We have started our long walk across New Hampshire this morning, beginning our two week journey across 185 miles. Along the way, we will be recruiting citizens of New Hampshire into joining our #NHRebellion.
The point of the walk is to focus the citizens of New Hampshire on the system of corruption in D.C., so that they in turn will focus the candidates in 2016 on this system of corruption as well. We will be asking people from across the state to ask the candidates they will inevitably meet over the next two years: “How will you end this system of corruption in D.C.?” The hope is that if New Hampshire makes this an issue, it will become an issue for the nation as well.
Today is also the anniversary of Aaron Swartz’s death — and we chose this date in order to remember him.
We begin at the place the first ballots of the 2016 election will be cast. And on January 24 — the day Granny D was born — we will end with a party in Nashua. In between, we will have as many conversations with as many people as we can about the work Granny D started, and how we can now complete it.
We want to thank those of you who are helping with this project.
You may, of course ask: Why would we walk for two weeks in the freezing winter of New Hampshire?
Because we need to do something extraordinary to get people to realize that while they may be difficult, extraordinary things are not impossible.
We’ve heard the claims of almost every “expert” that “ordinary Americans don’t care about this issue.” That Americans, with a million other concerns, work hard to ignore all things political.
We need to understand how to make this issue compelling to everyone, and do so face to face. We are absolutely convinced that we must find a way to rally America to this cause. And we know that in order to do so, we need to learn how to better talk with Americans about this cause.
So that’s what we will be doing. We will have a number of events across the state. But the most important part will be the informal conversations and what it will teach us. This is not a campaign of information - it’s a campaign of conversation. We need to learn from everyone who we can talk with about how to make this issue important in the minds of the New Hampshire and American voter. And we thank you for your help in making it possible.