I want to share some hopeful news from a session I attended called “A New and Enduring Progressive Majority?” which featured speakers from Progressive Majority, Women’s Voices Women’s Vote, the Center for American Progress, Working America, and Democracia USA.  All the speakers agreed that the changes in the American voting population in the past decade have worked in favor of progressive change, and this trend is likely to continue–good news.  

Every speaker also talked about the role of young people in the future of the progressive movement.  Young people are overwhelmingly more progressive than older folks, so it’s going to be vital that we stay active and keep working to engage our peers–even better news!  I was proud to be representing an organization that’s working to do just that.   

One last stunning factoid from the session: by the year 2016 (not that far off!), the majority of voters will no longer be white Christians.  

More to come tomorrow about the progressive plan to move America forward and what Tractivists are going to need to do to help shape our future!

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia). It has passed in the NC Senate, and is currently in the NC House.

In less than two years, the National Popular Vote bill has been enacted into law in Maryland and New Jersey and is on the Governor’s desk in Illinois. The bill has passed 14 legislative houses (one house in Arkansas, Colorado, North Carolina, and Washington state, and both houses in California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Maryland).

The shortcomings of the current system of electing the President stem from the winner-take-all rule that awards all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in each state.

Under the winner-take-all rule, candidates have no reason to poll, visit, advertise, organize, campaign, or worry about the concerns of voters of states that they cannot possibly win or lose. This means that voters in two thirds of the states are effectively disenfranchised in presidential elections because candidates concentrate their attention on a small handful of “battleground” states.

Another shortcoming of the current system is that a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the most popular votes nationwide. A shift of 60,000 votes would have elected Kerry in 2004, even though President Bush was ahead by 3,500,000 votes nationwide.

The National Popular Vote bill would take effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes—that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). When the bill is enacted in a group of states possessing 270 or more electoral votes, all of the electoral votes from those states would be awarded, as a bloc, to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).

The bill has been endorsed by the New York Times, Chicago Sun Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Sacramento Bee, Common Cause and Fair Vote.  70% of the public has long supported nationwide election of the president.

Additional information is available in the book Every Vote Equal: A State-Based Plan for Electing the President by National Popular Vote and at www.NationalPopularVote.com.

Today on The State of Things they’re talking about Trick or Vote! Tune in to North Carolina Public Radio – WUNC 91.5 to hear Lanya along with Jenn Frye from Democracy NC LIVE at noon, or the rebroadcast at 9pm, or listen to the archive later. We’re already getting lots of new visitors.

Welcome to our humble website! May we recommend three steps?
1) Read about Traction here (there’s more here, and press clips here).
2) Make a contribution to Traction. (There’s lots of work to do and it all takes resources!)
3) Join Traction’s mailing list. To be in the loop, email tractivist@getTraction.org
– Please let us know where you live (what city), how you heard about Traction, and your Presidential Zodiac. You know, who was in the White House when you were born?

Then mark your calendar for our upcoming events, including our 3rd annual Festivus for the Left of us holiday-ish party and fundraiser, coming up on December 8th!

Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon! Hasta pronto…

We humans dig other humans. It’s hardwired. People like being around other people. How else would you explain baseball stadiums, or coffee shops, or Tupperware parties? This is what I love about Traction: the constant opportunity to get out and be around other good folks. I just can’t get enough of you people.

Traction throws a great party, and we’re throwing one for Halloween. [Cue the organ music...] Even better, we’ll get the party started by doing something fun AND effective together.

What: Trick or Vote
When: Wed, Oct 31st — 6pm
Where: Bull McCabe’s Irish Pub (427 W. Main St. in downtown Durham)
RSVP: trickorvote@getTraction.org

We’ll go out into the community to meet, greet and sweet-talk folks into going to the polls and voting in this year’s municipal election. That’s right, on Halloween you can have fascinating conversations while dressed as a [INSERT ONE: hanging chad, superhero, big ole pumpkin, your idea here].

Then it’s back to Bull McCabe’s for the raucous party. We’ve got prizes for best costumes and for the person who brings the biggest crew — I think we’re talking cash money…

Trick or Vote is gonna be a good time and effective too. Unlike a lot of us, I do politics for a living. What I’m about to tell you has been scientifically researched, vetted by folks with pocket protectors and taped-up glasses. It’s kid-tested and mother-approved. Here it is:

THE SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO GET PEOPLE TO CARE ABOUT AN ISSUE IS BY TALKING WITH THEM FACE TO FACE.

We like contact with real people. All of the slick mailers, fancy TV ads, and automated robo-calls don’t hold a candle to a good old fashioned tête-à-tête. Of course, you don’t need to be Dale Carnegie or have a social science PhD to know this.

Experience it for yourself next Wed. RSVP to trickorvote@getTraction.org and by the witching hour, you’ll have met some interesting folks, done something rewarding and maybe even scored a piece of candy or two. I hope to see you there.

Damon Circosta
Public Policy Nerd, soon to be Dad, Tractivist

*Trick or Vote comes from our friends at the Bus Project (like Traction but in Portland, OR).

1. High quality, well-funded, diverse schools for all children
2. Living wages
3. Health care for all
4. Government redress for the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898 and the forced sterilization of black women from 1947 to 1977
5. Same-day voter registration and public financing for elections
6. More funding for historically black colleges and universities
7. Redress for 200 years of discrimination in state hiring and contracting
8. Affordable housing and consumer protection
9. Criminal justice reform including abolition of the death penalty
10. Creation of an environmental job corps for youth
11. Collective bargaining for public employees
12. Immigrant rights
13. More funding for civil rights enforcement agencies
14. Bringing troops home from Iraq

Then we marched to the General Assembly and posted it there for our state legislators to see.

Thanks to Tractivist Robert S., who posted lots of H K on J clips on You Tube! Here’s one featuring several Tractivists on stage, including yours truly…

Traction represented well, with Dave, Celeste, Bria, Anne, Tamara, Brandi, Jim, Adam and many more among the marchers.

Did you take pictures? Post them to flickr and tag them HKonJ and Traction!