since i'm a relatively busy guy who doesn't have a lot of free time to spend hours or days doing research, i asked my friend Dan Ancona to round up some online political resources for me. being a champ, Dan put together the following guide, which is posted here in hopes that somebody will stumble across it in a Google search or something. should you be interested in corresponding with the author, email him at dan at vizbang dot com.

The Busy Person's Guide to Political Engagement

what to do

• get seriously involved in something
• assuage guilt at lack of involvement by giving money [1]
• read (and listen to Air America & watch c-span)
• sign up for email action alerts & give them the clicky clicky [2]
• be happy & have more fun than the other side

who to give money to

• progressive offense [3]
  national
  • http://democracyforamerica.com/
  • http://www.americanprogress.org/
  statewide (CA)
  • http://www.powerpac.org/
  • http://speakoutcalifornia.org/
• Democratic Party (not the Greens [4])
  • http://democrats.org/democracybonds.html
• candidates, esp. nonlocal
  • http://actblue.com/ (contribution aggregator)
  • http://www.angelides.com/
• progressive defense
  • moveon, esp. (some of) their ad campaigns
• single-issue progressive groups & charities
  • these are not what need the most help right now

what to read

• blogs
  national
  • http://dailykos.com/
  • http://washingtonmonthly.com/
  • http://www.thinkprogress.org/
  • http://www.tpmcafe.com/
  • http://www.prospect.org/weblog/
  • http://mediamatters.org/ (right wing truth squad)
• statewide (CA)
  • http://rtumble.com/ (statewide news aggregator)
  • speakoutca.org's blog (coming soon)
  • http://www.powerpac.org/ublog/index.asp?archivio=OK
• local (San Francisco)
  • http://www.sfusualsuspects.com/
• books
  • there's lots of progressive reading lists floating around but I'll try to put one together at some point too
• magazines
  • American Prospect
  • the Nation (which I find it too tweaky, but ymmv)

who to get involved with [5]

• progressive offense
  • powerpac meeting coming up soon, see site for details
  • probably others here that I'm missing
• campaigns [6]
• local/state party [7]

notes

[1] The best thing is for you to get involved in some significant way: pick an organization and make a serious and long term time commitment to it. Or read a lot, then write lots of things and get them published - we need more writers, we're losing the war of ideas. If you can't do that, you should feel just awful - I mean, your inaction is hurting our country. You, personally, are letting the terrorists win. The good news is that you can alleviate your guilt completely by making painfully large donations to the organization of your choice. Seriously, making this time vs. money tradeoff is totally OK.

[2] Sign up for and send e-mail action alerts. Compared to how little time these things take, they actually do make a difference. This is more true at the state & local level than nationally. Jen & I have both seen this work from the inside, it really is true. If representatives get a lot of mail about something, it does get on their radar and/or affect how they're inclined to vote on it. You can also sign up for bad guy action alerts & then write your own positive letter - I do this all the time with Focus on the Family, an arch-conservate wacko group that I monitor.

[3] What the world needs the most right now is generalized progressive organizations - our single-issue focus has only taken us so far, we're not presenting a coherent worldview to the electorate. I've divided these up into two rough categories: offense and defense. The orgs playing offense are juuust starting to come on line now and boy howdy do they need money, especially from lots and lots of small donors. The Republicans have a 40 year and several billion dollar head start on us in this category.

[4] Perhaps unfortunately, we also need a party, and that party has to be the Democrats. I'd be happy to discuss the Greens vs. Democrats issue with anyone in person - sorry, but my wrists just aren't up for it on email or on chat. The short answer is that the Democrats already are the closest thing the good guys have to a winning coaltion, and the Greens literally do not exist outside of CA. For a slightly longer answer, go here...

http://da.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/4/15714/84439

Seriously, I don't mean to hurt your feelings if you are still a Green. I was for along time too, but I'm utterly convinced that the Green party is not helpful for where we are at right now. If you don't want to just take my word for it, fine, drag my ass over to Zeitgeist put a beer in me and lets get into it.

[5] I put getting involved last since I'm pretty much assuming that if you're reading this, you don't have time to do this. But if you do, even just a little, there are things you can do. But keep in mind that as great as volunteering is, we need as many professionals doing this as possible, and that takes money.

[6] Campaigns always need help. What they need the most, always, is people willing to talk to people (aka "voter contact"). That means making phone calls and knocking on doors. It's the hardest thing to do on campaigns, but it's the thing that makes the most difference. If you want to volunteer for a campaign, volunteer for that.

[7] We got really involved in the local party in Santa Barbara. It is ... difficult. The best two word description I can think of would probably be "snake den," and I wouldn't be suprised if it's much, much worse here. It is fun in a way but it's a big commitment, almost as big of a commitment as running for an open office. Jen & I would be happy to sit down & tell you everything we know & point you in the right direction, if you're interested.