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WHY WE SHOULD DO IT -
TO WIN WE NEED EFFICIENCY, TRANSPARENCY, ACCESSIBILITY.
To win political organizations need to be effective, which means we need Efficiency,
Transparency, and Accessibility in our grassroots campaigns. In 3 of the above web pages,
"Basic Web Needs", "Meetings Agendas Resolutions" and "Event Planning and Calendar", I
detail suggestions to accomplish these goals. On this page I try to explain why I have put
the ideas on the above pages together.
Winning political campaigns need winning messages, great messengers, and efficient
organization to deliver the messages and messenger through the strategy and tactics. For
Democrats to be effective in their grassroots organizations, they need to recognize that
organizing Democrats is like organizing cats. Being like cats can be our strength, and it is
our weakness.
Being like cats is our weakness when we try to create top down pyramid organizations
which ape the Republican Party big business model. Over time, democrats don’t respond
well to being ordered around. Bill Bradley wrote an excellent analysis of Democrat Party
problems, “A Party Inverted”, on 30 March 2005 in the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.
com/2005/03/30/opinion/30bradley.html? At the end, he said we need to start building our
own pyramid of organization to counter the Republicans.
HOW WE SHOULD DO IT -
While I like Bradley, I think the independent streak of Democrats requires that we build
structures like bamboo scaffolding instead of some stone pyramid. Bamboo has some
excellent qualities: it is strong, resilient, fast to put up, fast to take down, fast to move, and
with a transparent and accessible structure so everyone can see what is going on.
With everyone being able to see what is going on, bamboo organizations allow citizens to
participate in the political community when they want and how they want. One of the
greatest causes of organizational inefficiencies are information black holes, hence the need
for transparency and accessibility.
WHY WE HAVE TO DO IT - THE REAL REALITY
My ideas of what is necessary are based on over 30 years of watching politics, from Kent
State, to Nixon not being a crook, to Proposition 13 in 1978 to its twin in Massachusetts of
Prop 2 ˝, to Raygun, to the Dems losing the Senate in 1986, to Dukakis blowing a huge
lead after Labor Day 1988, to Clinton beating a war President, to the right killing Hillary
Care, to the stasis of the 90’s, to Gore, Dean, and Kerry. Sometimes I have been a grunt in
assorted campaigns, I have never been a big wig.
I have watched so many Democrat election debacles. Plenty of credit belongs to the
message wizards Ailes, Atewater and Roves, and plenty of blame belongs to Democrat last
minute command and control inept and inefficient "grassroots" campaigns.
Too much volunteer work is wasted on organizational wheel spinning because it is too
hard for anyone and everyone to find out what is going on, when it is going on, where it is
going on, who else it is going on with, and how is what is going to get done.
It is difficult to organize who with what with when with how with where under ideal
circumstances. It is even more difficult to accomplish when procedures are NOT transparent
and NOT accessible. Technology, skill, and petty politics all contribute to the lack of
transparency and accessibility, and TOO often it is the petty politics which mis use skills,
waste technology, waste volunteer time
AND LEAVE US LOSING ELECTIONS AND VOLUNTEER PARTICIPATION.
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Grassroots Organizing By The Community,
For The Community
NOT for the "leaders". |
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