Netroots Rising

In “Netroots Rising,” Nate and I highlight the contributions dozens of netroots activists, “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” Of course, there aren’t just dozens of people like the ones in our book, there are millions. And today’s Washington Post highlights one of them - Chris West, 29, of Fairfax County, Virginia.

…What she heard from Obama during his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and what she read in his book “Dreams From My Father” convinced her that he — with her help — could turn dissatisfaction into action.

So West, 29, took her first step into politics. She went to Obama’s Web site, set up an account and began an almost two-year journey through a new kind of grass-roots campaign, centered largely in her electronic world. She met like-minded supporters, began organizing and helped build a network of volunteers with a reach so vast that, in a Washington Post poll released this week, more than half of voters surveyed in Virginia said they had been contacted by the Obama campaign about supporting the Democrat in his bid for the White House.

If Obama becomes the first Democrat in 44 years to win the state, it will be in large part because of the Chrisi Wests of the world. They have sent e-mails, made phone calls and knocked on doors. They have texted and Twittered. And the Obama campaign has helped make it happen by speaking the language of cellphones, text messages and e-mail accounts — and by giving thousands of young Americans who communicate this way the power to participate.

Does any of that sound familiar? If so, it certainly should. On the Webb campaign alone, I had the privilege of meeting hundreds of “Chrisi Wests,” people like C.W. Dean, Dave Leichtman, Dave Jernigan, Mary Detweiler, Barbara Kreykenbohm, Susan Mariner, Todd Smyth, Marc Greidinger, Cassie Arnold, Tom Counts, Jan-Lars Mueller, Abbi Easter, Chris Ambrose, Ken Kukovich, Annabel Park, Eric Byler, Josh Chernila, Lee Diamond, and many others.

Oh, and just to emphasize a point I’ve made before - it is THESE are the people who ultimately defeated George Allen, not a one-time fluke slipup by Allen when he said the word “macaca.” Sure, that hurt Allen badly, but without Webb’s 10,000-strong “ragtag army,” we wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of Allen’s mistake. Just as Barack Obama’s own “ragtag army” today is taking advantage of their own candidate’s amazing strengths, as well as John McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s fundamental flaws. When Barack Obama wins on November 4, it will be about many factors, including Americans’ desire for change, “the economy stupid,” an incredibly inspiring and eloquent candidate running an amazing campaign, and much more. But it will also, first and foremost, be about the Chris Wests of the world, millions of “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” To me, that’s extremely inspirational.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 1st, 2008 at 11:28 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.