Then there's ACORN. This excellent organization of low-income folks has long been known for its grass-roots ingenuity in mobilizing previously powerless people into potent players in local politics -- and this year it has become the National Champion of new-voter registration. In a phenomenal organizing feat, ACORN has enlisted more than a million low-income working people onto America's voter rolls.

Going door to door -- as well as to working-class shopping centers, street festivals, hip-hop concerts, naturalization ceremonies and other high-traffic areas -- ACORN members took their clipboards into communities that have traditionally been left out of the process and ignored by both major parties. Its effort is particularly significant in the battleground states -- for example, it has signed up more than 187,000 new registrants in Florida, 158,000 in Ohio, and 120,000 in Pennsylvania.

Not only are they registering new voters, but ACORN's members live in these communities, and they'll mount a massive get-out-the-vote program on Election Day, based not on cold, automated phone calls, but on personal follow-up.

And how about Leave No Voter Behind. This is a dramatic electoral project by the MoveOn Pac. They have trained a skilled democratic army of 500 organizers to go into the key battleground states, working with 10,000 MoveOn precinct leaders to recruit tens of thousands of local volunteers. All of this is designed to reach out -- neighbor-to-neighbor, the most effective voter contact there is -- to people in their communities who otherwise are not likely to vote.

Their goal is not merely registration and GOTV (get out the vote) -- but specifically to produce 440,000 new voters for Kerry, votes he otherwise would not get!

MoveOn also is using its pioneering Internet techniques to empower ordinary people in do-it-yourself democracy. An example is its revolution in phone banking -- instead of having to gather callers into a room with banks of phones, anyone can play at any time. MoveOn is organizing a Get Out the Vote Phone Party, urging people to gather in living rooms with their cellphones to call swing-state voters on Election Day. If you've got a free moment, you can call an 800 number, enter an I.D., hear the message of the day, and be connected to a potential, undecided voter in a given state within seconds. "There is a feeling you have to tie people's shoes for them," says MoveOn's 24-year-old director Eli Pariser. "But politics does not require any special skill aside from those required in any social engagement."

And, of course, there's the organizational muscle of organized labor. This year, we've seen a sea change in the union approach to presidential campaigns. Rather than simply sending money to the parties and accepting marching orders from the candidates, the most active unions are running their own, independent campaigns ... and getting results. For months, unions like AFSCME, SEIU, the Steelworkers and the AFL-CIO have been training their members and dispersing them into battleground states.

They go with many specific goals and are held accountable for them. SEIU alone has 50,000 members volunteering a million hours to knock on 10 million doors and make 7 million phone calls. It has tapped more than 2,000 of its members from California and other "safe states" to work full-time in the swing states.

More than a fourth of all voters in 2000 came from union households. Not only are unions working to increase their own turnout this time, but they're also walking their neighborhoods in an effective labor-to-neighbor program to spread the word about working-class issues. It's a spirited and successful effort. An AP story in August featured John Fretter, a construction worker in Erie, Penn. He led a walk in a neighborhood that used to be a Polish enclave, but now is multiethnic. "This is the American dream we're walking through," Fretter said. "I love meeting people."

There are so many more efforts, nearly all unnoticed by the media powers. There's the League of Rural Voters (especially active in Iowa and Minnesota, where they're going farm-to-farm), Voter Virgin (targeting first-time young voters with the slogan "Everybody's Doing It in '04" and advising them to practice safe voting), Wellstone Action (conducting a terrific series of trainings for grass-roots organizers and candidates), Punkvoter, MustVote, Next Wave of Women in Power, and on and on.

The grass roots are aflame with organizing, and the organizing is not merely about Kerry and '04.

Various groups are recruiting, training and backing strong progressives running for local, state and national offices. Howard Dean's new Democracy for America organization is supporting more than 200 former Deaniacs running for office this year, including House and Senate candidates. Many are expected to win this time, while many of the others are part of a long-term effort to develop grass-roots political talent (both candidates and campaign organizers) and to build a progressive base.

Two other groups are focused on creating a "farm team" of "movement progressives." Progressive Majority is currently working with about 100 candidates it has recruited and trained to run for local and state offices in '04 and '06. One of its primary goals is to build progressive majorities in 15 state legislatures by 2011, when those states will redraw the lines for congressional districts. "We're investing in people as opposed to specific races for offices," says one of P.M.'s state directors. "We take the time to work with candidates so that, even if they don't win, they're building the skills and name recognition to groom them for future races. We're interested in building a long-term movement."

Likewise, 21st Century Democrats is out there building the political infrastructure to elect true progressives. It has trained 2,200 campaign organizers this year. In Oregon, for example, nine of its organizers have recruited 15 community organizers, who then coordinate the work of 10 neighborhood volunteers, each of whom is in contact with 80 voters. The director of 21st Century Dems says, "We are focused on what really wins elections -- direct personal contact with voters, front-porch politicking."

Not only is there good reason to be optimistic about Nov. 2, but in the long haul it's only going to get better, for people are on the move at America's grass roots.

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