If you really want to get more progressive action in congress

[WonderGrunion]

Primary schedule in 2010

http://www.fvap.gov/resources/media/vaghandout3.pdf

JANUARY
No Primaries Scheduled

FEBRUARY
Illinois- February 2

MARCH
Texas - March 2

APRIL
No Primaries Scheduled

MAY
Indiana - May 4
North Carolina - May 4
Ohio - May 4
Nebraska - May 11
West Virginia - May 11
Arkansas - May 18
Kentucky - May 18
Oregon - May 18
Pennsylvania - May 18
Idaho - May 25

JUNE
Alabama - June 1
Mississippi - June 1
New Mexico - June 1
California - June 8
Iowa - June 8
Maine - June 8
Montana - June 8
Nevada - June 8
New Jersey - June 8
North Dakota - June 8
South Carolina - June 8
South Dakota - June 8
Virginia - June 8
Utah - June 22

JULY
Georgia - July 20
Oklahoma - July 27

AUGUST
Kansas - August 3
Michigan - August 3
Missouri - August 3
Tennessee - August 5
Colorado - August 10
Connecticut - August 10
Washington - August 17
Wyoming - August 17
Alaska - August 24
Arizona - August 24
Florida - August 24
Louisiana - August 28
(1st Party Congressional)

SEPTEMBER
Guam - September 4
Virgin Islands - September 11
Delaware - September 14
District of Columbia -
September 14
Maryland - September 14
Massachusetts - September 14
Minnesota - September 14
New Hampshire - September 14
New York - September 14
Rhode Island - September 14
Vermont - September 14
Wisconsin - September 14
Hawaii - September 18

OCTOBER
Louisiana - October 2 (State Primary, &
2nd Party Congressional Runoff if necessary)

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER
No Primaries Scheduled

Stop whining about Obama and get active in your state before it is too late to choose who represents you in the 2010 elections.

edited to make easier to read

[Buzz Clik]

1. Get involved months before the primaries.

Get those you want on the ballot. No sense choosing among a bunch of losers, even when they are Democratic losers.

[WonderGrunion]

2. Agreed

Politics is a marathon, not a sprint. The time to get involved is now. Particularly if you want to unseat a blue dog and replace them with a progressive.

[Bjorn Against]

3. Unreccomended for implying those who disagree with Obama are "whining"

[WonderGrunion]

4. If they aren't getting involved in the process at the beginning stages

They are whining. No implications at all.

[Bjorn Against]

6. Who says they are not getting involved?

I am out in the streets working for change every single week, I have been involved in about one hundred demonstrations in just the last year alone and I am looking to be even busier in 2010. You assume we have done nothing, but you know absolutely nothing about us.

[WonderGrunion]

8. Demonstrations don't get candidates put up to the ballot

You attend monthly party meetings, form coalitions and nominate candidates. That's how the system works.

You may make loud noises and occasionally get your face on TV or get some blog hits, but you aren't joining and reforming the system.

[Bjorn Against]

12. I have attended party meetings, I have found they are not nearly as effective as public actions

I have been to Democratic meetings and had my resolutions passed with anonymous support only to see them killed in committee meetings that I am not invited to. I have had some pretty big victories working outside the system, but the system is structured to ensure the people at the top are able to kill the real reforms we are pushing for so I find that pressuring the powers that be from outside the system is far more effective than working within the system.

If other people want to work for the Democratic Party that is great, I have chosen to work outside the system. I will still vote in the primary, but my activism is going to be dealing with the issues rather than the candidates who are bound to disappoint me. Just because I choose a different type of activism than you encourage that does not make me a "whiner".

[WonderGrunion]

14. How do you think people get into those committees?

They attend every meeting and work their way through the system. You like demonstrating because it requires less long term planning and is a loud flashy event. Slogging through months of meetings to advance through the bureaucracy can be boring, slow and show little signs of rewards for months or even years.

But that's how power is attained in our system of politics.

Politics is a marathon, not a sprint.

[Bjorn Against]

16. If that is how you choose to be active that is fine with me, I will choose a different method

My heroes are people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi who never ran for public office or concerned themselves too deeply with political parties, but there is no denying that they made an enormous impact from outside the system. There is more than one way to have an impact on our political system, I choose issue based activism over party politics.

I am not dismissing those who do get involved in the party, we do need people working on the inside. As far as my work goes however, I believe that I am far more successful working outside the system so that is what I am going to continue to do.

I do appreciate you posting the primary schedule because it is important for people to know that, I just wish you could do so without calling people "whiners".

[WonderGrunion]

17. And I wish liberal protestors wouldn't call Obama

a corporate sellout. We all have our ways of provoking the other side. :evilgrin:

[Vincardog]

22. This liberal protestors wishes Obama wasn't a corporate sellout too.

[H2O Man]

5. Recommended.

Thank you.

[WonderGrunion]

18. Your rec provides my OP with more gravitas then it deserves

Thank you though.

[cali]

7. no thank you. I'll be supporting my Senator and my rep.

[WonderGrunion]

9. Will you be supporting them in the primaries?

Will you be going to party meetings and expressing that preference before the primaries even start?

[cali]

10. yep. I'll be supporting two of the most progressive members of Congress

in the Primaries. Both Pat Leahy and Peter Welch have earned my vote.

[WonderGrunion]

11. Then as a progressive, you really don't have much heavy lifting.

For progressives in purple and red states, the time to take over their party is now.

[cali]

13. I agree re purple states and some districts perhaps in red states

but supporting a progressive challenger to say, Ben Nelson, is an exercise in futility. And you're right, in Vermont our heavy lifting is relegated to the governorship and lt. gov. We need to elect a dem this year and it won't be easy despite the fact that we have some excellent dems running.

[WonderGrunion]

15. Urban districts in red states are good potential pickups

for progressive reps. Removing conservative Dems in the senate will always be much tougher. Lieberman is always a good target andgod knows why our gals from Maine keep getting elected.

[rucky]

20. When one senator from Nebraska can wreak so much havoc...

we all need to get active where we can. The power's too concentrated - and the balance is too fragile - in the Senate to ignore any state.

[WonderGrunion]

21. If we can get just two more progressive senators

that eliminates the power Nelson and Traitor Joe have over the party. There will still be issues with the other Blue Dog Dems, but you can't get prima-donna filibuster threats anymore.

[rucky]

19. Ohio: Jennifer Brunner needs help against a milquetoast primary challenger.

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/jenniferbrunner?refcode=preWelcome

[LWolf]

23. 1. Criticism is not "whining."

2. There is no logical reason to suggest that people who aren't happy with Obama don't participate in their local primaries.

Personally?

I have 2 Democratic Senators who, while not as far left as I'd like, are not as "centrist" as many. They're decent, if not great. I DID support a more left-leaning candidate in the primary that nominated Jeff Merkeley, who, happily defeated Gordon Smith.

I DO support the more left-leaning challengers to my Congressional rep, when there is one. There aren't too many challengers willing to take on Greg Walden in a strong red district.

AND: I oppose Obama's center-right policies and center-right administration.

[WonderGrunion]

24. Obama's policies aren't center right, he signs the laws that are passed.

Oppose the center-right congress that won't send him progressive legislation.

[LWolf]

25. His policies, and his administration, are center-right.

Education, for example: he's making GWB look kind and gentle in the effort to privatize public education.

I DO oppose the center-right Congress, as well.

[WonderGrunion]

26. Ah, an "Obama ia as bad as / worse than Bush" response

Welcome to ignore.

[LWolf]

27. That's one way to hide from reality, lol. nt