Connecticut
Post posts about what is happening in the State of Connecticut.
The rebirth of Democratic Politics
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/05/2006 - 12:04Are 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.
The Lamont Local
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 02/02/2006 - 10:25(Cross posted at My Left Nutmeg)
Yesterday, I had the honor of being Ned Lamont’s driver as he went to the Greenwich and Norwalk DFA Meetups. It helps that my wife is helping out in Ned’s campaign office and that she is also helping run the Greenwich Meetup.
Greenwich hasn’t had a Meetup in quite a while, and various people wanted to get the Meetup going again. There were probably about fifteen people that showed up, and Ned gave his proto-stump speech. He spoke about being a newspaper reporter up in Vermont when he was young, and learning to ask the hard questions. He spoke about building his own business and how he had to use those same questioning skills in building the company and he spoke about how our elected officials have not been asking the sort of questions that needed to be asked at the start up of the Iraq war or during confirmation debates in the Senate. He was well received, but I needed to whisk him off to the Norwalk Meetup so there wasn’t a lot of time for discussion.
Blogging the Lamont Gathering in New Haven
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 01/28/2006 - 18:20This morning, many of us went to hear Ned Lamont address a group of potential supporters at the New Haven Public Library. Early on, I counted over 70 people and quite a few people showed up after I counted, so my guess is that we really had between 80 and 100 people there.
Quite a few bloggers where there. BranfordBoy from My Left Nutmeg was there. He put up this diary. BranfordBoy also posted about it in a DailyKos diary
Town Committee Politics
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 01/24/2006 - 10:31(Originally published at My Left Nutmeg)
In the comments to a blog post over on Connecticut Local Politics, there has been a lively discussion about the decline in party politics. BDRubenstein888 commented on the importance of the State Party in the delegate selection process and his great honor and privilege of having been a delegate to the National Convention.
The process of becoming a member of local town committees and becoming delegates to state and national conventions is one of the areas where local party politics retains importance. I’ve encouraged people to get involved with their Democratic town committees and we have just completed the caucus process. I was glad to see information on when town caucuses where, and reports of people joining their town committees. However the process still needs a lot more work.
The Ebola Metaphor
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 01/23/2006 - 14:09It is a rainy Monday morning and I’m sitting in a high school classroom at the New Haven Academy. I look at the red folding chairs sitting on a blue carpet. I look up at the ceiling tiles, the kind I’ve counted too often in various waiting rooms. Why am I here?
On the simplest level, I am here to see a performance of the 9th Grade Literature classes based on the book, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Yet I don’t know any of the students in the performance. I don’t live in New Haven. What has really brought me here?
