Are You Up For Making This Democratic Party Movement Huger?
Howdy folks!
I’m watching the states-and-territories roll call last night on YouTube of the Democratic National Convention this week as I type this, so I’m fired up! What a super cool thing (OMG! The Wisconsin people have giant cheese hats! It just keeps going in awesomeness!).
I am so beyond stoked to see the energy, fire, and momentum at the convention this week. One of my Facebook connections said the convention production team should get an Emmy. I love it. Not only is it incredibly produced but it was pulled together in one month. Freaking amazing. People are passing around Spotify lists from the states-and-territories roll call today on top of the amazing memes and videos. It’s breathtaking.
Are you interested in ways to grow this momentum even more?
I’ve been working to pull this nonprofit, Shift the Country, together for several years. It was always designed to work alongside with a huge movement — or to grow one. We’ve not yet had the funding to grow a huge movement ourselves, but hey now a huge movement is well underway!
Shift the Country can help you and your people grow and expand this new movement.
Are you up for it?
Let’s go forward!
The Big Sparkly Vision — Motivating People To Vote In New Ways
Shift the Country is a nonprofit set up to drive civic engagement, public pressure, and voter turnout to create a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable democracy.
Shift the Country promotes ideas for activities that people and groups can use to raise a ruckus, influence the narrative, and get voters fired up. Together we can do a million things in a million places to elect good people and to bring about transformative change.
My big vision has always been that we get activities and events going in towns, communities, and cities all over this country that get people involved and engaged, that get people talking, and that get media attention.
This country ended up in the mess we’re in because our social contract has gone funky. Our social fabric is threadbare and our civic engagement has dwindled partly because people have to work so much to make ends meet. Authoritarians happen when the majority of people lose faith in institutions. That happened; but we don’t have to keep the authoritarian movement. We can get Americans re-engaged to push back in huger ways than we’ve already been doing — and that’s already happening.
Authoritarians lose when a majority of citizens unite with a big, shared agenda that pushes them back into the shadows.
Democrats are growing a huge majority right now even as we speak.
This amazing, sparkly, radiant DNC Convention is a movement and momentum all on its own.
Plus we’ve got two absolutely joyful, talented, intelligent, happy, loving souls running for President and Vice President. Insert sparkly fun emojis!!!!
We Need To Take This Momentum To All The Places
We need to build that momentum out in the rest of the country, too — not just in the cities and not just in the places with spotlights and cameras. We need ruckus and fuss in all the places both rural and urban. A movement needs action and activity in all the places!
We can do it by doing stuff locally right where we live. Where we can reach the people we live near and talk to every day or every month. We can raise a ruckus. We can get people talking, interested, fired up, engaged, and VOTING.
People out away from the big cities don’t see all this fuss and amazingness this week — or maybe even over the past month. They aren’t seeing the incredible number of all kinds of groups for Harris materialize online. They don’t even see protests or rallies when they have happened like at state capitols for or against various things. Especially rural folks don’t often see any counter to the narrative that FOX News and the far-right media empire drive. Rural folks see Trump flags and oversized trucks with now-out-of-date “F*** Biden” bumper stickers. People outside the big cities are shopping in stores, going to the doctor, and eating at restaurants alongside people wearing hate speech on their t-shirts. Probably people in big cities are, too.
We can do and be so much more. We can show it. We can live it.
We need rural folks and city folks and mid-size town folks and Americans everywhere to see this new momentum and this growing movement of love and light and joy and happiness and hope and inclusivity and big opportunities for a big future.
It’s refreshing. It’s empowering.
The Bigger The Movement — The Bigger The Wins
We can drive even more of the narrative. We can make an even bigger movement.
This work here at Shift the Country is a recipe for how. It’s a freaking roadmap.
Democrats have a better chance of winning all the things if we can get this awesome movement and momentum out to all the places.
This powerful phenomenon can help Democrats win the electoral college, get a supermajority in the US Senate to overpower the filibuster, and win the US House.
Are you in?
Shift the Country has a Make Shift Happen page with a guide and activity lists people and groups can use to make this shift happen.
Everyone loves a party. Let’s have some.
Check it out. Pass it along. Take it to your people. Share it with your groups online and in-real-life. Talk about these possibilities as you talk about this convention. Make plans to make some of this shift happen where you are.
We can make all this fuss and ruckus and momentum and actual fun even bigger. Good heavens people are absolutely craving it.
Holler if you want help for you and your group on making this shift happen. Shift the Country will speak to your group, or do coaching and empowerment. It’s free stuff supported by donations. Set up a call, email team@shiftthecountry.com, or call (515) 375-9027.
Big Survey — Help Focus This Shift
As Shift the Country gets this big vision out for engagement everywhere, we’d like your help with getting focused this fall!
The core starter Big Idea List #1 — Activity Types has 39 ideas for activities and events people and groups can do to drive civic engagement, public pressure, and voter turnout.
Pick your Top 10 ideas here to recommend that Shift the Country focus on this fall to make shift happen. Or click this button to vote!
The survey goes through Labor Day! Holler before then with your response.
Try It!
The work here to Make Shift Happen is to reach people, to get them involved, and to motivate them to vote.
Any one of us can do this shift. We can do it online or in-real-life. It can be two people, a livingroom gathering, a Zoom, a coffee shop get-together, a storytelling event, a rally, a group art project about big vision, or whatever.
Again, everyone loves a party. Have some! Celebrate anything! Get people together! Drive fun stuff and momentum!
Another idea is to pick any idea off the core starter Big Idea List #1 and to focus on vision stuff — what you and your people want to see from this country or in your community or state or whatever.
VP Harris is focusing forward. We can, too. People are excited about that. We can make it bigger with events that focus forward.
Add your ideas below! We may just add them to our idea list collection!
Once all y’all get this shift going, Shift the Country can also help you share your stories and wisdom.
Let’s Grow A Phenomenon
Let’s learn and grow and evolve this shift together.
Let’s grow this emerging movement into an even bigger freaking phenomenon.
Forward!
“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represent the new way forward. We’re not going back. We’re not going back because… [Crowd chants ‘We’re not going back! We’re not going back! We’re not going back!’]… We are the United States of America, we always dream about the future. And so forward on women’s reproductive rights because we believe that a patient’s room is too small and crammed of space for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government; that’s too many people in the room. Forward on worker rights, because most people do not mind working, they just want to share in the prosperity that they are creating for others. Forward on voting rights. Forward on affordable housing and access to healthcare. We are moving forward!” — Senator Raphael Warnock on August 19, 2024 at the 2024 Democratic National Convention
Vanessa Burnett is the Executive Director of Shift the Country, a unique nonprofit set up to drive civic engagement, public pressure, and voter turnout to create a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable democracy. Vanessa is a former homeland security professional with 25+ years experience in resilience, big disasters, wildland fire, emergency management, land management, continuity of operations, and disaster information sharing.
Ope! I found this explanation of the state and territory songs at the convention last night right *after* I published the post...
https://time.com/7013356/democratic-roll-call-state-songs-why-lil-jon-2024-dnc/