Cosmopolity

This post began as a reply to Mark Ristaino, Music for America's Communication Director (the post, for those not familiar with MFA's past, formerly held by Future Majority's Mike Connery), who commented on my most recent thesis post -- Keys to a Future Majority: Experiencing the Problems of Progressive Politics. My response got a little long, and I covered some important ground (to me) so I decided to make it into a full post.

Mark asked:

But as you talked about in your previous blog, the key to movement building is a combination of connecting with members both online and offline. As in, connecting with them online, and then convincing them to do stuff offline, as mike did so well with you.

The million dollar question: What organizations are doing this effectively?

There are a few organizations on the left that are effective at this, while I would hazard to say that a good amount of Right Wing organizations are. The two orgs that come to my mind are Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (insofar as they are "left") and Cosmopolity, though both in different ways.

Cosmopolity and it's leaders-- Justin Krebs, David Alpert, Katrina Baker, & (Emmy Nominated Documentary Director & Producer) Matt O'Neill, along with a large group of some of the most amazing, energized, and hard working (despite all the liberal drinking) group of activists I have ever met -- have helped to foster Drinking Liberally's across America with little money whatsoever. And yet, even without resources, they are helping provide social spaces for liberals/progressives to meet, and they are able to keep a pulse on the activism going on throughout the nation (Katrina Baker, DL's National Organizer, leads a group of people who interact with local activists in 160 cities). Though some DL's are better attended than others, this is a group that is connecting people offline (and connecting with those people), with far fewer resources than MFA has had at its disposal (to put it extremely mildly). As you probably know they have recently branched out into Reading Liberally (progressive book tours and readings), Screening Liberally (free screenings of socially conscious movies), and Laughing Liberally (a progressive comedy series- which has been, to my consternation, selling out each week in NYC before I can my shit together to get a ticket). As a result of their work--helping motivated people build up small pieces of progressive infrastructure--Cosmopolity is extremely well connected and actively engaged with the larger net- and grass-roots.

I first heard of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) when they started blogging at MFA (they were known as Operation Truth back then). I was extremely excited to find a military organization reaching out to young people, and I have been beyond impressed at the amazing work that Paul Rieckhoff and his crew (who are all over the nation) do-- from advocating for the safety of our troops, to reaching out to Vets with PTSD and advocating on their behalf, to starting a PAC (which has since been spun off) which supports vets of OEF and OIF who run for office. The thing that impressed me the most about IAVA was Paul's extremely strong managerial skills, and his unreal ability to connect people and make things happen (I have my own selfish reasons for enjoying Paul's connecting skills- my current job- but if you want to see just how amazing IAVA is then you really need to see When I Came Home, which is about a homeless Iraq vet- Harold Noel- in NYC, who IAVA helps to get housing). I also highly suggest watching their new promo video. Anyway, I think that Paul has not only an org that can reach out to two communities that Democrats need to reach very, very badly- young people and the military (many of who are in their youth)- but he has the no-nonsense, results oriented, and battle tested managerial skills that the leaders of almost every other left wing groups lack (and I believe they could learn from Paul). IAVA, like Cosmopolity, also does a lot of work with relatively little funding, but I am sure that both of these groups would be able to have even larger, and longer-lasting, effects if they were given the resources to expand.

And a quick disclaimer- I do work with/volunteer/write about both of these groups, so yes, I am biased, but after what I went through with MFA you can imagine why I would be attracted to these two groups.

***Update - If you haven't seen Matt O'Neill and John Alpert's amazing documentary - Baghdad ER- check out the site, watch the trailer, and keep your eyes out for showings of the film.