Precinct Committeepersons of the World--Unite. Or untie if you have trouble spelling.

Chris Bowers of (MyDD fame*) has a fantastic post up about why he's running for precinct committeeman in West Philadelphia, where he lives.

I won't repeat his entire post, but one of the illuminating things Chris discovered was that even in heavily Democratic West Philadelphia (West Philly is almost entirely minority, and is in fact, the old stomping grounds of one Will Smith--Big Willy Style!) no one is involved in the local party. At all.

Which means a relatively few people who get involved can greatly change the way things are done. Michael Moore made a similar point in Downsize This, but at the time when I read it, I didn't know what exactly a precinct committeeman was. Now I see that a small bit of effort can make a difference.

That's the feeling I get from being involved with the York Township Democrats. They're seemingly very open to all kinds of input. My modest suggestions were taken on face value because I was one of a few people who bothered to show up. I'll quote Bowers below:

"We all know that talking to your neighbors about politics is more effective
than moving to a swing state for two weeks and talking to strangers, so why
shouldn't you run for committee person if you have never been contacted by your
local precinct captain? I know I am going to do so. It is a fifty-state
strategy, it is local, and it very well might be uncontested. It is almost too
perfect."

Now, Chris and I actually go back. Not back like, we grew up and yanked each others hair and tussled on the playground. In fact, I doubt he'd recognize me on the street. He was working as an organizer with one of the other competing unions, and it was a pretty dirty campaign between us.

I'm not just saying this because we were competing, but it was a situation where we started a campaign with a particular group, and the other union got mad at us because they represented some other folks at the same worksite. Well, they had ignored these folks for years, which is why we got involved, but I digress. They really played rougher than I thought was necessary.

So, long story short. I met Chris because we would hang around the same areas waiting for employees to catch. He struck me as a decent enough fellow, but I got the impression that that campaign wasn't his main one. I believe he was involved in a different, very large campaign in the City and was pulled off of it to pitch in. Much later, I contacted him and told him how much I enjoyed his blog, and we exchanged pleasantries.

It really is a small world. It's nice to see that folks who are cut from the same cloth come to the same conclusions about what can constitute effective activism.

*See post on Valient Thorr for value of such comments.