Chicago native William “Upski” Wimsatt is tapping into angry 18- to 35-year-olds with the League of Pissed Off Voters, a grass-roots group organizing to get progressive candidates into office.
Rather than just getting people to the polls, the League of Pissed Off Voters is working to build power at the local level. Young progressives have the power to really shake things up, Wimsatt said, because people aren’t counting on them to make a difference.
“It takes everyone by surprise because no one is prepared for a whole bunch of rowdy young people to have a sophisticated voting strategy and to show up on Election Day,” he said.
The idea behind the League is to organize voter blocks built around what young people care about–the economy, people they know getting sent to Iraq, the rising cost of college tuition–and ultimately to swing elections. Young people are already organizing events–hip-hop concerts, art shows– and they can simply apply what they know about that to the political process, he said. Voter blocks can be formed by holding political-discussion brunches, having parties and taking advantage of other social occasions to talk politics with friends.
“We’re finding out it’s not rocket science,” Wimsatt said. “If you can throw a party, you can organize a voter block, and you can get someone in office who represents you.”
Wimsatt, who grew up in Hyde Park, heads the nationwide organization, made up of state Pissed Off Voters chapters, in New York.
He wrote the book “Bomb the Suburbs” and co-authored “How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office.”
The group’s Web site, www.indyvoter.org, has tips on how to get involved for wannabe organizers and voters.
The Chicago chapter of the group, called the Chicago League of Young Voters, is working to get information into the hands of young people so they can make informed choices about voting in the upcoming election.
The group’s been spreading its message by graffiti in some neighborhoods (encouraging people to call friends in the swing states) and meeting to decide how best to reach young people.
Breeze Luetke-Stahlman, who’s helping to organize the chapter, said there isn’t one main issue or demographic group. The thing that unites them is their anger about the state of the government today.
“They’re so pissed off about the state of things they’re willing to figure out how the hell to do something about it. Not participating is not an option,” Luetke-Stahlman said.
