April 8-15 we will be going door-to-door in Lancaster City and County to talk with our neighbors about what we can do to turn our country around. We will be registering new voters and encouraging registered voters to vote in “off-year” elections, down-ballot races, and specifically the May 16 PA primary. We will also talk about how to build grassroots political power so that everyday people have a real voice in our democracy.
It is so important that we turn things around in 2017, 2018, 2020, and beyond. We are sickened by the dangerous election of Donald Trump and appalled by his Administration’s actions. But we want more than just a return to Democratic Party control of government along the lines that it has been operating. We want a government where citizens have a louder voice than big business. We believe that to win a long-term governing majority, we need a Democratic party that will fight visibly for working people; a party that is not timid about taking on Wall Street. And we believe that the only way we’ll see the current Democratic Party leadership do that is to build up grassroots people-power with the leverage to make them do it.
Since November 8th we have been showing up in the streets and showing up at the offices of our elected officials. In Lancaster we have been getting ourselves organized in unprecedented numbers. But we have no intention of being relegated to the sidelines while career politicians hand control of our government over to big money interests. We aim to contend on the main stage.
That’s why we’re getting started right now. We will build a grassroots ground game that can make a real difference in the years ahead. We will get ourselves ready to nominate true progressive candidates who are eager to stand up for everyone in our community and for all Americans. We are getting ourselves prepared to win elections.
If you’ve never gone door-to-door, this people’s canvass is for you. Honestly, being an everyday Lancastrian who has never knocked on a stranger’s door makes you the perfect person for the job. We’ll be providing prep sessions and also doing our best to pair folks who have less experience and more experience.
Over the past decades, the muscles of democratic participation have atrophied — it’s time we start exercising them again. We believe it is up to all of us to breath new life into our democracy. It is up to us to break with a political establishment that has left so many behind. And it is up to us to put forward bold vision for the future founded on a commitment to the common good. Please join us.