I’ve been watching various people announce their candidacy for president. My thoughts have ranged from “Interesting” to “Oh for pete’s sake, sit down...we don’t need any more old white men running for president” to “I really hope so and so runs”.  It seems like there is not shortage of political candidates. But one national office is not an indicator of the political vibrancy of the nation.

A few days ago, I got my local sample ballot.  Nearly half of the elected positions had only one candidate on the ballot.  One had zero candidates. We do have a shortage of candidates.

What happens if the number of candidates running for office continues to dwindle?  Is it really an election if most of the offices only have one candidate? Where are the people willing to run for school boards, library boards, city clerks, roads commissioners, mayors, city council members?  Our government requires participation of of the people - both to be candidates and to be voters.

Beyond politics, our communities need participation. Our organizations need participation. Specifically, Coffee Party USA needs your participation.

To achieve our mission of empowering and connecting communities to reclaim our government for the people, Coffee Party needs people who are willing to participate in their communities.  We need people willing to run for local offices, state offices, national offices. We need people willing to vote. We need people willing to volunteer. We need people willing to lead.  We need you.

So I ask: how will you participate?  I invite you to post your ideas about civic participation in the comments section.  I dare you to encourage and engage civilly.

Coffee Party on, my friends!

Heather