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This Speakout has not been edited.

By Jason Carter and Erin Egan

With the presidential race upon us and Colorado emerging once again as a critical battleground state, it won’t be long until politicians are at our doorsteps, on our television screens, and in our e-mail inboxes requesting donations. But Before we turn back to “politics as usual,” let’s consider taking a different path to a new type of politics: a politics of service.

Last Saturday, Colorado Democrats did exactly that. The Democratic National Committee called for a national day of service focused on taking action for a cleaner environment, and Colorado Democrats were among those answering that call. They helped The Park People secure commitments from Villa Park residents to care for trees donated by the City and County of Denver. Newly arrived members of the Democratic National Convention staff cleaned up and spread mulch in City Park. And across the country, Democratic volunteers gathered to clean up parks from Reno to Little Rock to Hastings, Nebraska.

Imagine if this were commonplace for our political parties. Imagine if instead of enlisting the rank and file by asking us for money, Democratic politicians mobilized volunteers to clean up parks and trails, supported the families of our deployed troops, provided school supplies for children in need and sponsored basketball tournaments.

Imagine if instead of asking us to sign a petition, Democratic political organizations joined us to make tangible contributions in our neighborhoods. Imagine if, when there is a critical need in a community, people could actually say, “call the Democrats, they always have people who can help.”

With so many politicians calling for a “new kind of politics” these days, it’s about time we talked about what this actually means. We believe that it means making service part of the DNA of political activism. It means putting our values into action, getting people involved, and getting our hands dirty. It means rewarding work over money, action over message and making a difference one community at a time.

Across the country this call to service is resonating, especially among young people. When Harvard researchers studied the participation of youth in politics and public service, it found 51 percent of all 18-24 year olds had volunteered for community service in the last year; just 19 percent participated in political activities other than voting. Maybe the lack of “political” participation of our young people has less to do with apathy and disinterest in the issues, and more to do with the state of our political process and the outlets we give them for engaging in it. We think it’s time we met them on their turf instead of trying to lure them into politics as usual.

Our organization, Democrats Work, is committed to a politics of service. Just this year in Colorado, we’ve worked with Democratic organizations to mobilize volunteers to tend to an open space and volunteer at a wellness fair in Broomfield, plant trees in Littleton, clean up parks and trails in Centennial and Aurora, and help a park ranger remove an old fence around the Arapahoe Reservoir. And the efforts by Colorado Democrats last Saturday continued a strong trend toward this new service-based approach.

Of course, Democratic voters and volunteers don’t have a monopoly on working hard for their communities. Imagine if future elections turned into a battle over which candidate’s volunteers did more for our communities or which party had been more responsive to neighborhood needs, instead of which candidate raised the most money and bought the most TV ads.

If Democrats keep putting our values into action in positive, tangible ways throughout the year, then come election time—when political action and attention again turns to our doorsteps, televisions and inboxes—the groundwork will already have been laid and the people will be ready to return the favor.

Jason Carter, a grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, is a co-founder of Democrats Work and serves on its board of directors; Erin Egan is the Colorado Director of Democrats Work.

READER COMMENTS

So they plant a few trees and do some clean up work.They are still racing to see who can raise the most money.

Nice publicity stunt though.

You can certainly affect their priorities, Dravur. Dems are starting to listen to their grassroots.

This is totally spot-on! Shouldn't we be more concerned with how active politicians are in our community than how much they can spend on television commercials?

And then, after they get fully into power can they then take your treasure, tell you how to live and run your lives.

Naw, don't think I'll drink the Kool-aid.

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