, who is running for Secretary of State as a Democrat on the black box voting issue. Specific projects are really necessary. The Rainbow Coalition faded when Jackson gave up on presidential runs; same with Jerry Brown's We, the People. Let's recognize that this has occurred in the past with organizations formed from progressive presidential bids, and head the tendency off at the pass. (Tracking down people who have been active with either group would be useful.)

The state chair of the Utah campaign has already started a list of businesses affiliated in some way with the campaign, and she’d like it to be worldwide in scope.

http://www.utahfordennis.com/kucinichconnections/

We might consider other forms of mutual aid also—-sharing gardens, local currencies, loan funds, etc.

After starting out here in Washington State, we might consider a national organization as a goal after the November election. Regardless of the outcome, we will have to remain an organized force to promote the Kucinich platform. For that matter, why not take it to the world? Dennis has a lot of international fans. Let's consider raising money to send a representative to one of the World Social Forums.

And of course we need to keep working on all the single issue projects as well--not all of us all the time--but in a way that we can maintain the sense of connectedness and uplift and unity that has been the hallmark of this campaign so far. We are indeed the ones we have been waiting for.