My Concentric Circles

(written Sept 29, 2011)
Personally, I approach my world as a series of concentric circles in which the inner ones very much support the outer ones. So, I’m doing something a bit different in this particular email and providing my analysis, information, fun commentaries and action items based on those rings. Note – this is, by no means, a comprehensive view of each ring, just a sampling of items at each.

Ring 1: Self and family – a focus on the New Year Ring 2: Community – Seattle School Board considerations Ring 3: State – info on Eyman’s 1125 Ring 4: Nation – Immediacy in the Obama campaign Ring 5: World – coming soon

Btw- be sure to follow me: Twitter: @suzilevine; www.facebook.com/suzilevine

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Ring 1: Self and family:

• This, to me, is the foundation on which it all sits. While issues such as school board decisions, state transportation, women’s reproductive rights, and Middle-east relations may sit on each respective ring of my Suzi-centric view of the world, they all rest on the core circle – me and my family. As you parse the news, every-so often, I encourage you to look from that lens to see how it affects your voting decisions. Plus – personally, if Ring 1 is out of tune, then the rest collapse.
  
• It being the Jewish High Holidays, it’s a particularly introspective time right now. Here’s my blog post with my thoughts and reflections for this New Year – and how I’m working on my core (and, no that doesn’t mean Pilates).

Ring 2: Community:
In this case, I’m going to focus on Seattle – and the Seattle School Board – because this affects more than just our kids, this affects the city and region’s future.

Things are far from perfect in Seattle’s school district and there’s a lot that needs to happen to get us just up to good (nevermind excellent). However, there are 4 seats up for election this year and, after conversations with many people in education whom I respect and trust – and after doing some listening and research, it is clear to me that the challengers would set the district back substantially. Here is an article summing up a recent debate w/the incumbents and their challengers from the Seattle Times. And this is the July article w/endorsements and info on each race. Some observations from this set of challengers:

1. They all oppose the introduction of Teach for America teachers into Seattle.
2. At least 3 of the 4 challenge last year’s progressive teacher contract and the inclusion of student test scores as a factor (but not a sole factor) in teacher evaluations. This contract was, frankly, one of the high points of what the district has done lately and needs nurturing, not nuking.
3. While they’re all angry about where we are academically here in Seattle (which they should be –because we’re in the stone age) – it’s unclear what the challengers’ visions are for getting us to a substantially better place.

Ballots will be distributed in the next 3 weeks (and we’re 100% mail-in) – so before you cast your ballot for the school board, be sure to read up on this election. I encourage you to vote for the incumbents: Sherry Carr, Harium Martin-Morris, Steve Sundquist, and Peter Maier. Have other thoughts on these candidates? Please feel free comment below

Ring 3: State

Tim Eyman is back and it’s critical that everyone who cares about infrastructure tell everyone they know to vote AGAINST Initiative 1125 – another Eyman initiative. This initiative primarily does 3 bad things: (1) limits tolls to pay for new bridges and gas taxes to pay for highways. (2) blocks using I-90 as a cross-lake route for light rail to the east side (1125 is being bankrolled by Kemper-freeman, a longtime critic of light rail). (3) requires toll rates be set by the legislature rather than the State Transportation Commission. Unfortunately, because many people in this state generally think that paying less is better, the latest poll from King5 shows that this Initiative would pass. Today’s Sunday Seattle Times had a pretty good roll-up of the Initiative that’s worth reading.
Action Item: Help the viral push to stop 1125 by encouraging your friends to VOTE NO on 1125 and then ask them to tell their friends. For a shortcut – send this page from FUSE (or find another source of info) or even just take the section I have above and send it out. As a state, we can’t afford another debacle like this that cripples the state’s infrastructure!.

Ring 4: Nation
Let’s talk about Obama. We have 13 months left until the election and a lot is going to happen between now and then. With that baker’s dozen of months left, below are five key thoughts coming out of my experiences with his visit and conference calls last week:
Action Item:
After reading the below points, I hope you will feel motivated to make a meaningful contribution NOW to the campaign – or to start planning for when you do. If/when you’re ready to contribute – please use my link. I can then track it to make sure to apply your contribution to a future event (if you’d like). Alternatively – let me know if you’d like to get together to talk about this. Thank you, in advance, for helping the campaign!

1. This election is a choice, not a referendum
   1. The Republican Party and the challenger will seek to make the election a referendum on the economy. For example, they’ll try to position it that, if you don’t like what’s happening with the economy or if you don’t have a job right now – it’s the President’s fault and you should vote against him. This is why certain leaders in Congress (McConnell, Boehner and Cantor especially) are so devoted to opposing the President and sabotaging the economy. The worse the economy is by election season 2012, the better their chances of winning the White House. It’s critical to not let the conversation – and the votes – become a referendum.
   2. Your vote next year, however, isn’t a referendum. It’s a choice. And the choices we face between Obama and a challenger will become even starker over the next year. Below are just a couple of examples of the choices we’ll need to consider between the candidates:
      1. For women – do you want to retain and even, perhaps, expand family planning and reproductive rights? Do you want to expand support for equal pay for equal work? At every turn and challenge, Obama has stood up for women on this – including going toe to toe with Boehner last spring when he threatened to shut down the government in April because he wanted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. Look at Obama’s Supreme Court appointments and the fact that they would uphold Roe v. Wade. McCain/Palin wouldn’t have done that – and nor would any of the current Republican candidates. As I told my niece – assume a return to horrifying conditions for reproductive rights if we don’t step up to support the re-election because none of the current or prospective Republican challengers do.
      2. For LGBT – do you agree with the decision to allow gays in the military? Guess what – none of the Republican challengers do. Imagine that decision being rolled back.
      3. The Environment – Do you like the EPA? Obama has more than doubled fuel efficiency standards and believes in maintaining environmental regulations. He has also put tight controls on deep water drilling. His opponents would get rid of environmental regulation, get rid of the EPA and drill baby drill (say goodbye to the arctic national wildlife reserve).
   3. As Obama said during a conference call (quoting Joe Biden): “compare me to the alternative, not to the almighty”
2. We need everyone to get off the sidelines because the most effective components of the campaign won’t wait. We can’t assume – this election is not a slam dunk. I have many people saying to me: “I’m disappointed with his X decision and am going to wait to contribute.” Or “…I’m not going to contribute to his campaign, but I’ll vote for him”. Others, still, are saying “he doesn’t need my help – he’ll win anyway”.
   

   On Nov 7^th, 2012 – I want to be able to look back at this moment and say “Thank goodness those people got off the sidelines early enough to fuel key infrastructure and field operations so that we could overcome the massive smear campaign with knocks on doors.” No matter how upset you might be that the President didn’t support a particular part of an initiative or that he didn’t message whatever happened in the way you’d hoped, he has made more progress than any President in decades on a variety of areas and the alternatives are truly untenable (see point above about choice/not referendum). And – remember that in 2008, it was a “landslide” with 53% of the vote. You know what happens when you ASSUME.

3. The value of a contribution now is significantly higher than one made in 6 or 12 months. The items requiring funding now have incredible multiplier effects:
   1. Field organizers – put in place now, they’re going to be able to build up a bigger network of staff and volunteers. This then enables more door-knocking, more voter registration and more get out the vote. SO – there’s a direct ROI. You can’t, however, just get these networks set up at that last minute.
   2. Protecting voter’s rights – A recent “TheWeek” magazine article talked about how more states are clamping down on voter registration in order to disenfranchise the young, poor and minority populations. In Florida, for example, with ACORN as a scapegoat, they made it a felony if you register someone to vote and don’t turn in that registration within 48 hours. I can’t tell you how many times during the 2008 election I inadvertently sat on registrations for 3 or 4 days. Plus – what the campaigns will frequently do is capture the contact information from the new voter so that they can remind them to vote during the “Get out the vote” period in the fall.
      

      The campaign is putting its plans in place now for extensive voter registration activities – AND is also investing in strategic voter protection activities. For example:

      1. In Ohio – the Republican governor and legislature passed a law getting rid of “Golden Week” – the one week where voters could always register AND vote at the same time. Obama for America is working to gather signatures now to challenge that law on the 2012 ballot. If they have the several hundred signatures to get that challenge on the 2012 ballot, then “Golden Week” can still happen in 2012, regardless of the outcome of whether or not that challenge comes through and protects “Golden Week”. Again – this is an example of something that can’t just come together at the last minute next summer. It requires investment now.
   3. In combatting the massive advertising organizations such as Karl Rove’s “Crossroads” is already doing – we need to be able to step up on advertising, but it’s on the ground and through technology that we will be able to win.
4. Obama is governing 100% of the country, not just the 53% who elected him. Therefore, as much as everyone wants every decision to be aligned to what they specifically want, it’s not gonna happen. My personal attitude is that I need to advocate as hard as possible for the issues that matter to me in order to influence where we will end up on the decision spectrum. That said – given the fact that I do not necessarily agree with everyone, I will naturally not get my way all the time. But – just because I don’t agree with or understand every decision doesn’t mean I don’t support him.

Ring 5: The World – I’ll save for a future note…

Lastly – I’m going to finish out with 2 things –

1. A very fun quote from the Daily Show last week when correspondent Larry Wilmore spoke recently about Herman Cain’s upset in the Florida straw poll:

• Larry Wilmore: “this just further proves Politics is like a Porn Movie”
• Jon Stewart: “How’s that?”
• Larry Wilmore: “the Pizza guy shows up out of nowhere and f—s you.”

Here’s the video

1. A photo of a friend’s baby with President Obama last week when he was at the Paramount. What an intense and zen-like interaction! What must he be thinking?

   
   

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