Robi Ganguly’s Big Ideas

Props to my buddy Tom for sending me over to www.thedailyshow.com to see the entirety of this interview with Bill Clinton from a few weeks ago. I always appreciate more detail and thoughtfulness when it comes to political and economic discourse.

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I’ve been writing on my blog about today’s election and the nature of politics for over a year now. One of my earliest posts was one called, “This is What Politics Looks in America Looks Like Today.” I discussed how difficult it is being a politician in the United States today and how my childhood ambitions to become President had been squashed by the viciousness of the political process.

I sit here in Las Vegas, NV, volunteering for the Obama campaign and I can say something that astonishes me: Barack Obama has changed my mind. His campaign has made me think differently about politics and my own future.

I consider a few things in thinking about this:

• The news media of our country makes it hard to communicate nuanced and complicated arguments to the population.
• The majority of people don’t have the time or interest to sift through the noise, lies and attacks that are typical of political campaigns.
• The reality is that many people vote on single issues and are susceptible to a political environment that dampens dialogue and increases anger, frustration and division.

Despite this situation, Obama and his campaign have managed to run on a platform of positive change and unity. Defying the pundits and my own skepticism, he has motivated not just thousands, but HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people to volunteer and to donate… to ACT.

It’s estimated that the Obama campaign has over a MILLION volunteers today, Election Day. That’s simply amazing.

THIS is what we need in this country. We need leaders who show us that through action we can make our lives, our community, our states and our country better. We need leaders who both tell us and inspire us to do our part, to do more than we think that we are capable of, in every community across the nation.

Although the polls are still open and I don’t know how this election will turn out, I am hopeful, regardless of who is elected. I am hopeful that this campaign has woken its volunteers AND others who have lived in skeptical reluctance to the idea that they could make change happen by taking action. That by being honest, positive and focused on the achievement of common goals that we all can accomplish great things together.

YES

WE

CAN

It’s not just a campaign slogan. It’s truth. The truth that together, we are more than just our wants and needs. Together, we can become our hopes and ambitions.

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If you’re out there, thinking to yourself that the poll numbers look great and this election is in the bag, STOP.

Stop thinking that you don’t have anything to do in the next 3 weeks. 

I admit, the situation looks rather rosy at the moment, but if you really want to see a President Obama in the White House, I urge you to listen to what the man is saying:

THIS IS OUR TIME 

What do you think that means folks? OUR time.. WE need to be involved. 

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

                         -Mahatma Gandhi

From one of mankind’s greatest philosophers AND one of our most effective leaders comes a reminder for us all: we must make this election go the way we would like.

It’s important to me to see Barack Obama elected. I’ve been doing a number of things to play a part in his candidacy and I have many friends who have been doing the same. Have you?

Some ideas about what you can do to get Barack Obama elected over the next 3 weeks:

1. Familiarize yourself with the "battleground states" of this election: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Nevada, Michigan.
2. Talk to your friends in those swing states about the election: Don’t be pushy, but create conversations, have meaningful, in-depth discussions of the issues that matter to you. Avoid hyperbole and emotional, pithy remarks and engage in behavior that is required of a CITIZEN:
   • Look at your phone’s address book and scroll through it. Do you have any friends in those states? Have you not talked to them in a while? Give them a ring. Talk about the election.
   • Open up your email address book and do the same thing – look to see who among your friends are in these swing states. Email them, start a dialogue. Share digital media that you’ve watched, read, listened to or even created about the election that you find interesting and useful in making your decisions.
   • Are you on MySpace/Facebook/Bebo/iMeem/Friendster/LinkedIn/Plaxo? If so, the tools aren’t great, but you can use these services to identify friends who are in the battleground states – take 30 mins and make a list of 10, 15, 20 friends. Reach out to them.
3. Share your enthusiasm for action with other like-minded friends: It’s always more fun to work as a part of a team. Create your own small team of friends who are taking actions to share, discuss and promote the Obama campaign. Pass this blog post on, recruit people to come up with more ideas than the ones I’ve listed here.
4. Donate to the campaign: Here is the link to my donations page (get me past $0 folks!), but you can just as easily go to the main donation page, located here.
5. Volunteer for the campaign: (sign up at: http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/volunteer)
   • Make calls in the coming weeks with local supporters and contact your neighbors: http://my.barackobama.com/page/votercontact/details
   • Hop in your car and head to a nearby battleground state, if it’s feasible for you (SF friends, there are several trips to Nevada planned).
6. Create your own media for the campaign:
   • If you have a blog, write on it.
   • If you go to a rally, take pictures and video of it and share with your friends.
   • If you have artistic inclinations, create your own Obama logo and put it in your email signatures, on your social network profile, in your IM profiles etc.. If you don’t, go find logos here
7. Wear your support for the campaign: t-shirts, bumper stickers, pins, signs.. all of these will help show your support and remind others.
8. Remind all of your friends to vote on election day!

These are just my ideas, please add your own in the comments.

Also, here are some interesting sites to check out along these lines:

http://www.returntoohio.com/ 

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/on-road-grand-junction-colorado.html 

http://thegreatschlep.com/

Finally, for those who are trying to figure out what media to share with their friends, here are some of my favorite speeches/ads/media/articles:

Articles and links:

Attack Tactics backfiring on McCain

Obama’s career timeline, detailing why the experience question is pretty silly

New Yorker on Barack Obama back in 2007

Lengthy piece on "Obamanomics" from August

Ads and Videos:

A recent ad that tells us more about Obama’s background

Obama’s speech on 10/13/08 about the economic crisis.

Inspiring video created for the convention.

Obama’s Speech on Race – "A More Perfect Union": one of the most amazing speeches I’ve ever seen.

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Dear friends and readers of this blog:

If you think to yourself, "I don’t understand why people vote the way they do. I feel like so much of the country is crazy."

Or you think, "Why is everyone up in arms about politics, it’s not like it matters who’s President anyway."

Or maybe you’re just tired of people making snap decisions about candidates based upon the things they hear in the news, through ads and from headlines and feeling a bit hopeless about the state of affairs.

You’re NOT alone.

But you are lying to yourself if you’ve gotten to a point where you think your actions don’t matter. Consider these few things:

• Your vote does get counted in this country (many countries can’t say that).
• Your $$ matter. Give to the candidate or the issue that you care about. It doesn’t matter if it’s $5, $25 or $2,000. Your money DOES help. Look at the Obama campaign, which has stunned EVERYONE in its ability to raise money through the donations of "ordinary" citizens (more than 2 million people have given, do you want to join them?). You’re not ordinary – you live in the U.S.A. and probably have disposable income. You are in a position of global wealthiness.
• You have FRIENDS WHO LISTEN TO YOU.

If you’re out there, talking with people about this election, making sure that your voice is heard; through your vote and your wallet, you are doing something.

MAKE YOUR VOICE MATTER.

Register, today, if you’re not. Put your address in here, right now, to check your local info and make sure you’re registered.

Then, go call/email/text/IM/Facebook/MySpace, whatever, 5 or more of your friends this same thought.

You can do it.

(Or listen to these celebrities tell you the same thing..)

PS. If you happen to live in a "swing state" or have friends in "swing states", your voice matters even more. Think about utilizing that understanding in the coming 30 days.

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