YearlyKos Wrap-Up

Mary Conley

There's been a fair amount of wailing in the blogosphere about this conference. Yes, it was in a terrible facility. Yes, we hiked huge amounts to get between sessions. No, it wasn't as cozy as last year. But I think we miss the point that, as they say in the meditation world, last year we had beginners' mind. We were totally open to not knowing what to expect. This year, expectations were had - and the conference ended with the news that there will be no more "YearlyKos" conventions. From now on, it will be the "Netroots Nation" convention, which may open it up to more blog groups like BlogHer, which had their convention the weekend before.

Indeed, until blogging starts paying, this crowd needs to look for economies of scale and make it cheaper and easier to attend... but, that being said... I'll give you the asked for think-tank update and other thoughts on the flip.

First, the think tank session (only one of two was really about that), was informative in that the ones who were here seem very anxious to have bloggers use them as resources. Evidently, we already DO have a group of progressive think tanks doing the research and crunching the numbers we need to make coherent arguments. I made them all promise that their offices would accept calls from bloggers so that I wasn't putting out useless info. Here's the list of think tanks who want your help and want to help you. Because I'm exhausted, I'm not going to detail what they all do. I encourage you to click on them and explore:

The Drum Major Institute

Public Citizen

Think Progress

Progressive States Network
(David Sirota is one of their team)

Rockridge Institute
(George Lakoff's group)

Policy Link

Commonweal Institute

Roosevelt Institution
("the nation's first student think tank")

Conservative Truths
(tracks down stats behind the claims of conservatives)

Basically, the lesson is that any think tank worth its salt should take your call and be anxious to give you the facts and research you need. We don't need to go and re-invent the wheel. Maybe that's a key difference in the past year - that bloggers are now seen as alternative media outlets for groups like think tanks and they're willing to help.

One of the other most interesting things I learned this week was from Gov. Dean at his speech Friday night: that the most important thing we can do immediately is get young people registered to vote and then get them to vote. As I was heading to my room to crash one night, I ran into this tall guy named Jefferson Smith in the hall and shared some of this with him - and he knew most of it:

That if you vote three times in a row, you're likely to vote the rest of your life - and HOW you vote is an indicator of how you're likely to vote for the rest of your life. The decline in turnout we've seen in recent years nationwide is a result of the lack of outreach to young people in the Reagan era.

The best news on the stats about this demographic, however, is that, while turnout among different racial groups across all ages varied in 2004, turnout among people under 25 was up and didn't differ at all between races. Turnout in 2004 for those under 25 was 53%, regardless of race.

Gov. Dean posed the thought that this generation doesn't react to politics along racial lines the way the world did when we Baby Boomers were kids and that maybe, even though we didn't create the race-neutral, politically active world we wanted for ourselves, maybe we did pass that vision on to our children.

Now we just have to show them that they have the power to see it through.

I'll let Kari put his two cents in on the rest of the conference. The presidential candidates panel was great and the buzz on Hillary was surprisingly good. She did turn out for a breakout session after all, and the word is the conference got her plans wrong (though she did hers before the panel, instead of after like everyone else, which lost her some audience who didn't get the word). Everyone said she's very smart and competent, and if we end up with her as a candidate, she's one we can all work for. I was surprised, but still impressed that we have such a solid field to choose from.

On the charges that we were a "clique-y" conference, I have to totally disagree. I did hang out some with people I'd met last year, but mostly not. There is absolutely no way you could not feel incredibly engaged and welcome in this crowd. It was great to have Oregonians like Kari and Carla here, but even without them, I had plenty of people to hang out with any time of day or night. It may just be that bloggers are used to being a solitary lot and didn't get the easy opportunities to be crammed together for parties the way we did last year. To solve that problem, I'll encourage everyone to practice their conversational skills (i.e., get out more) between now and next year.

Onward and upward. I look forward to being home, back in the world where my vegetarian lifestyle is not something subversive... and back to my dog, who evidently is hanging out by the dogsitter's door.

'Til next year, it's been nice chatting with you all back on Blue O. Keep the faith and start working hard for your candidates. November 2008 will be here before you know it.

By Mary Conley Aug. 05, 2007