Are we seeing a rebirth of Democratic politics in the United States? I think so, I believe so, and I will do all I can to help make this happen. I’ve been reading Robert Putnam’s, Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community. His portrayal of the collapse of American community, especially as it relates to the political process is disheartening.

Yet more recently, The Pew Internet & American Life report on The Strength of Internet Ties provides a more promising outlook. “The internet and email aid users in maintaining their social networks and provide pathways to help when people face big decisions”. One such big decision can be deciding to become involved in the American political process.

Currently, there is a growing number of blogs encouraging people to get more involved in politics. On one blog a person recently commented, “i'm fairly disconnected to the local scene, alas… but this ned lamont thing is probably going to push me over the edge into getting involved in local politics.”

For those who haven’t been reading some of my other posts, Ned Lamont is a successful Connecticut businessman who is investigating a run against Senator Lieberman. I’ve met Ned many times and I will work on his Internet strategy.

In the discussion that follows, another person commented, “The school system and Board of Education is how most aspiring politicians start their political career.” However, she didn’t have kids in the school system and didn’t get involved. She went on to describe getting so angry over the presidential election in 2000 that she just showed up at a congressional campaign. She is now secretary of the Democratic Town Committee where she lives.

Yesterday, Massachusetts had statewide caucuses to select delegates to the State Convention. The Deval Patrick campaign made big efforts to get volunteers involved in the caucuses. Reports are that Patrick wins big among delegates, In caucus, leads Reilly almost 2-1. The article mentions that about 35,000 Democrats participated in the local meetings around the state.

The Deval Patrick website reports, “We had a goal of bringing in new people to the campaign and people who had checked out of the political process, and all reports we're getting indicate we've done that with hundreds if not thousands of new people from across Massachusetts.”

It is my hope that the Ned Lamont campaign can do the same thing for Connecticut. Lots of people are signing up from across the state and hopefully they will join the person mentioned above as people bringing about a new burst of Democratic activism.

Yes, some of them will be people that have been inspired to get involved in politics by others. Some of them were inspired by Gov. Dean, others by Eugene McCarthy, and others by Adlai Stevenson.

Whatever the inspiration, this new burst of excitement about the Democratic process will help not only Ned Lamont, but it will be a great boon to other candidates, like Diane Farrell, Joe Courtney, as well as whomever ends up being the candidate from the 5th CD and the gubernatorial candidate.

So, please, stop by and sign up to help Ned Lamont’s campaign. Sign up for the congressional campaigns. Sign up for the Gubernatorial campaigns. Get involved with State Representative races. Let’s all participate in the rebirth of Democratic politics in Connecticut.