Puget Sound Liberals

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We have chosen our Lake Hills neighborhood as the area for implementing an experimental demonstration project for mobilizing our Lake Hills liberals. We seek to simultaneously make Lake Hills a neighborhood in which Liberals thrive and multiply and increase their votes for Liberal candidates. Through successfully achieving these goals, we hope to stimulate liberals in other neighborhoods to create their own liberal groups.

Through superior mobilization of their voters, Conservatives have often succeeded in winning elections in areas where they are a minority. Under Karl Rove's guidance and with the support of Christian Conservative churches, they have thoroughly canvassed to identify conservatives and stimulate them to vote. To win, Liberals must similarly canvass to identify liberals and stimulate them to vote.

Our net-roots (including bloggers and such organizations as MoveOn) only reach 5-10% of voters. Many of our grass-roots organizations have large numbers of members, but only a few have local offices or chapters which can comprehensively canvass voters. Fewer households now have labor union members which favor liberals than small business owners which have favored conservatives. Our Democratic Party has often failed to organize at the neighborhood level, with canvassing only done sporadically mostly among previously identified Democratic voters.

Nationally, 1/3rd of our voters identify themselves as Democrats, 1/3rd Independents and 1/3rd Republicans. Virtually all of the Democrats and 2/3rds of the Independents are Liberals; but almost all of these tend to vote for Democrats instead of Republicans, except the few who vote for fringe parties. Thus neighborhood Liberals groups can recruit both Democrats (60%) and Independents (40%). United by values, Liberals can easily bond.

Neighborhood Liberals groups can best mobilize voters to vote for Democrats. Only neighborhood Liberals groups can comprehensively canvass and beyond that create an atmosphere where Liberals thrive and multiply. Only networked neighborhood Liberals groups can compete with networked Christian Conservative churches. Only neighborhood groups can maximize Democratic votes.

A congressional district containing perhaps 650,000 residents is too large an area for effective mobilization. Its liberal residents are too many for them to easily know and interact with each other. A legislative district containing perhaps 110,000 residents is also too large. A precinct containing perhaps 200 households and 550 residents is too small an area, having too few liberal residents to mobilize effectively.

A neighborhood containing 10 to 20 precincts is small enough that its liberals can know each other and work together. It is large enough that its liberals have the necessary skills and numbers to effectively mobilize to act to enhance a wide variety of freedoms and opportunities within the neighborhood and at city, state and national levels.

Beginning in mid-October 2005, our Lake Hills Liberals grew in 10 weeks from 7 to over 100 members. This growth has continued. We now have over 900 members, including 500 Residential, 400 Outreach and 31 Agency members. About 1/3rd of our residential member households display 'Proud Liberal, Time for a Change' yard signs with many others displayed in other Puget Sound yards. We have distributed 160 'Proud Liberal' bumper stickers. In 2006, we polled our members, initiated action planning groups, published more than 45 weekly issues of our newsletter, created our website (www.lakehillsliberals.org) and hosted various events.

We have done all this at a cost of $1536, received contributions of $1546 and have a surplus of $10. Wanting to avoid the expense of assessing dues, we rely on donations. Liberal donations are welcomed. All donations and expenditures are strictly accounted.

Our emphasis changes. Last year, it was recruiting members. This winter, it was organizing our activities and services and creating our newsletter and website. This spring it was neighborhood enhancement, including arranging block parties and integrating our house and apartment communities. This summer it has been identifying Democratic Voters. This fall, our priority was stimulating these voters to vote. This winter, it will be getting to know each other and getting more of us involved in various activities. Liberals that know and care for each other thrive and multiply. We also hope to stimulate replication of our group in other neighborhoods, at least one in each Puget Sound legislative district.

Our Neighborhood Enhancement Interests and Activities have included: block parties; welcoming new neighbors; cooperation among home owners and apartment tenants; environmental enhancement (recyling exchange), crime prevention, disaster response, school and youth services, military concerns, family financial security, and elder support task groups; and free advertisements for members.

Our Political Actions have included: displaying yard signs and bumper stickers, letters to editors, letters to government officials, campaign support for liberal candidates, canvassing to identify liberal voters and stimulate them to vote, and encouraging formation of liberal groups in other neighborhoods.

During July and August, we canvassed over 1000 households to identify those containing likely Democratic voters. Added to previously identified likely Democratic voters, we assembled a database of 1700 likely Democratic voters (an average of 140 per precinct) which we gave to all of our Democratic candidates. Get out the vote efforts were then conducted before the primary and general elections by both the candidates and us.

30% (500) of our likely Democratic voters have joined our Lake Hills Liberals to receive our weekly newsletter which includes messages from our Democratic candidates and our commentaries on them.

Our Personal Enhancement Efforts have included: educating liberals (our newsletter, commentaries and discussions; website; and reading list), healthy living (walking groups), and an arts and crafts fair. We have recently initiated our Lake Hills Liberals Salon, a monthly dining and discussion group,

Our liberal spirit series of commentaries have focused upon enhancing our personal abilities (such as bringing our experiences to consciousness, and reducing our insensitivities, resentments and cynicism) to take advantage of our freedoms and opportunities. They also discuss reconciling religious and secular liberals, so that they can better cooperate to extend our freedoms and opportunities.

Beyond creating a neighborhood in which Liberals thrive and multiply, we use our newsletter to reach out to Liberals and Liberal Organizations throughout our Puget Sound region, providing free advertisements for liberal events. We are creating an internet cadre of religious and secular liberal activists throughout Puget Sound who are educated to understand our liberal values, history of victorious struggles, and methods for realizing our values through grass roots organizing and political action. We hope to expand our network to include tens and even hundreds of thousands of Puget Sound Liberals, helping them share their wisdom and opinions, associate with each other and organize their activities.

We also hope to include hundreds and even thousands of Liberal Organizations, enabling them to inform our Liberals of their concerns, objectives, activities and events, while conversely enabling our liberals to join the efforts of these organizations. We envision an inclusive community of well-informed liberals, who easily cooperate to enhance our many freedoms and opportunities. We hope that as our Lake Hills Liberals becomes obviously successful, Liberals throughout Puget Sound will create Liberal groups in their neighborhoods. We can assist them to do this much easier than we have, showing them how to:

• quickly create a database of registered voters, with perhaps 30 likely liberals in each precinct;
• canvass to recruit members,
• copy or modify our or similar yard signs, bumper stickers, newsletter and website,
• organize neighborhood enhancement and political activities,
• elect Democratic candidates,
• and more.

Imagine that all of Puget Sound is organized by networked Liberals and Liberal Organizations into neighborhoods where liberals thrive and multiply, enhancing our freedoms and opportunities in Puget Sound and beyond. This is our Vision.