Reply #13: If you know some Democrats who are liberal/progressive, start

[JDPriestly]

talking to them. Your local Dem committee guy is a good place to start.

I found that you have to get active in the club before the members open up about their political opinions. You make friends with a few who tend to think like you do and you set aside one time a week to meet.

Pick a topic, assign research to each member. The member that does the research drafts some sort of short one-pager on the research. Then the whole group discusses it and edits it together. Feelings can get hurt, but the satisfaction that the group gets when a few papers are done well is very great.

Here is another idea for organizing a small group of savvy people who can reach out to their friends and neighbors with knowledge not hype: Form a book club in which you mostly read books on political topics. We have such a group. It is great. We have been reading together for years. It is very empowering. This would be the place to start if you are in a red state. Read your books and then try doing some group writing and research on topics that really interest a group of you.

Another idea is to invite your local politicians to your house to discuss issues. Invite your neighbors and the members of the group that you have formed either as a local think tank or as a book group. You can also organize your group to make appointments to see your local congressperson about issues of concern. If you can get quite a large number of signatures on a petition supporting your ideas (standing on the public sidewalk in front of the local supermarket is an example of a place to gather signatures), you might even be able to get a meeting with a conservative representative. Don't scream. Ask questions and take notes. Then write your response and publish an article or letter to the editor in a local newspaper or just if your local newspaper won't publish your response, just write a couple of paragraphs and, again, hand them out to people on the street. Read up on local laws about demonstrations and time, place and manner regulations for exercising free speech in your area.

This is the time to start organizing. If we wait until the 2012 elections, it will be too late.

Above all, know why Democratic economic theories work, why they must be implemented. You have to study up and not talk from your emotions but rather from the certainty that comes from information. It's all available here on DU and elsewhere on the web.

We have a huge opportunity here. The Republicans' theories do not work. They never have. Let's make them put their money where their mouths are.