Dear Mr. Messina and the Obama Campaign:
I would like to ask you to transform our political process. Some would say it is a lot to ask, others would claim you have already done it. I believe it is simply a matter of rethinking our tools and resources, and with your help we can transform the age. Where are we today? We do not have a Democratic House; our elections are drowned in money. Policy is ignored as our opponents continue down the path of hyperbole, investigations, and irrational rage. The power of money is still entrenched and formidable, discourse based on science and reason is posed for suicidal charges. Your community of connections proved it could outcompete money, but it can be so much more. My request is not for money because your social network infrastructure is priceless. You are positioned to lead us to a new level of political power in the information age. You have the keys to the castle, so I request that you help us move past our Kafkaesque politics.
Franz Kafka wrote a parable about couriers and kings, paraphrasing it.
Couriers had wonderful hats with the grandest of feathers; all the hot celebrities were couriers. They were on the magazines, had huge twitter followings, the paparazzi chased them. Offered the choice between becoming kings or the couriers of kings; the way children would, they all wanted to be couriers.
Now, there are no kings, only couriers who hurry about the world, shouting to each other. Their messages have become meaningless, without kings to act. They would like to put an end to this miserable life of theirs, but they dare not it pays so well.
Here are my suggestions to make this happen. Organize your network of contacts by Congressional districts. Using the Obama Dashboard as an example all contacts should have a group waiting for them that is composed of others in their own district. These groups should host policy discussions, outreach strategies, and be the conduit for information distribution. You should invite local Democratic Party organizations to become a community within your group, Kos communities, Move On communities, and others should be a part of the group within the group concept. Each group would have to identify members participating by Congressional district, e.g. the Kossacks of IL 18. The first goal of this effort should be a 435 plus 1 project. It should be our goal to elect Democrats to every Congressional district.
This great network of yours has the possibility to more efficiently compete with money. The resources to do this grassroots everywhere project are available because the initial foundation is already in place. Expanding it is so much less demanding of resources than the standard DCCC or DSCC approach. People want to be informed, involved, and enthusiastic. People have lives they need to have a method to participate and still live their lives. These Congressional groups could help recruit candidates, formulate district specific policy, become reliable and trusted sources of news and information for members of the group. It will allow people to concentrate local resources not duplicate or waste them. A real life example, one of the newly elected Democrats to Congress is Cheri Bustos, she was attacked by Crossroads GPS ads for voting as city councilperson to build a street from her house to a country club. TV was saturated with animated images of Bustos in a golf cart headed to the country club. Eventually she put out response ads, Bustos was never a member of the country club. Her ad mimicked the golf cart, effectively undermining the attack. If there had been an established network for her district, this fact could have informed the district without money and lost time. One person could refute any water cooler discussion about the Crossroads attack ad. A person informed from the network that Bustos had never belonged to the country club. Using such a network is a far more effective method than TV ads, it provides a quicker response and requires only a little money.
Another specific example of our failure to win more seats, in Central Illinois the GOP incumbent Tim Johnson announced retirement after the primary. The Obama 2012 campaign network was focused on getting supporters in Illinois to call people in Iowa and Ohio, but what if we had turned out a few more votes in Decatur? The Democratic candidate was running for the third time, he had never been close before. Turning out another 1288 votes, would have gained a Dem win. Why do we not have an ongoing party network so that in every district we have a viable candidate? Our top down money approach has to prioritize where leadership sees winnable districts. The Obama 2012 infrastructure network could be expanded into an ongoing party building and candidate recruitment endeavor. Every district would grow more competitive without requiring any expenditure of top down dollars. We should not expect each campaign to start from scratch every cycle; we are not using the tools available to us. Our party is complaining we have to dig with a stick because we cannot afford enough shovels, while we are ignoring the Cat backhoe behind us.
I have been dismayed, disillusioned, and disgusted by our Congressional campaign strategies. I have heard it said campaigns get going after Labor Day. I try to be observant of the proscription of using the Lord’s name in vain. However, secular profanity isn’t covered by the stone ten, so I must say this concept is F***ng crazy. We should have a campaign going in the 435 plus 1, right now. It is time for people in each district to build connections, assess the possibilities, to develop a strategy to make even the GOP/Tea party's safe seats require a defense. All this can be done with the existing tools and at a low cost, it will make the Democratic Party formidable in every district. We will use our natural majority to balance the power of money and the influence peddlers. It will also open the door to all interests. Making the democratic process possible to develop policy and constituencies to support a policy. It will empower and invigorate our party’s new and growing demographic groups by giving everyone a stake in our party and their government. The process must allow everyone to live their real lives, while staying involved in the process. So Mr. Messina and the Obama campaign will you use the keys to the castle to open the door? May, we enter into a new age of politics? Will you allow the people themselves to transform our nation?