Everyone's 2022 election crystal ball is blurry, plus why I suspect the Democrats' apparent advantage in digital organizing is overstated. Also, about the punches that Nancy Pelosi pulled.
I am so appreciative of this newsletter; based on your recommendation, I even participated in a Beta-test with the Unified App. :) If I have one impact on this earth before I go, it might be to pull out and amplify the most important sentence in this post, as I see it: "It's somewhat astounding how much attention we give to these tactics compared to how little we talk about face-to-face voter engagement—which is the most effective way of earning a vote—or year-round community organizing."
If you ever want to host a call focusing on building out our "army" (for lack of a better word) of year-round targeted door-knocking, I would be there in a heartbeat. In a world awash with slide-off-the-wall "impressions," the ONLY real path to meaningful rehabilitation of our society (much less healed politics), as I see it, is an intentional reinvigoration of the face-to-face connection. This is very different from "normal canvassing," which leaves people stone-cold and possibly more turned off than they already were; real curiosity, real listening, and real questions are the most underutilized resource available to humanity.
A couple terms on the left are popularized in a way that doesn't sit as right with me, I wonder if it's the case for others?
The term "digital organizing" is such a disappointing (and confusing) one to me. I'm not sure where the organizing really is oftentimes, particularly when the emphasis is on social media ads (which is one-way communication, isn't organizing a two-way street?) and at "best" it's often encouraging people to sign a petition that then opts them into an email list for future fundraising asks. In the distributed organizing roles that I've held, from being a 9-year-old Guild leader on Neopets to a 27-year-old Organizing Director for a 100% distributed texting organization, there was constant two-way communication, leadership development, and power building. In short: definitely agreed with what you're saying on our emphasis of digital tactics being too high.
"Relational organizing" started picking up steam after the 2018 midterms with the flurry of apps that have users bulk upload their contacts then give them some generic text or email to send based on their voting record (under the realm of "social pressure to vote"). This is such a large contrast to the relational organizing of our movements past and present which, especially at the beginning of an organizing effort, is key to seeding the first steps (put down the names of your friends and ask them to join us in a movement that lasts beyond Election Day, then ask them to put down the names of their friends, and so on).
Maybe I'm being a typical person on the left too caught up on semantics! Or perhaps a disgruntled former technologist?
I am so appreciative of this newsletter; based on your recommendation, I even participated in a Beta-test with the Unified App. :) If I have one impact on this earth before I go, it might be to pull out and amplify the most important sentence in this post, as I see it: "It's somewhat astounding how much attention we give to these tactics compared to how little we talk about face-to-face voter engagement—which is the most effective way of earning a vote—or year-round community organizing."
If you ever want to host a call focusing on building out our "army" (for lack of a better word) of year-round targeted door-knocking, I would be there in a heartbeat. In a world awash with slide-off-the-wall "impressions," the ONLY real path to meaningful rehabilitation of our society (much less healed politics), as I see it, is an intentional reinvigoration of the face-to-face connection. This is very different from "normal canvassing," which leaves people stone-cold and possibly more turned off than they already were; real curiosity, real listening, and real questions are the most underutilized resource available to humanity.
A couple terms on the left are popularized in a way that doesn't sit as right with me, I wonder if it's the case for others?
The term "digital organizing" is such a disappointing (and confusing) one to me. I'm not sure where the organizing really is oftentimes, particularly when the emphasis is on social media ads (which is one-way communication, isn't organizing a two-way street?) and at "best" it's often encouraging people to sign a petition that then opts them into an email list for future fundraising asks. In the distributed organizing roles that I've held, from being a 9-year-old Guild leader on Neopets to a 27-year-old Organizing Director for a 100% distributed texting organization, there was constant two-way communication, leadership development, and power building. In short: definitely agreed with what you're saying on our emphasis of digital tactics being too high.
"Relational organizing" started picking up steam after the 2018 midterms with the flurry of apps that have users bulk upload their contacts then give them some generic text or email to send based on their voting record (under the realm of "social pressure to vote"). This is such a large contrast to the relational organizing of our movements past and present which, especially at the beginning of an organizing effort, is key to seeding the first steps (put down the names of your friends and ask them to join us in a movement that lasts beyond Election Day, then ask them to put down the names of their friends, and so on).
Maybe I'm being a typical person on the left too caught up on semantics! Or perhaps a disgruntled former technologist?