AND NOW...

The Democratic Convention is over. We have celebrated and congratulated; applauded and lauded; extolled and feted. Rightly so, we have let our hopes become tears of joy and our dreams become giddy dances. Whether slow smiles or exuberant high fives, we passed through a moment in history with the pleasure of the long denied, the satisfaction of a long sought goal won. A woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is a Presidential nominee.

And now...

Now we go back to work, for this has merely been half time. A time out in the tough work of moving our country forward and letting Hillary lead us on that path. Time out in the race to add enough votes to make the final score a win.

So for every pull on your heart of deep seated pleasure this week, do these things.

Register to vote if you have not. Be sure you know when, where and how to cast your vote. Learn the rules. Next, register others. Hand them the materials. Family. Friends. Everyone. Take them to sign up. Buy them coffee and ask them to help too.

Find the Clinton headquarters in your town. Volunteer. Put up signs. Go door-to-door. Make phone calls. Text, tweet and Instagram. Talk to your neighbors. Have friends to coffee.

Go to www.HillaryClinton.com  Donate. Then donate again. Sign up to volunteer. Make phone calls. Donate.

On election day; vote, make calls, drive voters to the polls.

Work every day until the election because that's what it will take.

The work is not done. The game is not over. The prize is not won.
It takes a village.

DEAR TRUMP PROTESTORS

Dear Trump Protesters:

I get it. I really do; both the anti-Trump gut-wrenching feeling and the need to DO something. In my opinion Trump is a malignant narcissist and as President would bring this country to its knees. And protesting? Been there in every decade since the sixties.

Yet this time, there is an action you can take that would really make a difference, not just make a public spectacle. Even better this plan is peaceful, democratic and, best of all, likely to actually defeat Trump. You see, protesting, even peacefully, feeds Trump's inherent narcissism. Less than peaceful protests let both Trump supporters, and others, hear the destruction and miss the message.

So I propose you still gather (call it a protest if you wish) outside Trump events. But instead of shouting slogans, waving signs and risking out of control behavior by even a few errant protestors -  register voters. This seems simple and for some the work of election democracy is not nearly as glamorous as the chanting, waving, media attention grabbing protest. However, if you truly want to stop Trump, then it is the ballot box which is the final barrier. If Trump breaches the ballot box, all the protest in the world will be useless.

Try this three step program instead:

First, learn how to register in your state. Know the rules backward and forward and upside down. (You are registered, aren't you?)

Second, register everyone you see protesting Trump. (If they are protesting and are not registered to vote, shame on them!) If you can, give out registration cards, wait as they are filled out and turn them in. Bring a registrar if possible. If voters must register in person at a specific place, make sure that complete voter registration information is on a handy, small card you an give out. Hand them out by the thousands; including before and after any rally. And do the same any place where people gather. Offer rides. Go along. Buy coffee.

Third, join your local democratic campaign. Workers who will register voters, go door-to-door, make phone calls, stuff envelopes, put up yard signs and dozens of other tasks are always needed. Glamour? No. Effective? Yes.

Elections are not won by crowds, either at rallies or in protests, but by voters who actually vote on election day. Never lose sight of that fact.

RESPECT

You may have played fair last night, but you didn't play smart. There's lots of talk about how Hillary Clinton will need Bernie Sanders supporters in the fall so she should be careful not to alienate them. It does not seem to have occurred to Sanders supporters that if he wins the nomination, the reverse will be true - perhaps more so - for him. Last night was your chance and you blew it.

I'll give you that the physical layout wasn't helpful in clarifying that we are all one party. Sitting on opposite sides of the gym made it feel like a football pep rally and you responded in kind. Running up and down the sidelines prompting the wave, cheers and foot stomping before we began was a nice display of electoral enthusiasm (that is what it was, right?), but not once, then or later, did any Sanders backer cheer our party, our unity.

And once the caucus started, it was clear you were there to demonstrate not caucus. You see, a caucus rather than a more traditional primary vote, is used when a party actually wants to achieve unity. Note I did not say consensus. Yes, we vote and the Sanders turnout was overwhelming and clear from the beginning. But the whole point of a caucus is to discuss the candidates and for each to try and persuade the other that they have the better candidate. At the very least to educate. Vote Blue, No Matter Who is more than a slogan. And if we can't talk to and persuade each other, how the hell are we going to win an election that depends entirely on persuading less involved and less sympathetic voters?

Those who spoke for Sanders did not even turn in our direction, used pep rally speech rather than persuasion and never recognized that the goal was to bring us together in common cause. Pumping up the already committed is for Sanders rallies, caucuses have a very different goal. No Sanders speaker indicated they would be behind whichever candidate won the nomination.

As a Clinton supporter, I did not expect to win the vote last night. But I did expect to be respected. When our speakers turn came they faced hoots, hollers, boos and derision. It felt like a Trump rally.

If you are a Sanders supporter who was present last night, why should you care? You "won". Here's why. While I may not believe you will get the nomination, you clearly believe so. And if that happened, you need us. The caucus was your chance to show us how we would be treated in a Sanders campaign; to persuade us that he was worth not just our vote, but our efforts. Because here is the dirty little secret of political campaigns...they are damned hard work and take every one's top effort.

You know the 300 of you last night? In order to win in November, EACH of you will need to contact, persuade, convince and convert about 30 more people. At least. Not just friends, not those who are already on board. They don't count in your total. Once the Convention is over in July you will give up your summer and fall, you holidays and weekends, your sports, your family outings and you will work. Unglamorous work this is; a phone to your ear, door-to-door, begging for money and votes, early mornings and late nights, side by side with those who may have initially backed a different candidate. And then you will have to do it all over again on election day to get each of those voters to the polls. For the many of you who caucused with us because you are in school here, but do not actually live here...will you be back to help not just the top of the ticket, but all those local candidates you barely acknowledged last night?

I've spent the better part of the last month promoting the Vote Blue No Matter Who movement. In nearly fifty years of campaigns, caucuses and conventions, I've always understood that in the end we needed to be united behind whichever candidate prevailed; to work willingly and unceasingly on their behalf in the election. But I left the caucus last night feeling terribly disrespected and in doubt about how I could possibly vote for Bernie. Enthusiasm cannot substitute for respect for the process and the other participants.