My sister, the former mayor of Hopewell Township, and the local Hopewell Township Democratic Committee (all those big Ds in the community) recently launched a Hopewell Valley Democratic Club and, with it, something called the HVDemClub Website.
Given the lessons learned from viewing the pedagogical, the promotional and fundraising power of digital media on behalf of the Obama campaign during the last Presidential election, it's not surprising that – almost three years after I first recommended it to her . . . grrrrrrrr – she and her fellow members of Hopewell Township's DemCom finally pulled the trigger on this idea.
I think HVDemClub.org is important not only because such sites keep local electorates informed. Let's face it. We're all busy. We don't have the time or the energy after a hard day at the office to go to a local township meeting and sit around for hours while they blab on and on about stuff you don't give a damn about until (usually, at around 11:30 PM) they finally get to the stuff you're there for. It's like going to traffic court. Ugh. No, thank you. I want to stay involved. I realize I have a moral obligation to be politically active; that's how I was raised – back in the '60s, by immigrant parents who knew what it was like not to have political rights. But, frankly, sometimes I'd rather have a root canal than attend another Hopewell Township Committee Meeting.
That's why having a website like the HVDemClub is such a good idea. I can get all the latest info. I need about what's going on politically in Hopewell Valley, New Jersey, and not have to put on pants, or waste gas, or face the cold again. In fact, I get more intellectual sustenance than I ever acquired before, in meatspace; I'm more prepared to be an active, informed citizen; and yet I'm getting it all at a far lower carbon cost. Now, that's efficient and green Democracy!
But there are other reasons why I'm thrilled the Democrats of Hopewell Township launched this website.
1. First, by featuring clips of local folks who've gotten up and spoken at recent Hopewell Township Committee meetings, the site is transforming politically active citizens into local celebrities. Their clips (available on YouTube via HVDemClub.org) are generating dozens and dozens of views just hours after the Meetings they attended are over. You can imagine how they feel – stoked up and proud to tell their friends, "Hey, did you catch me online? Go ahead – look me up. You can watch me give the Township Mayor hell for his boneheaded judge selection process . . . or for forcing new sewers down the public's throat during a recession or . . ." Well, you get the idea. In an age when everyone wants to be a celebrity, for once, I'm not against this kind of self-promotion. After all, you're celebrating someone for being politically active! That, I can live with. In fact, we need more of that in our society; not less.
2. The site also acclimates its Members to the new Syntax of Democracy. Let's face it: It's not enough anymore to be able to go down to the local square and carry a placard. To be politically active in the 21st century requires skill sets completely unknown in our parents' time. Today, one is required to know how to email, to post, to blog and to tweet . . . if you want to be heard through the din of the digital cacophony. Indeed, by just publishing this website, the Hopewell Valley Democratic Club is encouraging its Members to exercise the skill sets required of today's most progressive political activists. The best way to learn is by doing, after all. Every time an aging Boomer, or some member of the Greatest or Silent generations is forced to learn a new digital trick by visiting a site like this one – how to click a link, how to scroll, how to post a comment, how to check an eCalendar, how to launch a video or sound file – we help hone their democratic skills. In the future, when, hopefully, we'll be empowered to register, campaign and vote via smart phone or other pervasive device, such skills will become even more indispensible.
3. But the best reason of all is the same reason the Internet itself is so great: It gives everyone a voice, in a free-market meritocracy of sound. Most of it sound and fury, signifying nothing, to paraphrase the Bard. But much of it empassioned, heartfelt, and truly splendid. Let's face it, thanks to the Net, when it comes to politics, especially given the organizing power of social media, the silent majority will never be silent again. One only has to look at Egypt and Tunisia to see that.
So, congratulations, HVDemClub. Keep up the good work, your new website, and your efforts in turning the often sluggish and generally conservative community of Hopewell Township into a beacon of political change that we can all be proud of.
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