Blogs

Tapped is reporting on the first ten bills that will be considered by the Senate and provides some good, easily digestible breakdowns on what these bills most likely represent in terms of policy changes and the political landscape. A lot of these are high priorities for youth organizations and the Millennial Generation, but there are still some important items missing that we'll have to push for on our own later in the Congress. These include: LGBT rights, voter registration reforms, higher education affordability, and a modernization of government for the Internet age.

• S.1 -- American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. "To create jobs, restore economic growth, and strengthen America’s middle class through measures that modernize the nation’s infrastructure, enhance America’s energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need, and for other purposes." The stimulus bill; no surprises here.
• S.2 -- Middle Class Opportunity Act of 2009. Sound familiar? This is a retread of a bill sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer in the last Congress that has a variety of tax reform goals; the additional descriptions in this bill include hints at union support ("ensuring workers can exercise their rights to freely choose to form a union without employer interference") and perhaps another go at the Ledbetter law ("removing barriers to fair pay for all workers").
• S.3 -- Homeowner Protection and Wall Street Accountability Act of 2009. This bill will include a moratorium on foreclosures, Senator Dick Durbin's plan to allow for easier reworking of troubled mortgages by bankruptcy judges, new regulations for the credit card and financial industry, and investment in the Small Business Administration to provide loans for small businesses in need. It also makes TARP -- the Wall Street bailout -- a larger part of foreclosure reduction.
• S.4 -- Comprehensive Health Reform Act of 2009. "It is the sense of Congress that Congress should enact, and the President should sign, legislation to guarantee health coverage, improve health care quality and disease prevention, and reduce health care costs for all Americans and the health care system." Paging Ezra!
• S.5 -- Cleaner, Greener, and Smarter Act of 2009. This is a bill that focuses mainly on green investment and updating infrastructure to be more efficient and less polluting. But since a lot of those priorities are expected to be rolled into the future, one wonders if this is a vehicle for cap-and-trade, given the Kyoto Protocols, given this provision: "requiring reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States and achieving reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases abroad."
• S.6. -- Restoring America’s Power Act of 2009. This is basically the Democrats' '08 foreign policy consensus: Refocus on Afghanistan, transition in Iraq, strengthen alliances, WMD non-proliferation in Iran and North Korea... you get the idea. Most of this is in the executive branch's bailiwick so this legislation may just be a supportive resolution indicating that if Obama needs new authorities or resources to accomplish these goals, he'll get them. The bill also includes goals of providing proper training and equipment to the Armed Forces, and medical care when they return from duty.
• S.7 -- Education Opportunity Act of 2009. "To expand educational opportunities for all Americans by increasing access to high-quality early childhood education and after school programs, advancing reform in elementary and secondary education, strengthening mathematics and science instruction, and ensuring that higher education is more affordable." An education omnibus bill that will no doubt be split up into separate pieces of legislation.
• S.8 -- Returning Government to the American People Act. "To return the Government to the people by reviewing controversial 'midnight regulations' issued in the waning days of the Bush Administration." A sentiment we can all get behind, which promises to provide the new administration legislative authority, if it doesn't have it already, to review (and presumably deny) the last administration's late regulations.
• S.9 -- Stronger Economy, Stronger Borders Act of 2009. Seems to be a placeholder for comprehensive immigration reform, including stronger border and employment security to crackdown on illegal immigration while "reforming and rationalizing avenues for legal immigration."
• S.10 -- Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009. Gosh, this one is interesting. It's one part congressional hand-wringing over the fact that "the Federal budget is on an unsustainable path of rising deficits and debt," and it calls for a study of this. It's one part fiscal hawkery, supporting "strong pay-as-you-go rules, to help block the approval of measures that would increase the deficit." And it's one part ... populist? "A review of the current system of taxation of the United States to ensure that burdens are borne fairly and equitably." That could be the justification for the Bush tax cut rollback in 2010.

Even as we get ready for the inauguration of one of the youngest Presidents in history, USA today is reporting that the 111th Congress will be the oldest ever:

The nation's capital is about to confront a political generation gap: Barack Obama, one of the youngest presidents ever to take the oath of office when he's inaugurated Jan. 20, will be working with the nation's oldest Congress.

The average age will be 57 in the House and 63 in the Senate, according to the chambers' historical offices. In each case, it's the highest on record.

I don't note this to be ageist, or to be an unthinking booster of more young people in Congress. Experience - particularly in arcane policy matters - can be an asset, and youth isn't inherently a positive trait. However, older Americans are routinely on the wrong side of many issues facing our country. They were on the wrong side of Prop 8 in California. Many in Congress were wrong on Iraq and the Patriot Act. And older generations have been unbearably slow to recognize the threat of global warming and the need for a green energy economy. Younger members are far more likely to be on the right side of these issues and push for bolder action than older members of Congress. So yes, age does matter here.

All is not without hope. There is some young (Democratic) blood getting pumped into the House of Representatives this week:

• Jared Polis (CO-2) '75
• Glenn Nye (VA-2) '74
• Tom Perriello (VA-5) '74
• Ben Ray Lujan (NM-3) '72
• Martin Heinrich (NM-1) '71
• John Boccieri (OH-16) '69
• Dan Maffei (NY-25) '68
• Frank Kratovil (MD-1) '68

Irony of ironies, the 111th Congress will also see Republican Aaron Schock (IL - 18), seated in the House. Despite the GOP's trouble with Millennials this year, Schock will be the youngest member of Congress and the first Congressman to be born in the 1980s.

Once you've gone through this process, you should have a list with millions of entries, each containing personal and consumer information--ideally for every registered voter, and all non-registered adults.  So what can you do with it? Plenty.

Once it's compiled, the data has to be accessed.  Various people can be granted different levels of access--making the whole file available to any volunteer would raise serious privacy concerns, not to mention possibly giving access to rival campaigns or, god forbid, the other party.  For low-level volunteers, this access can be extremely limited, while higher-level operatives can be granted more generous permissions.  Broader access can be granted through a web interface like the DNC's Votebuilder, RNC's Voter Vault, or Catalist's Q-tool.  Using some relatively simple Boolean logic, you can create lists of all the people in a state, district or precinct who share certain characteristics--for example, you might want to find all registered black voters under the age of 40.  With a certain (ever-diminishing) amount of inaccuracy, this is a trivial list to pull.

As you can imagine, this is extremely useful.  You can use these tools to do everything from create walk lists for your volunteers to pull samples for polls or blanket a state with direct mail.  Which is why these files are considered so valuable, and why making them is big business--with big consequences.

Looking to get more involved in 2009? Here are some opportunities:

• Roosevelt Institution: America's student think tank is looking for interns to help with communications, field work, policy and development.
• The Young Democrats: YDA is looking or full-time or 20-hour-per-week interns and is willing to pay a stipend. There are no links yet to a job description. If you are interested, contact me and I'll pass you on to the appropriate person.
• The American Prospect: It's not a youth group, but this excellent progressive magazine is looking to hire interns and junior staff. Details here.
• Center for Progressive Leadership: This excellent leadership development org is now accepting applications for its 2009 paid summer internship positions.

The second round of voting in Change.org's Ideas competition begins today. The top ten vote-getters will be presented to Congress on January 16th. Change.org will also launch an advocacy campaign on behalf of each of the 10 winning ideas.

My own idea didn't make it to round two, but here are the ideas that won my vote in this second round. Most were chosen not only because I believe in the issue, but I think that the person/group proposing the issue has the chops to make headway on that issue in partnership with Change.org. In no particular order:

• Pass Marriage Equality Rights for LGBT Couples Nationwide
• Citizen Funding of the Nation's Elections
• National Early Voting
• Rebuild and Repower America with a Green Stimulus Package
• Interactive Government
• Get FISA Right and Repeal the Patriot Act
• Pass the Dream Act Now
• Make the Grid Green in 10 Years
• Restore Investments in Rail Service and Infrastructure

On a side note - there are A LOT of repetitive topics that made it into the final round. For instance, a number of folks want to end the drug war/legalize marijuana. It might have been better for Change.org to find a way to mediate between the parties and get those with similar ideas to unite behind a common thread, rather than take up multiple slots in the top 30. As it stands, they're all probably splitting votes that, together, might carry their issue over the top and into the winning 10.

Update: I'm trying to find out more about O'Malley Dillon. Meanwhile, Marc Ambinder has more on the new DNC team and how they might work with OFA 2.0. He paints a sunnier picture than I did, which is encouraging, but his reporting is more general and not at all youth-specific. Notably, Ambinder suggests that the 50 State program will not only continue, but will actually expand.
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The Washington Post reports that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will replace Howard Dean as the head of the Democratic National Committee. Kaine will serve in a part-time capacity until 2010 as he finishes his term as governor. Jennifer O'Malley Dillon will be named the Executive Director of the DNC and handle day-to-to day operations.

So what does this mean for youth within the DNC and any hope of seeing a coherent, long-term youth strategy emerge from the party? It's unclear at this point.

A friend involved with the Young Democrats tells me that this could be good for youth organizers. YDA ran a strong program in Virginia in 2005, and Kaine was very supportive of their efforts on his behalf. And in 2006, young voters in the state played a crucial role in the election of Sen. Jim Webb. All that, along with his early support of Obama's youth-driven campaign, gives hope that Kaine "gets it" and will support efforts to increase young people's participation in the party infrastructure and as a key target in their strategies.

Yet at the same time, Kaine is only going to be on board part time and I haven't heard anything either way about Dillon. She worked for Edwards in Iowa, where he garnered very little of the youth vote, despite efforts by the campaign to court young voters through it's One Corps service program. But she also switched over to the Obama campaign during the general election. Who knows where that leaves her when it comes to increasing youth participation within the party.

I'm also discouraged by a simple fact that a colleague reminded me of this morning. Every Democratic Chairman in the last 16 years who served under a Democratic President has left the party in a weaker position than he found it. Generally this is because the party is subservient to the needs of the President during the time he is in office. During a Presidential term, the party in power focuses on helping their President achieve short-term goals instead of focusing on long-term infrastructure building. The two counter examples are Terry McAuliffe and Howard Dean, both of whom were independent of a Democratic President and left a drastically improved party in their wake.

Not to be a pessimist, but history seems doomed to repeat itself. Obama For America 2.0 looks like it will remain an independent entity, separate from the DNC. This of course is in the name of "post partisanship." The Obama folks don't want to scare off any supporters who may not want to be associated with the Democratic Party, so they are going to operate outside the party. That might be smart politics in the near-term, but if it means that the DNC is neglected, or an after-thought, that's also a recipe for an atrophied Democratic Party, potentially undoing the work of the past eight years.

This seems particularly true of the young people supporting Obama. We're already stuck in the less than ideal position of having YDA and CDA competing for the Democratic youth brand. With separate structures, one inside the party and one outside, one heavily funded and one drastically underfunded, and no real coordination between the two, Democratic Party youth organizing isn't as strong or as unified as it should/could be. Now add into the mix an extremely popular Students for Barack Obama 2.0 organization. It's got more credibility than YDA and CDA among students, but it doesn't necessarily build party loyalty or help anyone other than Obama. It will compete with YDA and CDA for money and bodies, potentially siphoning off valuable resources, yet even if it out-organizes YDA and CDA in the short-term, there is no guarantee that it will outlast either organization. SFBO is tied directly to the Obama brand. Once he is out of office, the organization loses it's core mission - supporting Obama. The potential is there to build a stellar organization that disappears at the end of the Obama administration, leaving nothing in its wake.

Maybe I'm too much of a pessimist here. I hope so. Time will tell. The DNC Winter Meeting is on January 21st in DC. I'm attending as a member of the youth council. It's my first DNC meeting, so it should be interesting. I'm doubtful, but maybe we'll get some light shed on these questions.

Some Sunday reading for you.

• The Nation profiles a young immigrant rights activist fighting for the rights of Cambodian women facing deportation.
• A 29 year old Stanford grad and sports agent pushes her clients to reach out to the communities in which they work to give back; not for financial/PR reasons, but because it's the right thing to do.
• Andrew Revkin, at the New York Times blog "Dot Earth," labels the Millennial Generation -- already Generations Y, Q, and O -- Generation E.
• In addition to launching its Ideas for Change in America, change.org is expanding by seven blogs
• The Nation counts the victories of youth activism in 2008.

In his weekly address released Saturday, President-elect Obama spoke about the need to not only solve the problems in the here and now, but also proactively and simultaneously confront the problems of the future.

Economists from across the political spectrum agree that if we don't act swiftly and boldly, we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double digit unemployment and the American Dream slipping further and further out of reach.

That's why we need an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that not only creates jobs in the short-term but spurs economic growth and competitiveness in the long-term. And this plan must be designed in a new way – we can't just fall into the old Washington habit of throwing money at the problem. We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down.

After Obama expounds on the necessity of thinking long-term, he explains how his administration will be doing this.

To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient. To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year. To make America, and our children, a success in this new global economy, we will build 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. And to put more money into the pockets of hardworking families, we will provide direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers.

One thing I took away from this week's address is the number of times Obama points out the prudence of thinking long-term on a plethora of issues.

In the middle of our $4.00/gallon summer, Sen. Obama took flak from many brainless conservatives for suggesting that we all take a look at our own lifestyles in order to make a difference in the level of energy consumption, such as making sure one's tires are filled with air to save gas. Instead of simply embracing the "Drill here, drill now" short-term gimmick, Obama showed the kind of leadership we haven't seen in at least eight years and re-framed the conversation to focus on long-term solutions.

In the middle of our economic recovery, instead of staying with what's come to be the politically safe choice of strictly worrying about the present, the Obama administration will focus on the future, re-building important infrastructure and changing spending habits.

Obama's focus on the future is refreshing, and it could be one more reason why Millennials -- who stand to inherit this mess -- voted for him by a two-thirds majority.

Here are a few more things of interest that have trickled out over the last few days.

Enjoy!

• Via Peter Levine, the Case Foundation has launched "Change Begins with Me," a campaign inviting Americans to go to the organization's website and complete the sentence, "Change begins with me..." The foundation will randomly select one participant who will win a trip to Washington D.C. for the inauguration and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.
• From the LA Times, a nineteen-year-old Cal State Fullerton student won a Placentia City Council seat. And unlike many of the characters in youth political involvement stories this cycle, Jeremy Yamaguchi is a Republican (though he sounds like a Millennial Republican).
• A reflection on YouTube's political use this cycle -- by a YouTube employee.
• Domestic automobiles aren't appealing to Gen Y.
• Harry C. Boyte's commentary on the civic potential of public works projects, like Obama's.
• A University of Arkansas law student argues that the key to a Democratic breakthrough in the Appalachian region is the development of a "Blue/Green" populist coalition (blue collar workers and green voters), citing examples of success. Possibly a good way to bring Boomers and Millennials together?
• Last summer, Congress passed a bill extending the Higher Education Act of 1965. The Dept. of Education is now charged with executing the bill, and it's proposing regulations on how to do just that.

I've been on vacation for the past week in Florida where I was surfing and for the first time in my quarter-century life I was able to go to Disney World and be a kid again with my family.

Between the high speed loops, twists, and drops that are typical with super awesome amusement park rides, there also were rides that tried to teach us a thing or two. Like most on vacation, I snubbed my nose in the air and went looking for another pub at Epcot....

My mom forced us to go on this ride called Living with the Land (official site here) which takes you through a short history of farming and the last half is a future of farming project that Disney partner's with the Department of Agriculture on. Who knew!? I believe the ride itself is within a section called The Land which is sponsored by Nestle ... I might not be remembering that correctly so forgive me.

The first quarter of this final section on the future of ag was the kinds of sustainable agricultural practices that can help green our farming techniques, sequester carbon emissions, certain plants we can plant to better maintain the soils etc... all things I've spoken of before.

But further it goes into ways that we can genetically modify our plants so that we can grow them in things like sand or in places that traditionally can't support plant life. (Disclaimer: in the past the European Union has opposed genetically modified foods, indeed many have, because we are not fully aware of effects of long-term exposure of such things. I actually haven't fully formed an opinion on this, but encourage others who know more about it to enlighten me via the comments section.)

If you aren't sure what genetically modified agriculture is think of it like seedless watermelons or the grapple - which is an apple looking fruit but tastes like a grape.. these are created by changing the fundamental genetic makeup of a plant. This is useful in many ways like the examples above but can go even further by like amping up vitamin content or reducing sodium in foods, etc...

The second part of the GM foods was more about ways to grow crops without implanting them in soils but growing them above ground and having a root system that is watered by spraying it. A third was turning traditionally more spread out crops like peppers or squash that are often planted in acres of rows of pants into trees so that these then grow up instead of out using less space but more are able to produce en mass. They call it verti-gro.. no, seriously...

Having been back for less than 5 hours, I was lucky to catch my favorite farmer for a nice sushi dinner to discuss this amazing ride. According to him less than 1/3 of the land mass of the world is usable for crop production, simply because the conditions just aren't there. Sand, rain forest, even cities all take up land that is there to produce our food for the now nearly 7 billion people in the world, many of which are going hungry and die in staggering numbers of starvation. Because the United States began as an agricultural society, our cities naturally formed around the hotbeds of activity ... which were around the best areas of farmland in the country. Thus, much of our land is covered by buildings and suburbs. Growing up, not out, helps us combat the increasing need for food and for having our McTrackHomes.

The reason I bring all of this up, is two fold. One, the future of farming is a future that is quickly dying as youth flee our rural areas. Secondly, it factors into the grassroots movement I heard about on NPR encouraging President Obama to have an organic plot of farmland on the White House lawn.

Eat the View was one of the projects voted to be presented to the new President by On Day One, a project of the Better World Fund, that is pushing people to lobby for the causes they want to see Obama tackle on day one. Eat The View is all about going to organic farming, which I love and eat when possible but isn't the most possible or practical cause for agriculture in America. That said, pushing the President to have a veggie garden on the White House lawn is actually something that is possible. Eat the View is also on Change.org

During the Great Depression and World War 2 people began planting Victory Gardens in efforts to provide more available American food. In 1943 a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country were from those gardens. One such Victory Garden was from the Governor of Oklahoma, who was a little bit of a freak Governor, but one great thing Gov. William Murray (known as Alfalfa Bill) did was plow up the grounds of the Oklahoma Capitol and plant food and allow cattle to graze so that the poor could harvest potatoes or slaughter the beef so people could feed their families.

While I don't expect the new President to grab his team of donkey's and hitch up a plow with Pelosi doing it at the Capitol, it does present a similar idea to the Oklahoma's crazy former governor, particularly in a city like Washington that suffers from such a large homeless and impoverished population.

Soon to be First Lady Michelle Obama has said that she plans to be involved in the community, as the Obamas have been involved in every community particularly with feeding the homeless.

Further, it sets an example for rural youth who are rushing to cities for more of the cosmopolitan lifestyle that even the President believes that farming is such an important element to our world that no farm should go unused and growing food is an honorable task that even the President considers essential to developing.

Finally, if you've ever been to Washington DC, its a beautiful town with millions spent on up-keep for the flowers, shrubs, etc all to make it look pretty for foreign dignitaries, heads of state, and tourism which is a mega industry in the city. Can you imagine how much money could be saved on constantly planting and/or replanting flowers and bushes (not just Bushes) if we went to food as landscaping? The Cherry Blossom festival could also be a spring planting season, and what could be better than a fall harvest as a November Election photo-op?

Hope you have a Happy New Year!