To wrap up one of the wildest years in the history of the United States, I’m happy to bring to you a conversation I recorded with three of the most influential grassroots activists in Ulster county, New York—Kelleigh McKenzie, Lin Sakai, and Amy Fradon.

This episode is a sequel to my earlier one in which I interviewed Eitan Hersh, author of Politics is for Power, and discussed how political hobbyism where people are engaged only through social media, mostly on national issues, is actually hurting our political system and our society by exacerbating the polarization. In today’s conversation, we show what a real political engagement looks like.

Kelleigh is a musician who turned her passion for justice into being a full fledged political operative. After serving in a campaign to save a local movie theater and helping her friend in a town supervisor race, she became involved with a local grassroots group Ulster for Bernie in 2015 and became Sanders’ delegate in 2016 at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

The bittersweet ascent and loss of Bernie Sanders candidacy only fueled Kelleigh’s desire for change, and she plunged right into the belly of the beast, becoming a member of the New York State Democratic Committee in 2016, and in September of this year, she was elected as a chair of the Ulster County Democratic Committee, where she has already introduced many reforms to make the process more transparent and open.

Lin Sakai cut her political teeth in Obama’s 2008 campaign, becoming his delegate that year and also in 2012. Ever since then, she’s been a vocal advocate for various local issues in ulster county including healthcare, pipeline construction, and election processes. Although she has been a member of the Democratic committees, she sees her role as more of an outsider pressuring the elected officials to honor the interests of their constituents.

Amy Fradon leads an innovative program called Neighbor to Neighbor, in which she instructs a team of volunteers to engage in relational canvassing. This program has shown remarkable results in voter turnout and building a solid and meaningful network of voters as neighbors and friends, that outlasts a single election season and provides a living platform for engagement.

Host: Keiko Sono