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1: Why $5.00 a week?
2: How did this idea get started?
3: What does it cost to run the site?
4: Why no pitch for donations?
5: What have you got against the DLC?
6: Why don’t you respond to press requests?
7: Do you really think this will work?
8: Aren’t you just trying to be a political power broker in this age of the Internet?
9: Isn’t this just a way to raise your profile of your consulting company?
10: What happens in the General Election?
11: Where do I sign up?
- Why $5.00 a week?
- It’s what most people spend on Starbucks in a day. It’s one lunch at mickey-d’s. It’s a six-pack (soda or beer, your choice). It’s the cost of a drink for that pretty girl at the end of the bar. It the cost of a pretzel or a dog at a ball game. It’s not too much to ask for to help elect progressive Democrats.
- How did this idea get started?
- Let’s say you live in a congressional district where you already elect a progressive Democrat. What else can you do other than your vote that will make a difference? How about helping a progressive Democrat in another congressional district get elected? That would give your own Congressperson more leverage to get their progressive platform into law. The same can be said for those progressive Democrats that live in areas where the GOP outnumbers them in every general election (the sad case of the guy who started this). By helping elect progressive Democrats in other areas of the nation get a veto-proof majority in Congress both these people can reduce the ability of the candidates that don’t represent them to continue to do them harm.
How to effect change without becoming just another PAC? Help connect these disenfranchised people with candidates that need their help financially and share their vision and goals. Don’t play power broker, just play matchmaker and introduce the people who want to help with the people that need their help.
- What does it cost to run the site?
- The site uses SiteControl™ a CMS product that was developed by the site owner. In other words, the costs aren’t all that much, so that leads to….
- Why no pitch for donations?
- What the heck would the money be used for? The costs right now are low and there really are other places that can use the money (like some progressive Democrats running against DLC and Blue Dog Democrats).
- What have you got against the DLC?
- Where to start? Well, let’s start with just one program that the DLC supports and promotes, vouchers for schools. A school, like any other business, has some fixed costs. If the voucher system was in place and the K-6 school was to lose say 5 kids from every grade and vouchers were $5,000 each, the school would lose 35 students and $175,000. But the classes wouldn’t be reduced (5 kids from each grade won’t reduce the number of teachers or any of the other fixed costs). Thus all the costs would basically remain the same while the school would have $175,000 less to spend. In the end the school and the remaining students lose funds but costs stay the same and the kids lose. As for the private schools that these kids go to. They get $175,000 but their costs really don’t go up, so private schools win. It’s really simple economics, and it will hurt public education. Now the pro-voucher DLC members would claim that vouchers lets the kids who are in failing schools go to a better school. Well, if I’m a private school and I can take in another 40 kids without increasing the costs, I can get $200,000 with no increase in costs, that’s good news. But since I can only take 40 kids and there will be 250 applying, I will only choose the kids that are the cream of the crop. This means that the kids I don’t take are the ones who really need the money to be taught (learning disabilities, from poor homes where education is not valued, from homes where both parents – or a single parent works and there is no home support for education). Yet these kids, the ones who need the most, will get stuck in public schools that have less resources and money to meet their needs. How can anyone support such an unfair system? Well the DLC and their membership do and that’s just one example of bad policy.
- Why don’t you respond to press requests?
- Everything that is to be said about what is being done here is already printed on the site. If the corporate owned media was interested in reporting the truth, they wouldn’t have spread lies about Al Gore in 2000 (read the Rolling Stone story). If the corporate owned media was interested in reporting the truth they wouldn’t have used their power and reach to take Dr. Dean out of the Democratic primaries in 2004 (remember the Dean Scream?). If the corporate owned media was interested in telling the truth then someone would have spent time actually doing investigative reporting on the lies we were told to get us in Iraq, the outing of a CIA agent for political gain (and if Murray S. Waas calls, I’ll talk to him!) and any number of other issues that they manipulated or put on the back pages. The fact is that the corporate owned media can be counted on to do what the corporate masters want, and if you don’t believe me just watch ABC-Disney’s Path to 9/11 to see that the concept of truth is well beyond the fourth estate. The corporate owned media thinks that every story has to be “balanced”, but reality is that sometimes there just isn’t a “balance” when one side gets to lie and we are told that the lies are the same as the truth (Keith Olberman, you get to talk to me too, you got big cajones and I love your special comments, Edward R, Murrow would be proud!) When the best honest news you can get is Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (and I’m willing to talk with both you guys) and they run their shows on a network called Comedy Central, it’s a real sad state of affairs. When Gannon can get a press pass to the White House, Judith Miller can publish lies on the front page of the paper of record and Dick Cheney loves Russert because he is so malleable, then it’s time to say “NO!” to the corporate media.
- Do you really think this will work?
- Consider the numbers. If in the next year 100,000 people sign up and participate at $5.00 a week and that is directed to 25 candidate in equal sums, then you are talking about 25 candidate getting a cash infusion of just over $1,000,000 each 30-45 days before the primary. Even if we do only 20% of that, I believe that this will help tip the scales and make the difference.
- Aren’t you just trying to be a political power broker in this age of the Internet?
- Let’s take a simple reality test. Just what power is there in fighting against incumbent war chest bearing DLC and Blue Dog Democrats? What can some guy in Iowa really do for me when I’m represented by a GOP rubber stamp who is spouting racist policies and demanding a wall on our southern border (while not demanding a wall on our more porous northern border)? I do have an agenda, and it’s really very public. I want to make sure that the guy who represents me is powerless, since I can’t vote him out of office, I want to make sure that he can do no harm while he is in there. That’s not a power broker, it is refusing to be a powerless citizen. So, while I do smoke cigars, I don’t do back rooms.
- Isn’t this just a way to raise your profile of your consulting company?
- I work with local candidates on local elections. You know, guys and gals running for city council seats or the Board of Education. I work with no more than three people per election cycle. These people don’t have deep pockets, hell in most cases they don’t have anything more than their passion to do the right thing. When this works they will still need someone to help them and I will still be there to do so at the same rates that I have always charged. I’ll continue to dispense “kitchen table” advice and bang out the issues of the day with people who have a passion for helping others. As for the “tech side” of the business, I will continue to turn away more people than I take. As the site says, I really don’t want to work that hard anymore.
- What happens in the General Election?
- After the primary season is over, we will see about extending the process to helping Dr. Dean and his 50-State strategy. It all starts by cleaning our house first, and then we will see what we can do to create a veto-proof majority of progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives (and the Senate, but that will take a bit longer :-) ).
- Where do I sign up?
- I thought you would never ask. Sign Up Here!
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