corrente

So there I was, fixing myself a late-night snack in the wholly inadequate Corrente kitchen, the only room in the old building that is not mighty, when I run into a troubled RDF who, somewhat reluctantly, informed me of a different take than mine on the strategy of a group of independent Green Party members whom I featured in a previous post, who are working to get Greens to vote for Kerry in the swing states.

"I don't know, Leah," RDF said. "I'm registered Green myself, and would love to see a Green Party with enough muscle to influence national policy."

"But I'm in the camp that thinks that's only going to happen if Greens start winning on a local scale: mayors, county commissioners, sheriffs, and so on. It's working for the Libertarians. Maybe in the future somewhere we can envision the means of production in the hands of the workers with enough grassroots work."

"But, in this election, no. In ANY state. I would ask--and have asked--any Green to vote for Kerry. Every vote for Kerry, this time around, is a dart in the heart of the beast that is the GOP, and that's all that matters right now."

Being an old-fashioned liberal, I tend to get mezmerized by any hint that there is a coalition somewhere waiting to be built, even a tiny one, so, though I would still recommend a visit to the website, Greens For Impact noted in my previous post, and though the two men heading the Green ticket are first- rate, except, of course, that the rest of us have not moved the political discussion in this country far enough toward where it was even as late as the early eighties for such a ticket to have a chance of being elected, and though I like the Greens' emphasis on getting public financing of elections as a central issue, the success of which, given our current Supreme Court's reading of the constitution, is a long way off, RDF is right; Kerry needs every vote to insure that he registers a decisive win in the popular vote. That is certainly why we're working so hard to get the vote out all over California, a state where the electoral college votes are as close to already won for Kerry as is possible in an imperfect world.

So here's where we appear to be at, a week and a half away from election day: the single most determinative factor in a Kerry/Edwards win, and let's not forget congress --we could still take the Senate, and advance Democratic numbers in the House -- is going to be getting everyone to vote: the Democratic base, left progressive who are often reluctant Democrats, all those new voters who have registered, minority voters, who are often thought of as part of the base, but who have their own issues with the Bush administration, and let's not forget you, your friends, relatives, neighbors.

This is RDF's territory, so here, for your convenience, are links to various RDF GOTV posts that are sprinkled through-out our recent archives, but are here arranged in ascending order, I hope; if not, the posts are pretty much stand alone calls to action you should look at if you missed any the first time around, and are worth a second look, too.

And here's a reminder to start visiting at least once a day eRiposte's Voter2004 page, wherein is being kept information about voting problems across the nation, the better to get onto fixing anything that's happening close to you.

Here are a few more newly discovered resources for you to check out.

Band Of Citizens.org. Here's how they describe themselves.

We are a band of citizens, powerful and passionate, who want their government to focus on solving the country’s big problems with common sense and plain dealing. Our mission is to be a voice for thoughtful Americans who want positive change.

In 2004, we want to make it easy for people to understand the importance of voting and why John Kerry is the stronger candidate for President, and also easier for them to pass this information along to people who are undecided.

Their way of making it easier is to provide what they call Citizenflicks, e-mailable ads that take on specific issues. An entirely neat idea. You can also contribute your own citizenflick. Check them out here.

A more old-fashioned type of grassroots GOTV effort, Voter Call has a lot to offer everyone who is determined to do all they can to get Bush/Cheney out, Kerry/Edwards in. Their mission is to make sure that all those newly registered voters actually exercise their franchise, and to that end, they've made a database that consists of the newly registered so that an interested citizen like you can pull up a list from any state and make a personal spiel to make sure such people actually vote.

It's a great idea. They are targeting groups who tend to hesitate to vote, like poor folks. So how you approach such calls gives you an opportunity to make a unique and creative contribution to this historic election. True Majority, the organization put together by ice cream mogul, the Ben of Ben and Jerry's, is one of the groups sponsers, which inspires my confidence. You can find all the information you need about what Voter Call is about by clicking here, and how it all works, by clicking here.

Changing subjects slightly, while I'm providing links to notable Corrente contributions, for those of you who missed the Farmer's graphic take on Bill O'Reilly post-sexual harrassement filing against him, you can find it here. I recommend it, because aside from the humor, farmer has caught the deeply unpleasant truth O'Reilly that the SCLM is going out of ther way not to notice. And if you missed the Farmer's ruminations on debate questions not asked by questioners not invited to ask them, have some fun and click here.