All posts by Max Berger

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This Is What Democracy Looks Like

This is going to be a series where we introduce the people who make up the campaign. Every staffer will explain a little about who they are, and why their involved in the campaign.

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Max Berger, and I’m currently working as Web Coordinator for Robert Rodriguez for Congress. I’m a 20 year-old college student dedicating my summer to helping a fantastic candidate (and a good friend) get elected to Congress. I’m what you could consider a “netroots Democrat.” I’ve been a daily blog reader since 2002, took time off school to work full-time for the Dean for America campaign in Burlington, and spent a summer at Media Matters. I want to share the story of how I came to be involved on this campaign, and why it matters so much to me.

I agreed to join the campaign because Robert was a colleague of mine on a previous campaign, and I was taken in by his thoughts on the need for real leadership in American politics. As young people (I’m 20, he is 28), we were frustrated the current political class almost pathologically inability to take the long view. Whether it’s the Democrats weakly voting for the war in Iraq for political reasons, or the Republicans greedily denying global warming because it didn’t fit their worldview, too few in DC today look past the current moment.

We see so little leadership on important issues facing America because that would require our leaders make personal sacrifices. Sacrifice is the antithetical to the current regime. As a young person, the inability of the “leadership” to use their position to invest in the future is a personal affront. Tax cuts in a time of war? Letting America fall behind Korea in broadband access? Continuing to under-fund No Child Left Behind? There was a time in American politics when people appreciated the sacrifices of previous generations and were willing to make similar sacrifices for future generations. Grand investments in the future of the nation from the GI Bill, to the Apollo program, to the interstate highway system form the basis of our present prosperity. And yet, no one in politics today even dreams of such things, because of the sacrifices of money and standing it might require. I wanted to work for a campaign that would provide leadership.

My involvement with the campaign started in early June when I drove down to Palmdale from Portland, Oregon. I got in at 8 pm after a full two days of driving and was excited to check out to my new digs and meet my new colleagues. I arrived to find a combination house/office that I have come to call “the compound.” We work upstairs and live downstairs. My colleagues were running around getting everything together for a big rally and press event the next day, making final touches, and rallying supporters to show up. I was thrown straight into the fray, making calls without even a moment to unload my car, or take a shower. I worked straight through until 2 am.

When I was done, I wondered to myself, “what the heck am I doing here?” I gave up my summer of chilling out with my friends and working a mindless job to slave away doing busy work in the middle of the desert? I had almost forgotten why I was involved before I even got started. Before I headed to bed I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. What I found changed my entire outlook on the campaign, and reminded me of why I was here. Robert, who had just finished a 15-hour workday, was mopping the kitchen floor. It hadn’t even occurred to him to ask someone else to do it. There was nothing he could have done that would have been more inspiring.

California

Where is Buck?

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(Buck never met an educational loan lobbyist he didn’t love – promoted by SFBrianCL)

This week student loan interest rates increased from 5.3% to 6.8% for students and from 6.1% to up to 8.5% for parents borrowing for their children. This will put student loan rates far above prevailing market interest rates. The rate hike will mean a nearly $13,000 increase in the total cost of college for each student in the district. Buck voted for the interest rate hike, and helped pass it as chairman of the education committee. You would expect that Buck would find a $13,000 tax increase on the cost of a college education important enough to explain to his constituents. Right?

      Buck’s Office on the Day of the Rate Increase

As it turns out, Buck didn’t think his rate increase was important enough to warrant returning home to his district. On the day the rate hike went into effect, Buck was nowhere to be found. No one in Buck’s office could tell us where he was. Why wasn’t Buck at home to explain how the rate hikes would benefit the people of the 25th district? Probably because the only people to benefit from the rate hike were student loan bankers handing out student loans. But why would Buck support student loan bankers instead of the students of his district? USNews and World Report says there are at least 262,000 reasons why.

While Buck was back in Washington D.C., Robert was busy gathering a group of us to canvass local colleges to urge students to consolidate their loans in advance of the rate hikes. The local media noticed the contrast.

We concluded the week’s events by joining a group of student supporters to protest the rate increases. Three local high school students gave fantastic speeches at Hart High School in Santa Clarita, calling on Congress to do more to make college affordable for all Americans. In a speech to the assembled supporters, Robert said that in today’s America access to an affordable education is the gateway to opportunity. He called on Buck to represent the people of the district, instead of big money.

After the speeches, the whole group of supporters went to Buck’s office to deliver him a bill in the amount that his rate increase would mean for the district. The total cost to the 2006 high school graduating class across the 25th district will exceed $40,000,000. Buck’s secretary graciously accepted the bill from us, in Buck’s absence. Students and parents of the district are still waiting on payment.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait another day to find out exactly where the Buck stops.