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The Hows of Political Activism at the Y
David Jacobson sneaked his way into politics – literally.
In 2000, he was working at a pharmaceutical company in Connecticut in his first job out of college, “very bored and not enjoying life,” he recalled. He woke up one morning to the news that then-Vice President Al Gore (D) had chosen Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (D) as his presidential running mate. Although he had never been interested in politics, Jacobson, who hails from Lieberman’s home town of Stamford, was astonished.
“I didn’t care a lick about politics before that happened,” Jacobson recalled recently in a downstairs lounge at the 92nd Street Y, where he works as an associate in the personal development and singles program. “But once it did, something happened to me. I said, ‘This is a special moment in history.’”
Jacobson, 29, learned of a Gore/Lieberman campaign event scheduled in Stamford for the next day. Though he was not invited, he knew he had to go.
“So I showed up to this event and I snuck in,” Jacobson said, smiling. “I had no business being there.”
He left the event several hours later with a job on Lieberman’s national advance staff, and spent the next several months crisscrossing the country in planes and motorcades, setting up campaign events.
“Just like that, my whole life changed,” he said. “I was suddenly into politics.”
After that campaign, he completed a Master’s program in Music and Entertainment in Business at New York University. He then joined former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s (D) 2004 presidential campaign after attending a boisterous rally for Dean in a Lower East Side bar.
His experiences and passion led him to create a three-part lecture series at the 92nd Street Y called “What One Person Can Do: Political Expression.” The series ran from Sept. 29 to Oct. 9 and included anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Becky Norton Dunlop of the Heritage Foundation, playwright Eve Ensler, political consultant and former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi, and New York Times letters editor Thomas Feyer and op-ed page editor David Shipley. Actress Susan Sarandon signed on, but had to back out because of scheduling conflicts.
Although Jacobson’s job does not involve organizing lectures, the idea for the series, which attracted around 1,200 people, came to him as soon as he arrived at the Y in March.
“When I got here I realized immediately the power of this place – the prestige and the reach this place has,” he explained. “I knew this was a wonderful opportunity to really push the idea of political expression.”
The series reflected his belief in the power of individual political expression, but was also born from frustration with friends and colleagues who complained about politics without getting actively involved.
The overall goal of the series was to educate people on diversifying political expression.
“I think we had people leave the lectures thinking they had a lot more options than they thought they did,” Jacobson said. “It was everything I could have asked for.”
The Y plans to continue the “What One Person Can Do” series under different themes, and Jacobson said he is considering organizing more lectures on political expression in the future.
As for his own political activism in the lead-up to the November elections, Jacobson said, “I think I’ve done about as much as one person can do.”