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Seven years ago this month, a dozen or so people and I attended one of the earliest Meetups for a virtually unknown (at the time) Presidential candidate named Howard Dean at Cafe Eclectic in Montclair. Ours was one of about a dozen in the state and one of hundreds taking place throughout the country. The Dean for America campaign and Howard Dean's four years as DNC Chairman established the foundation and set the standard for the kind of progressive grassroots organizing that made it possible for President Barack Obama to defeat both Hillary Clinton and John McCain in the 2008 Presidential election.
However, since President Obama's November 2008 victory, the Tea Party movement, angry, anti-government regressives, have appeared to become the most prominent grassroots organizing force in the country, although it is debatable how truly grassroots they are since much of its vision and voice seems to be coming from right-wing, Republican lobbyists like former Congressman, Dick Armey.
To provide a more rational, reasonable, and thoughtful alternative to the Tea Partiers, a new, progressive grassroots effort, The Coffee Party Movement, will be returning to Cafe Eclectic and hundreds of other locations (see list of NJ locations below the fold) nationwide on Saturday, March 13 to start a conversation about the role that government can and must play in American society and how liberals, moderates, and conservatives can work together to create a consensus and advocate for it with their elected officials.
I would like to personally invite the leaders and members of the existing progressive grassroots organizations in New Jersey and the Blue Jersey community as a whole to join us on this day to share your experience, insight, and wisdom with many people who, like some of us seven years ago, are becoming politically active for the first time in their lives. I also believe that many of the participants would be very interested to learn more about Blue Jersey and what the progressive community of New Jersey in general is doing.
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