Summit, Hip Hop Caucus, PunkVoter, HeadCount, Generational Alliance, and Voto Latino, as well as Rock the Vote, United States Student Association (USSA), Black Youth Vote!, and campus PIRGs.
Film director Michael Mooreâs electrifying cinematic intervention, Fahrenheit 9/11 , further riled up the base. Lines to get into the film on the opening weekend snaked around blocks. Despite screening in a limited number of theaters, the film broke multiple records, earning more the first weekend than its blockbuster competitors and going on to become the highest-grossing documentary ever.
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom shook up the establishment by calling for the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. The quest for marriage equality took its place under a spotlight nationwideâand stayed there, thanks to the persistence of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, intersex, and questioning community. Determined to end this form of unequal treatment,these groups carried on nonviolent battles, in courtrooms, on the airwaves, on city streets and during every subsequent election cycle. Their courage and passion added greatly to the growing momentum for positive change.
By November, millions were on the moveâorganizing themselves outside of the formal structures of the campaign, uniting across lines of class and color. Leaving nothing to chance, people even volunteered for âelection protectionâ effortsâoverseeing voting booths to avoid a repeat of the fiasco that led to the U.S. Supreme Courtâs selection of George W. Bush as our forty-third president in 2000.
This flourishing of electoral activism was much bigger than Senator Kerryâs official presidential campaign. Many who had supported Ralph Naderâs Green Party bid in 2000 came rushing back into the fold. But it was much broader in scope than the Democratic Party. In 2004, we saw the birth of a genuine, pro-democracy movementâstanding up against the entire apparatus of one-party rule in Washington, DC.
Everyone remembers Kerryâs stinging loss at the ballot box on election night, but they forget that this newborn, fledgling force came within one hundred thousand votes in Ohio of evicting Bush from the White House. Thatâs how powerful this progressive, people-powered phenomenon had already become, way back in 2004.
2005: PROGRESSIVES BIRTH NEW INSTITUTIONS AND REINVENT CAPACITIES
Once again, people could have quit, saying, âWe give up. We gave it our best shot. America just canât be fixed.â But, once again, they didnât quit. They held on to their âhopes,â and they kept fighting for âchange.â Post-election blues did not turn into apathy.
Instead, the pro-democracy movement rapidly reinvented itself with a dazzling array of new tools and organizations. For instance, the Huffington Post Internet newspaper was born that year, bringing real sophistication and celebrity pizzazz to something the media had begun calling the âblogosphere.â Powered mainly by pajama-clad rebels against the Bush-Cheney status quo, progressive blog sites such as Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo matured to give liberals a new communication capacity that finally leveled the playing field with right-wing talk radio.
In that same vein, progressive talk radio network Air America hit its stride in 2005. Launched in 2004, it provided an important platform for on-air personalities Rachel Maddow, Thom Hartmann, and Al Franken. Those voices remain significant despite the networkâs ultimate failure due to financial troubles. Former vice president Al Gore created a television network, Current TV, in the spring of 2005. While the network is still defining and refining its voice today, it provides an important, independent perspective in the media landscape.
By far the most significant contribution to the progressive media landscape came with Jon Stewartâs Daily Show , which averaged 1
Film director Michael Mooreâs electrifying cinematic intervention, Fahrenheit 9/11 , further riled up the base. Lines to get into the film on the opening weekend snaked around blocks. Despite screening in a limited number of theaters, the film broke multiple records, earning more the first weekend than its blockbuster competitors and going on to become the highest-grossing documentary ever.
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom shook up the establishment by calling for the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. The quest for marriage equality took its place under a spotlight nationwideâand stayed there, thanks to the persistence of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, intersex, and questioning community. Determined to end this form of unequal treatment,these groups carried on nonviolent battles, in courtrooms, on the airwaves, on city streets and during every subsequent election cycle. Their courage and passion added greatly to the growing momentum for positive change.
By November, millions were on the moveâorganizing themselves outside of the formal structures of the campaign, uniting across lines of class and color. Leaving nothing to chance, people even volunteered for âelection protectionâ effortsâoverseeing voting booths to avoid a repeat of the fiasco that led to the U.S. Supreme Courtâs selection of George W. Bush as our forty-third president in 2000.
This flourishing of electoral activism was much bigger than Senator Kerryâs official presidential campaign. Many who had supported Ralph Naderâs Green Party bid in 2000 came rushing back into the fold. But it was much broader in scope than the Democratic Party. In 2004, we saw the birth of a genuine, pro-democracy movementâstanding up against the entire apparatus of one-party rule in Washington, DC.
Everyone remembers Kerryâs stinging loss at the ballot box on election night, but they forget that this newborn, fledgling force came within one hundred thousand votes in Ohio of evicting Bush from the White House. Thatâs how powerful this progressive, people-powered phenomenon had already become, way back in 2004.
2005: PROGRESSIVES BIRTH NEW INSTITUTIONS AND REINVENT CAPACITIES
Once again, people could have quit, saying, âWe give up. We gave it our best shot. America just canât be fixed.â But, once again, they didnât quit. They held on to their âhopes,â and they kept fighting for âchange.â Post-election blues did not turn into apathy.
Instead, the pro-democracy movement rapidly reinvented itself with a dazzling array of new tools and organizations. For instance, the Huffington Post Internet newspaper was born that year, bringing real sophistication and celebrity pizzazz to something the media had begun calling the âblogosphere.â Powered mainly by pajama-clad rebels against the Bush-Cheney status quo, progressive blog sites such as Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo matured to give liberals a new communication capacity that finally leveled the playing field with right-wing talk radio.
In that same vein, progressive talk radio network Air America hit its stride in 2005. Launched in 2004, it provided an important platform for on-air personalities Rachel Maddow, Thom Hartmann, and Al Franken. Those voices remain significant despite the networkâs ultimate failure due to financial troubles. Former vice president Al Gore created a television network, Current TV, in the spring of 2005. While the network is still defining and refining its voice today, it provides an important, independent perspective in the media landscape.
By far the most significant contribution to the progressive media landscape came with Jon Stewartâs Daily Show , which averaged 1
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