An Online Chat with SMS Contributors Lakshmi Chaudhry, Dan Carol and Adam Werbach

Join AlterNet and Moving Ideas for a conversation with bold progressive thinkers, writers, and activists about creative and practical solutions for building the progressive grassroots strength we need to turn our country around.

Start Making Sense, a new book from AlterNet, is an opening salvo on how citizens can begin to deliver U.S. politics from fear and fundamentalism.

Featured Panelists:

Dan Carol is founder of Carol/Treveylan Strategy Group. He writes regularly for his blog, KumbayaDammit.com.

Lakshmi Chaudhry is Senior Editor of AlterNet and co-editor of Start Making Sense.

Adam Werbach is the executive director of the Common Assets Defense Fund. He is the former president of the Sierra Club and the author of the November 3rd Theses.

Moderator: Thank you for participating in this online discussion about the book Start Making Sense and the future of the Progressive Movement. Responses to your questions will be posted in the order in which they are answered. To see the most recent post, please scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Transcripts of this chat will be available at http://www.movingideas.org/chat/AlterNet/AlterNet.php.

        -- Diana, Moderator

Sara Williams: What the next cool thing in progressives' use of technology? How can we use it to our advantage to win on issues like Social Security or to fight back on the nuclear option?

Dan Carol, Carol/Treveylan Strategy Group: There are a ton of interesting apps we will see with wireless and SMS messaging but I think we have a lot of great tools for distributed democracy, house parties and the like. So I am a big evangelist for using the tools what we got and focsuing on integrating them into our field work, and deciding and fighting for what we are FOR. So I'd say, in one word, that the next cool thing in technology is....CONTENT :)

Posted: 2005-05-04 13:01:21

Cindie Slater: There are myriad progressive organizations contacting progressives like myself with requests that range from writing or calling members of congress to organizing meet ups or making donations. Every one of these groups are fighting the good fight and are worthy of my limited time and my limited funds. I'm sure there are many more like me who simply can't spread themselves any thinner. Isn't there some way to start combining our efforts and our money so we can make a bigger impact?

I just want to add that prior to last Novembers elections my efforts were mainly focused on national issues and efforts. I, like many others have learned the hard lesson that "act locally, think globally" is more than just a nice slogan. By December 2005 I and many others in my mostly rural county had begun efforts to organize with other like-minded individuals. We recently voted on a name for this group- Wayne County Network for Progressive Democracy and have sent out the proposed by-laws. It has taken a core group of about 15 or 20 people working every spare moment to get us to this point. The point I am trying to make is that many of us are reading about and hearing stories of other counties doing the same, some as part of their local Democratic Party and others, like us, independent from.

I sometimes imagine Karl Rove sitting in his White House office contemplating the thought of all of "those left-wing liberals" spinning their wheels trying to just keep up with the day to day national issues. Add to that issues being fought by residents in red states and it's enough to make a dedicated progressive consider New Zealand.

I suspect that this isn't even a realistic suggestion. Maybe it does take seperate organizations focused on different issues like media, courts,campaigns, or environment to accomplish objectives related to those issues. There must be some efforts that can be coordinated, though. I'd appreciate it if this question could be presented to the panel as a whole.