Will Rogers said, “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” And far too often I have not been impressed by the organizing or leadership skills of Democratic or Progressive groups. I am from the school of get shit done so that is beyond irritating to me.
Anyway, when I got texts and multiple emails about a conference call tonight regarding the anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative, especially after I’d already signed up but then they didn’t send me any call in information, I wasn’t optimistic. They sent me the call in info about fifteen minutes before the event after I’d forgotten it was even going on. Fortunately, I could still call in.
And boy was I wrong. The Ohio Democratic Party seems to be finally waking up and getting their shit together. They seem to be organized and have a plan. See their website on organizing, a great video (11 minutes long) on what is needed and sign up here to help. They seem to be getting energized because the grassroots are making them. Reinforcements tends to do that. The dejected Ohio Democratic Party has been getting their ass handed to them in election after election for several years. But Trump et al has motivated people to the point that the calvary has arrived.
They asked for help on several things with a clear call to action.
1) Pledge to get signatures. Seriously sign up. If you live in another state but are a US citizen, come help.
2) June 3rd. Pick up petition books to circulate. Find a location near you. Sign up to host one if none are near by. Locations for petition books here.
a) Turn it in one week.
b) Repeat each week.
3) Get others involved. Find a person to bring with you to gather petitions. If a person is excited to sign, get them to agree to get petitions too. They can sign up here too.4) Look at video to make sure what you are doing is the right way. Definitely, watch the video so you don't do anything wrong and invalidate the signatures you worked so hard to collect.
Back to the anti gerrymandering initiative. I keep posting on it because it is a bigger deal than the Ossoff race. There is no way in hell that a state that went for Obama twice should have 3 times as many Republican congressmen than Democrats. Well technically 12 times as many men since there are 12 Republican men, 1 Democrat man, and 3 Democrat women. You fix the gerrymandering in Ohio and Congress should pick up at lease 5 Democratic party seats.
The call appeared to have around 3000 people on it and they are trying to get at least that many more because then the work of the 306K signatures is only about 50 a person which is quite doable. Hell, you could do it in a weekend. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Resistance Weekend.