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Community Values Voters Rising
This week's launch of the Community Voting Project confirms that the divisive, "you're on your own" politics of the past are dying. Voters want an America that works for everyone.
To read a press release about the community values voter mobilization work of our grassroots partners, click here. To read the transcript of a recent press conference on this work, click here. And to listen to an audio recording of the press conference, click here.
In Virginia, the Virginia Organizing Project is organizing 50 college students from the state to knock on 300,000 voters' doors over the summer, identifying voters and the issues care about. These voters will be engaged this election, but also after — mobilized to hold the next Administration and Congress accountable.
In Illinois, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is registering 20,000 new voters this year and turning out more than 50,000 people to the polls. Since 2004, the organization has registered more than 55,000 new immigrant voters and mobilized 90,000 voters to the polls, but also turned many voters into grassroots activists, precinct captains — even candidates for office.
In Washington, two grassroots organizations are working together to engage voters in the neighborhoods of Redmond. Hate Free Zone is registering and mobilizing new immigrant voters, while Washington Citizen Action is focusing on working class families and small business owners concerned with the lack of affordable, accessible healthcare. Together, the two groups are registering 30,000 new voters and mobilizing 40,000 to get to the polls.
In a political system too often dominated by Washington hacks and outsiders who parachute into states come election time, try to work some magic and then pull out, leaving nothing behind, these organizations and the dozens of others stand in stark contrast. Through the Community Voting Project, the Center for Community Change invests in grassroots organizations building direct relationships and lasting infrastructure not only to shape one election but to shape our politics and culture for the future.
And by being in communities permanently, not just dropping in every four years, grassroots organizations really listen to what people are saying — which after all, is the essence of community organizing. And what we and our partners are hearing, all across the country, is that Americans of every stripe are fed up with the go-it-alone, extreme individualism of politics past — which tell us we have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and we have no responsibility to each other and certainly no need for shared institutions like government. Americans see where these politics of isolation have gotten us — we're working harder than ever for less money, we feel more fearful of the world around us, we're watching abuses from immigration raids to police brutality to Guantanamo grow. We want a different America, an America that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.
Community Values Voters want the nation to act for the common good and know that our greatest accomplishments as a country have come — and will continue to come — from recognizing that we are connected and mutually responsible and must pull together to get things done. These are the voters that grassroots organizations have been listening to and organizing for decades, now finally gaining ground on the national stage. So-called "family values" voters were just a flash in the pan; Americans know that families are not islands but parts of an interconnected web that doesn't stop at any one doorstep. From healthcare for all to immigration reform to worker justice, Community Values Voters are standing up this election — and building a movement that will change our political future for the better, for everyone.
Sally Kohn is Senior Campaign Strategist with the Center for Community Change.
To read a press release about the community values voter mobilization work of our grassroots partners, click here. And to listen to an audio recording of a recent press conference on this work, click here.
