Previously:

Have camera, will travel (November 12, 2013)

KC Meetup: November 16.. You WANT to be here. (November 7, 2013) [Daily Kos]

Kansas City Kossack Meetup: this Saturday! 11/16 (November 14, 2013) [Daily Kos]

Yesterday evening, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., twenty-five Kansas City area political activists and denizens of Daily Kos met at the Marriott in Overland Park, Kansas for a discussion of the political world and to share their political experiences.

Our Kansas City – Daily Kos meetup organizer and host – tmservo433.

After food, a brief slide presentation documenting the foibles of right wingnut office holders in Missouri and Kansas, and presentations from two 2014 Kansas campaigns, participants engaged in a wide ranging discussion of their campaign experiences and the political landscape in Missouri and Kansas for 2014 and beyond.

There were a number of new faces (to us) and several old friends going back ten years to Howard Dean’s presidential campaign.

There was commentary on the relative effectiveness and value of get out the vote efforts (phones, door to door, voter registration) and the perceived priorities of centralized/coordinated statewide/national campaigns. It came down to – keep it local, register voters, identify your voters, and drag their sorry asses to the polls on Election Day.

As with anyone who has been active in campaigns over the years there were numerous (and cautionary) horror stories as well as a a few positive ones. The work isn’t done. It never will be.

There was also a significant amount of discussion about engaging office holders and documenting and holding them accountable in their public forums. In the world of the Internets and social media triangulation by the current crop of right wingnuts in office is becoming increasingly difficult for them to pull off. It’s not so easy for them to cater to their restive teabagger base.

Jen Hayden [center], a Daily Kos contributing editor.

Jen Hayden, a Daily Kos contributing editor attended the meetup. In the small world department we sat next to each other in the press pen for then presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama’s speech on patriotism in Independence, Missouri on June 30, 2008.

June 30, 2008 – Scout Finch [Jen Hayden] displays a photo of then candidate Senator

Barack Obama taken from the rope line after his speech on patriotism in Independence, Missouri.

That seems like centuries ago. Yeah, and we’re all still here.