I am profoundly grateful for your writing and your work, which is both contemplative and specific. I may well have found this article through you, but just in case I did not, wanted to post here, where I think it'll find resonance among your readers. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/demoralized-mind/
Well, I've been doing my part in letting the Dems know how annoying their email approach is. When an individual politician (more than one) sends a really obnoxious email, I unsubscribe from their emails. Many of these have the audacity to ask you why you're unsubscribing.
My answer: I have received over 8,000 political emails since a month after the insurrection. How about I print them all out and send them to you.. Any more questions?
But the email problem would solve itself if the progressives managed their fund-raising in a way that is less painful than receiving what amounts to dunning emails from a lot of political stakeholders: politicians, pacs, orgs.
Bernie showed that it was possible to run a campaign without corporate money. The excitement over his running was such that peopled were *thrilled* - literally - to donate to Bernie. But in trying to copy Bernie, they didn't pay attention to some realities, like:
with a few exceptions everyone who donated to Bernie could vote for Bernie in the primaries.
Bernie's emails were professionally written, intelligent, never tried to manipulate the reader
I was on Daily Kos with other progressives until Kos decided Bernie supporters could not talkwrite about Bernie. But before a goodly number of us ditched Daily Kos, we would talk about our giving to Bernie with excitement. When I told a group I interacted with daily, that I had answered Bernie's call to max out my annual donation for a planned step-up in media use, and that I was using my annual RMD from my IRA account to max out, before cheering what I did, they expressed concern about whether I could afford that. But when I assured them that everything was ok, there was an outpouring of digital glee at my decision.
Unfortunately, when you try to use this method of fund-raising, politician by separate politician. And you can't afford gifted writers, and you have to rely on the seedy, sleazy, methods of mass-emailing outfits - and you are emailing all over the country when you are actually running in your small, little district, and you are emailing anywhere from two times a day to whatever your push number is for a given day, - It doesn't occur to you that you're wearing out your welcome?
There's an answer to all this: The progressives aka the CPC (or some other organization like Our Revolution) manage the long-distance fundraising. How I envision this: in each federal election year (presidential/midterms) a roster is created of all the progressive candidates running for election/re-election. Each progressive voter interested in donating fills out their form. Progressive voters can have a choice of how they donate. For instance, in an election like this year's where I have absolutely NO progressive candidate I can vote for, I would elect to donate to the collective pot based on my ability to donate. However, I might also decide to support worthy but embattled candidates, such as Raphael Warnock or Tim Ryan or John Fetterman and give them a regular amt in addition to the general distribution. Normally, I would stop there. But because the CPC, in its wisdom, chose to support Shontel Brown (who votes against progressive issues 80% of the time) over Nina Turner, I would want to opportunity to *exclude* certain politicians.
Instead of millions of emails going out with phony polls and petitions, the candidates are spending the time they should working among their hoped for constituency. So instead of 8,000+ emails to each individual, The people running the fundraising would send out a monthly update of how the campaigns are going. There can be a few emails when there's a particular need. But the progressive electorate will not be driven out of their minds, and maybe the joy of contributing to the success of the progressives will mirror what we felt when supporting Bernie.
I realize that trying to replicate Bernie's donation methods to an entire group is not the easiest thing, but give it to someone who is good at organizing and computer skilled, and you set up a different situation where politicians are not enraging the very people they want to vote for them.
I am profoundly grateful for your writing and your work, which is both contemplative and specific. I may well have found this article through you, but just in case I did not, wanted to post here, where I think it'll find resonance among your readers. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/demoralized-mind/
Great piece on democracy centers. Thanks!
Well, I've been doing my part in letting the Dems know how annoying their email approach is. When an individual politician (more than one) sends a really obnoxious email, I unsubscribe from their emails. Many of these have the audacity to ask you why you're unsubscribing.
My answer: I have received over 8,000 political emails since a month after the insurrection. How about I print them all out and send them to you.. Any more questions?
But the email problem would solve itself if the progressives managed their fund-raising in a way that is less painful than receiving what amounts to dunning emails from a lot of political stakeholders: politicians, pacs, orgs.
Bernie showed that it was possible to run a campaign without corporate money. The excitement over his running was such that peopled were *thrilled* - literally - to donate to Bernie. But in trying to copy Bernie, they didn't pay attention to some realities, like:
with a few exceptions everyone who donated to Bernie could vote for Bernie in the primaries.
Bernie's emails were professionally written, intelligent, never tried to manipulate the reader
I was on Daily Kos with other progressives until Kos decided Bernie supporters could not talkwrite about Bernie. But before a goodly number of us ditched Daily Kos, we would talk about our giving to Bernie with excitement. When I told a group I interacted with daily, that I had answered Bernie's call to max out my annual donation for a planned step-up in media use, and that I was using my annual RMD from my IRA account to max out, before cheering what I did, they expressed concern about whether I could afford that. But when I assured them that everything was ok, there was an outpouring of digital glee at my decision.
Unfortunately, when you try to use this method of fund-raising, politician by separate politician. And you can't afford gifted writers, and you have to rely on the seedy, sleazy, methods of mass-emailing outfits - and you are emailing all over the country when you are actually running in your small, little district, and you are emailing anywhere from two times a day to whatever your push number is for a given day, - It doesn't occur to you that you're wearing out your welcome?
There's an answer to all this: The progressives aka the CPC (or some other organization like Our Revolution) manage the long-distance fundraising. How I envision this: in each federal election year (presidential/midterms) a roster is created of all the progressive candidates running for election/re-election. Each progressive voter interested in donating fills out their form. Progressive voters can have a choice of how they donate. For instance, in an election like this year's where I have absolutely NO progressive candidate I can vote for, I would elect to donate to the collective pot based on my ability to donate. However, I might also decide to support worthy but embattled candidates, such as Raphael Warnock or Tim Ryan or John Fetterman and give them a regular amt in addition to the general distribution. Normally, I would stop there. But because the CPC, in its wisdom, chose to support Shontel Brown (who votes against progressive issues 80% of the time) over Nina Turner, I would want to opportunity to *exclude* certain politicians.
Instead of millions of emails going out with phony polls and petitions, the candidates are spending the time they should working among their hoped for constituency. So instead of 8,000+ emails to each individual, The people running the fundraising would send out a monthly update of how the campaigns are going. There can be a few emails when there's a particular need. But the progressive electorate will not be driven out of their minds, and maybe the joy of contributing to the success of the progressives will mirror what we felt when supporting Bernie.
I realize that trying to replicate Bernie's donation methods to an entire group is not the easiest thing, but give it to someone who is good at organizing and computer skilled, and you set up a different situation where politicians are not enraging the very people they want to vote for them.