The election is over. We (meaning the progressive youth vote) won. Time to lean back, relax, and enjoy the victory, right?
Wrong.
Now that we’ve elected Obama, increased the Democratic majority in the House and Senate, and (in Oregon, at least) added a bunch of smart, young, enthusiastic new legislators, it is incumbent upon the electorate to help set the policy agenda. We can’t afford to let our current momentum die down one iota if we want to insure that the promises of the campaign season are actually fulfilled.
For myself, that means moving into a “citizen lobbyist” role. I’ve started the groundwork for that (along with a few of my like-minded friends) with Policy in Motion, but we haven’t yet completely figured out how to sip from the massive firehose that is an active legislative body.
I definitely believe that having one party control most major offices + both legislative bodies in the state means that transparency and access to information will be especially critical. Working towards open government, using both technological and volunteer-driven tools, is going to be a huge part of that. (And it just so happens to be part of Obama’s transitional agenda, as well.)
Regardless of the issues we choose, our government is not magically going to serve us well, simply because we voted in the right column on Nov. 4th.
Update: Digby seems to agree, at least in principal.