This is a somewhat long post but please read it, please forward it, please recommend it, please kick it, please copy and paste and send it to your friends email, please do anything to spread this message as it is extremely powerful.
The bottom line of the book Millennial Momentum: progressives know how to use new technology much better than conservatives and if we simply do it we will win (and in fact we will dominate the next 40 years of history).
The book meticulously catalogs how social media and the interconnectedness brought by Twitter etc. is why Obama won last time and how it can indeed be used to dominate the political process for the next generation. It is a new book. I am becoming convinced that while OWS is good (it did change the conversation) for real permanent results these tools are the devices that the Millennial generation carry in their pockets and instinctively use for their own betterment.
The book also characterizes how the generational personality of the Millennials can be leveraged by this technology ( for example the personality trait to reflexively already believe progressive ideas + an increasingly powerful organic understanding of how to use the technololgies).
Example: flashmobs that can quickly assemble where needed in a heartbeat (e.g. as a congressman is arriving somewhere where a demonstration and there is only a several hour time period to organize). So instead of a flashmob to do a cute dance a flashmob to show up at a key location only identified several hours before where a decision maker will arrive.
Mobilizing this group WILL make a change and more rapidly than we might imagine. We have the power using this technology to make ourselves look and feel 10 times bigger than we actually are IF WE AS INDIVIDUALS ARE NOT TOO LAZY TO DO IT.
Take a small action now: Tweet to a congressman and tell them NOT to support an extension of the Bush tax cuts as any kind of compromise coming from the “Super committee.” Tweet this to your friends and have them retweet this to everybody they know. MAKE THESE PEOPLE FEEL THE BREATH OF A MASSIVE ELECTRONIC WAVE OF OPINION ON THEIR HEADS. The Teaparty doesn’t know how to do this, we do--if we don't do this and we lose it will be our fault--no matter what the condition of the country we have the tools to win and win big next year.
Here is a website that lists congreemen who Twitter
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Members_of_Congress_who_TwitterI don’t know all the ins and outs of how social media is used or could be used but I am absolutely convinced that this is the key to winning next year (in spite of whatever economic conditions exist)
Give ideas-brainstorm. This IS doable. What are your ideas? OWS is good, but this could go far beyond OWS (or be used in synergy with) coming into next year.
Some of my ideas are: organize a "People are not corporations and corporations are not people day" next year, or a day dedicated to one simple idea that money does not equal speech.
Get excited! Get enthused--we must keep this country out of the hands of the crazies that have repeatedly appeared on the Republican debate stage.