More for what it's worth

[Supplementing For what it's worth]
Yesterday I settled into tweeting to users of the #trump hashtag:

Dear Mr. Trump, please help our country fix Congress by endorsing DeclareForDemocracy. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/dear-mr-trump.html

and to users of the #feelthebern hashtag:

Dear Senator Sanders, please help our country fix Congress by endorsing DeclareForDemocracy. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/are-we-going-to-be-contender.html

I continue to get a good percentage (more than 50%) of link clicks. I get a few retweets and likes. The response level is about the same for the two hashtags in question. The #trump hashtag has a significant percentage of anti-Trump tweeters. I sent my "Dear Mr. Trump" tweet to them as well.

The recipients of my tweets obviously have a good level of their attention on matters political (as does much of the country at the moment). Sending a couple hundred tweets a day does not amount to much messaging, but it is greater than zero.

Our side regularly purveys how 80% or more, across the political spectrum, believe fundamental reform is needed. See, e.g., NEW MAYDAY.US POLL: Voters of Every Political Stripe Agree on the Need for Fundamental Reform to the Campaign Finance System.

I don't see how our side cannot want, in the middle of this intense Presidential election, to accomplish as much of the messaging that we desire, to as many voters as we can communicate to.

I have set my thing up for trying to do that and am doing what I can.

To my knowledge, no one else has tweeted in my tweeting banks as they are intended to be used.

The time for Senator Sanders being the superlative vehicle that he is for doing the messaging we want to do is probably running out.

I am sure Democracy Awakening and Democracy Spring are using resources to publicize their big Washington centered actions in April.

I am not sure why they decline to pick up on the tweeting I am advocating.

I don't know whether they have difficulty with conceiving of tweets that would elicit clicks on links in the tweets, and of linked webpages that would be worthwhile getting in front of eyeballs and that would make the case why voters should consider our issue meritorious among all the issues and matters being frenziedly played in the Presidential campaigns. (The linked webpages would presumably include calling attention to the April actions.)

I don't know whether Democracy Awakening and Democracy Spring think they can't get followers to do the tweeting.

I don't know whether they think any such tweeting simply cannot achieve any worthwhile messaging.

Since March 15th may be Senator Sanders' drop dead date, I will probably set up some more tweeting banks.

So much for more of for what it's worth.

Dear Mr. Trump

Dear Mr. Trump,

Please help our country fix Congress by endorsing #DeclareForDemocracy.

Here is what #DeclareForDemocracy is about, and why you should endorse it in your campaign.

A. The hopes for the 2016 elections
Please consider the belief that there is widespread agreement among voters across the political spectrum that fundamental reform of the campaign finance system is needed. See, e.g., NEW MAYDAY.US POLL: Voters of Every Political Stripe Agree on the Need for Fundamental Reform to the Campaign Finance System.

Please consider the developments that have occurred pointing to the 2016 elections as offering a propitious time for the advancement of campaign finance reform.

A significant highlight in 2014 was MAYDAY.US raising $10,000,000 and embarking on a plan to elect a reform minded Congress by 2016. MAYDAY participated in a few 2014 Congressional elections with a view to learning what would work in 2016.

Perhaps the best sign for the campaign finance reform cause came when Senator Sanders announced as a Presidential candidate last May. (Local Sanders groups quickly popped up around the country. I thought synergy was possible and I tried to urge on local Sanders groups this Proposed messaging re: Congress as an element in their campaigning.)

Now, you have upended the American political universe. Your candidacy is rooted in millions of disaffected citizens who believe they have been grossly neglected by the establishment for too many years, and they finally have their chance for being heard through you.

The above highlights and other developments have led to hopes and expectations for the 2016 elections.

On February 10th, MAYDAY posted Voters Motivated by Desire to Fix Corrupt Politics, in which they said, "After polling showing the importance of campaign finance reform for Iowa voters, the New Hampshire results overwhelmingly confirm that voters recognize the problems facing our democracy and want to do something about it!"

B.The impediments
Notwithstanding this widespread agreement that reform is needed, Congress has not been responsive. One of our main questions is, how do you get Congress to be responsive?

Trying in the regular electoral way to get Representatives elected to Congress who support reform and will act for reform has a big problem.

Regardless of their agreement on the need for reform, voters have differing views on important issues, such as climate change, immigration, and privacy versus security in fighting terrorism and crime. If a Congressional candidate takes positions on other important issues, many voters may not support the candidate on that basis, and this undermines getting needed unity of voters to elect Representatives who will be responsive to the need for reform.

To get around this, a Congressional candidate might take the position that Congress must be fixed first, voter unity on that must not be undermined, and for that reason the candidate declines to take positions on other issues. In all likelihood, a Congressional candidate who takes that approach will attract little voter support.

This problem with the regular electoral way explains, I think, why MAYDAY accomplished little in 2015 and MAYDAY has recently abandoned its original plan.*

Lawrence Lessig, the founder of MAYDAY, ostensibly concluded in the middle of 2015 that MAYDAY was not going to be successful, and that an additional new form of pressure on Congress was needed. He left MAYDAY and attempted a Presidential run, making fixing democracy first as his main campaign issue. On his campaign website he said:

Lessig is running for president for one simple but incredibly important reason: to fix democracy by establishing truly equal citizenship. And do so first, so we may then take on all the other challenges facing our country.
The good news is that since Congress created this problem, Congress can fix this problem. And the legislation has already been written. Now it’s simply a matter of creating enormous pressure for them to take action.

This single issue approach of Professor Lessig foundered at the Presidential level.

After his Presidential campaign ended, Professor Lessig did not return to MAYDAY to resume efforts at the Congressional electoral level, and he seems to have abandoned at least temporarily trying to pursue this in the regular electoral way. Instead he, along with many in the reform movement, have chosen to go outside the regular electoral way for now, and they are focusing their efforts on an act of "nonviolent civil disobedience on an historic scale" scheduled for April in Washington DC. See Democracy Spring.

MAYDAY has essentially dropped out of trying to affect the 2016 Congressional elections, likely due to a lack of funds, the above problem in its strategy, and a paucity of motivated volunteers.

Given the circumstances and developments which are propitious for advancing the campaign finance reform cause in the 2016 Federal elections, we must not give up on that.

C. We don't have to give up
We don't have to give up on using the 2016 elections to fix Congress, and you can be a key for us.

At the Congressional level, there is a solution to MAYDAY's problem discussed above.

This solution is set out at 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

This solution is not to ask Congressional candidates to make campaign finance reform a plank in their campaign platforms (which is not an effective approach for the reason described above).

Rather, the solution is for the voters to demand that Congressional candidates, incumbents and challengers alike, to declare that the current Congress must, before November 8, 2016,  confront whether or not Congress is badly corrupt** and pass reform (or not) for the American people to consider in casting their votes in November.

The overriding objective of this citizen effort is to force Republican and Democratic incumbents in Congress to take a position about whether or not they think Congress is "broken" and needs to be fixed.

Incumbents can take a position that they don't think Congress is "broken" and does not need fixing, and, in November,  their constituents can decide whether the constituents agree or not.

Alternatively, an incumbent in Congress who says that Congress is "broken" can propose what he or she thinks should be done to try to "fix" the broken Congress.

Congressional debate should then ensue.This debate would be subject to an overhanging threat that Congress must debate the subject and agree, or not agree, on something before November 8th, and that something will be the subject of the 2016 elections referendum.

D. You can be the key
Citizen efforts are weak things because they need tremendous unity and citizen mobilization to succeed, which is very hard to come by. #DeclareForDemocracy, as a citizen effort by itself, does not have much of a chance.

But you could give #DeclareForDemocracy a great chance by endorsing it.

Endorsing it is only for you to say, yes, you agree that the American people should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to face up to whether it is corrupt or not and take action (or not) before November 8th, and voters can then decide what they think. It would then be up to the citizens to get fired up about that and exert themselves on #DeclareForDemocracy.

In the very first debate, you said the system is broken.



Please may you be a catalyst for our country fixing Congress even before November 8th by endorsing DeclareForDemocracy as part of your campaign. If you become the Republican nominee and are elected President, I think your goal of making America great again can be more quickly accomplished if you have a Congress which is less broken by its being forced to take steps to fix itself before November 8th.

In the interest of full disclosure, please be advised this letter was published first in form addressed to Senator Sanders. See Dear Senator Sanders.

Thank you.

__________________________________
* MAYDAY spent most of 2015 focused on an effort to have constituents call their Representatives in Congress and ask them to commit to supporting fundamental reform. A few Congressional Democrats were added to this list of Leaders supporting fundamental reform that MAYDAY maintains on its website. MAYDAY recently eliminated from its website the idea of electing a reform minded Congress by 2016 and now says, "we need to elect a critical mass of state and local champions. By growing support for fundamental reform from the ground up, we’ll force Congress to act - or get out of the way!Help us in our fight to elect reformers at all levels of democracy – so that we might take our democracy back! We’re organizing a national grassroots campaign with local chapters in 18 states already."

**See the footnote that is on 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

For what it's worth

To: Campaign finance reformers

I haven't gotten much feedback about what are effective ways for getting messaging out.

I don't have money to spend for getting messaging out.

As to Twitter and FB, I have tried to argue at length in favor of Breaking out of like minded social media circles.

The Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump candidacies have engendered enormous interest and passion among the citizens, and their attentions are extremely aroused currently about matters political.

This, it seems to me, makes for excellent opportunity for getting our messaging in front of eyeballs.

That opportunity is all the greater because of the extent Bernie Sanders has made money in politics a prime, if not the number one, issue in his campaign.

I have used the technique of sending large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of Twitter hashtags and Twitter follower and following lists, which tweets contain links to this blog. This has ostensibly been effective in getting tweet recipients to click on links to this blog. This blog was started in November, and there have now been over 30,000 page views.

In this technique I believe I am significantly pushing my messaging outside of "like minded social media circles" and getting it to new persons who have not previously received tweets from me.

I acknowledge that I have also done a lot of repeat tweeting.

While this may sound like objectionable "spamming," unless and until Twitter shuts me down, I don't think I am going to abandon my technique.

I have staked out a ground with Twitter, which I think gives good justification. See Twitter @Support.

As regards the repeat tweeting I do, maybe if you want to communicate something to other people, you are satisfied by sending a general tweet, and your followers will receive the communication. For better or worse, I don't consider that satisfactory for my purpose.

I have received very few complaints about my tweeting, a few people have blocked me (which I think is the appropriate handling for anyone who does not want to receive tweets from me), and, all in all, I want to get my messaging out and I think this is the best way for doing it.

To give you a concrete sense, as I did yesterday, today I am tweeting, to users of hashtags #feelthebern and #scprimary, this:

Dear Senator Sanders, please help our country fix Congress by endorsing DeclareForDemocracy. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/are-we-going-to-be-contender.html

Further, through Tuesday, I also expect to send tweets to users of  the hashtags #SuperTuesday and #SECPrimary. I don't plan to limit my tweets to Sanders supporters, and I plan to tweet to supporters of all the other Presidential candidates as well.

To my knowledge, no campaign finance reform organization has advocated that my tweeting technique be utilized by their followers. Maybe no organization is going to advocate that.

That's ok. The organizations have to decide what kind of messaging they are going to do, or try to do, to publicize themselves and what they are doing and want people to do to advance the organizations' objectives. The organizations try to get in the public eye, and that certainly contributes to getting their messaging out. Expanding the organizations' social media circles is also beneficial.

Compared to those methods of getting messaging out, one person alone, such as myself, is near zero in effect. Now, if the organizations had 50 or a 100 followers doing this kind of tweeting, maybe that would be worthwhile, but maybe the organizations just cannot get their followers to do this kind of tweeting. I get that very easily.

Just want to write and disseminate this for what it's worth.

And, oh yeh, I am in a Super Tuesday state and here is some of the messaging going on here:

Kinda makes me want to be more furious in my tweeting. How about you?

3/1/16
See More for what it's worth.

Dear Senator Sanders

Dear Senator Sanders,

Please help our country fix Congress by endorsing #DeclareForDemocracy.

Here is what #DeclareForDemocracy is about, and why you should endorse it in your campaign.

A. The hopes for the 2016 elections
Please consider the belief that there is widespread agreement among voters across the political spectrum that fundamental reform of the campaign finance system is needed. See, e.g., NEW MAYDAY.US POLL: Voters of Every Political Stripe Agree on the Need for Fundamental Reform to the Campaign Finance System.

Please consider the developments that have occurred pointing to the 2016 elections as offering a propitious time for the advancement of campaign finance reform.

A significant highlight in 2014 was MAYDAY.US raising $10,000,000 and embarking on a plan to elect a reform minded Congress by 2016. MAYDAY participated in a few 2014 Congressional elections with a view to learning what would work in 2016.

Perhaps the best sign for the campaign finance reform cause came when you announced as a Presidential candidate last May. (Local Sanders groups quickly popped up around the country. I thought synergy was possible and I tried to urge on local Sanders groups this Proposed messaging re: Congress as an element in their campaigning. That did not catch on then, but more later.)

Then there is the Trump colossus, which has upended the American political universe. This phenomenon is rooted in millions of disaffected citizens who believe they have been grossly neglected by the establishment for too many years, and they finally have their chance for being heard through Trump.

The above highlights and other developments have led to hopes and expectations for the 2016 elections.

On February 10th, MAYDAY posted Voters Motivated by Desire to Fix Corrupt Politics, in which they said, "After polling showing the importance of campaign finance reform for Iowa voters, the New Hampshire results overwhelmingly confirm that voters recognize the problems facing our democracy and want to do something about it!"

B.The impediments
Notwithstanding this widespread agreement that reform is needed, Congress has not been responsive. One of our main questions is, how do you get Congress to be responsive?

Trying in the regular electoral way to get Representatives elected to Congress who support reform and will act for reform has a big problem.

Regardless of their agreement on the need for reform, voters have differing views on important issues, such as climate change, immigration, and privacy versus security in fighting terrorism and crime. If a Congressional candidate takes positions on other important issues, many voters may not support the candidate on that basis, and this undermines getting needed unity of voters to elect Representatives who will be responsive to the need for reform.

To get around this, a Congressional candidate might take the position that Congress must be fixed first, voter unity on that must not be undermined, and for that reason the candidate declines to take positions on other issues. In all likelihood, a Congressional candidate who takes that approach will attract little voter support.

This problem with the regular electoral way explains, I think, why MAYDAY accomplished little in 2015 and MAYDAY has recently abandoned its original plan.*

Lawrence Lessig, the founder of MAYDAY, ostensibly concluded in the middle of 2015 that MAYDAY was not going to be successful, and that an additional new form of pressure on Congress was needed. He left MAYDAY and attempted a Presidential run, making fixing democracy first as his main campaign issue. On his campaign website he said:

Lessig is running for president for one simple but incredibly important reason: to fix democracy by establishing truly equal citizenship. And do so first, so we may then take on all the other challenges facing our country.
The good news is that since Congress created this problem, Congress can fix this problem. And the legislation has already been written. Now it’s simply a matter of creating enormous pressure for them to take action.

This single issue approach of Professor Lessig foundered at the Presidential level.

After his Presidential campaign ended, Professor Lessig did not return to MAYDAY to resume efforts at the Congressional electoral level, and he seems to have abandoned at least temporarily trying to pursue this in the regular electoral way. Instead he, along with many in the reform movement, have chosen to go outside the regular electoral way for now, and they are focusing their efforts on an act of "nonviolent civil disobedience on an historic scale" scheduled for April in Washington DC. See Democracy Spring.

MAYDAY has essentially dropped out of trying to affect the 2016 Congressional elections, likely due to a lack of funds, the above problem in its strategy, and a paucity of motivated volunteers.

Given the circumstances and developments which are propitious for advancing the campaign finance reform cause in the 2016 Federal elections, we must not give up on that.

C. We don't have to give up
We don't have to give up on using the 2016 elections to fix Congress, and you are the key for us.

At the Congressional level, there is a solution to MAYDAY's problem discussed above.

This solution is set out at 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

This solution is not to ask Congressional candidates to make campaign finance reform a plank in their campaign platforms (which is not an effective approach for the reason described above).

Rather, the solution is for the voters to demand that Congressional candidates, incumbents and challengers alike, to declare that the current Congress must, before November 8, 2016,  confront whether or not Congress is badly corrupt** and pass reform (or not) for the American people to consider in casting their votes in November.

The overriding objective of this citizen effort is to force Republican and Democratic incumbents in Congress to take a position about whether or not they think Congress is "broken" and needs to be fixed.

Incumbents can take a position that they don't think Congress is "broken" and does not need fixing, and, in November,  their constituents can decide whether the constituents agree or not.

Alternatively, an incumbent in Congress who says that Congress is "broken" can propose what he or she thinks should be done to try to "fix" the broken Congress.

Congressional debate should then ensue.This debate would be subject to an overhanging threat that Congress must debate the subject and agree, or not agree, on something before November 8th, and that something will be the subject of the 2016 elections referendum.

D. You are the key
Citizen efforts are weak things because they need tremendous unity and citizen mobilization to succeed, which is very hard to come by. #DeclareForDemocracy, as a citizen effort by itself, does not have much of a chance.

But you could give #DeclareForDemocracy a great chance by endorsing it.

Endorsing it is only for you to say, yes, you agree that the American people should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to face up to whether it is corrupt or not and take action (or not) before November 8th, and voters can then decide what they think. It would then be up to the citizens to get fired up about that and exert themselves on #DeclareForDemocracy.

While your campaign did not pick up on  Proposed messaging re: Congress in 2015, I think the time is ripe at this juncture in your campaign.

#DeclareForDemocracy has been disseminated to over 100 Sanders oriented Twitter accounts, including links to Generic Sanders Super Tuesday tweeting bank.

@RobShattuckAL06 I've looked at it. Sounds wonderful.

— The Bern Report (@TheBernReport) February 24, 2016

@TheBernReport Thank you. Idea has been widely disseminated to campaign, and it's up to campaign. @BernieSanders

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 24, 2016

The hopes for #DeclareForDemocracy are in your hands, Senator Sanders.

Please may you endorse it. [Edit 3/26. A suggestion for a campaign statement by you is posted at Suggested Sanders campaign statement.]

Thank you.

[Edit 2/29: This letter has also been published in a form addressed to Donald Trump. See Dear Mr. Trump.]


READERS OF THIS LETTER: Send a tweet to Senator Sanders asking him to endorse #DeclareForDemocracy by clicking on the below link:
Tweet here to Senator Sanders
__________________________________
* MAYDAY spent most of 2015 focused on an effort to have constituents call their Representatives in Congress and ask them to commit to supporting fundamental reform. A few Congressional Democrats were added to this list of Leaders supporting fundamental reform that MAYDAY maintains on its website. MAYDAY recently eliminated from its website the idea of electing a reform minded Congress by 2016 and now says, "we need to elect a critical mass of state and local champions. By growing support for fundamental reform from the ground up, we’ll force Congress to act - or get out of the way!Help us in our fight to elect reformers at all levels of democracy – so that we might take our democracy back! We’re organizing a national grassroots campaign with local chapters in 18 states already."

**See the footnote that is on 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

Generic Sanders Super Tuesday tweeting bank

[In the run to March 1st, the Sanders campaign should get as many tweeting banks going in the Super Tuesday states as possible. The tweeting banks can be modeled after The Sanders SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank. There is already in place The Sanders ALABAMA tweeting bank. The tweeting banks, and their self growing nature, excellently show the people's movement that the Sanders campaign embodies. Below is a generic form of Super Tuesday tweeting bank. Also, see discussion at the end of this generic form. If you want a Super Tuesday tweeting bank for your State, please let me know.]

[Generic form]
First, a youtube video

TO: As many [NAME OF STATE] residents (regardless of political affiliation) as we can tweet to

This message is being tweeted to you individually.

We who are  tweeting to you support Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States.

We share the belief that the American voters should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to confront, before Nov. 8, 2016, whether it is badly corrupt or not, and to pass reform for voters to consider in how they vote in November. For more information, please see 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

While Senator Sanders has not expressly approved this, we think he is the Presidential candidate who would be the strongest advocate that this be done.

We are calling this citizen effort #DeclareForDemocracy.

We want as much publicizing of #DeclareForDemocracy as possible in [name of State] leading up to the March 1st primary election.

We hope to send individually directed tweets to thousands of [name of State] residents, which tweets will have links to this page.

If you come to this page and want to help us do even more tweeting to [name of State] residents, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

We hope you agree with us that Senator Sanders would be the strongest advocate for this #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort.

Thank you.

GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN THE SANDERS [NAME OF STATE] TWEETING BANK
A. General
The tweeting bank involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of "relevant"  [name of State] Twitter hashtags or to followers of "relevant" [name of State] Twitter accounts  (such as a local political party Twitter account).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to break out of like minded social media circles in order to "push out" messaging to a wider audience. For discussion of this, please read Breaking out of like minded social media circles.
For questions or discussion about The Sanders [NAME OF STATE] tweeting bank, go to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/2016congressionalcandidatesdeclarations. To post there, you need to apply to be in the group, and I will approve you.

B. Suggested tweet message
Here is a suggested tweet messages to use, or compose your own message:

[Name of State] residents should embrace #DeclareForDemocracy; we think Senator Sanders is its best embodiment. [link to webpage where the tweeting bank is posted]

C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find [name of State] hashtags and [name of State] twitter accounts which show a lot of [name of State] twitter users that you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is a [name of State] resident, be selective or indiscriminate as you choose in sending the person a tweet or not.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person. If a "following" list or a "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for [name of State] hashtags and "following" or "follower" lists to find [name of State] residents to tweet to:
[The below are examples from the Alabama tweeting bank. Appropriate Twitter accounts and hashtags for the subject State should be found and listed
https://twitter.com/BCAToday/followers
https://twitter.com/ALcomHuntsville/followers
https://twitter.com/ShelbyCountyGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/UofAlabama/followers
https://twitter.com/AuburnU/followers
https://twitter.com/Sewell4Congress/followers]

D. How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list or hashtag listing you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.
If you are using a hashtag listing, be careful NOT to send your tweet using the "reply" button. Instead, send a clean, new tweet by right clicking on the person's Twitter name as specified in instruction 1 above.

REPORTS ON TWEETING
Please submit to the blog author information about Twitter follower accounts or following accounts you have tweeted to, and such information (without identifying you) will be reported here. Also, numbers of page views of this blog entry will also be reported here periodically to confirm that the tweeting that goes on results on recipients clicking on the link and coming here.

DISCUSSION
The tweeting banks I am advocating concern the issue I am most interested in. I think that has the broadest appeal to voters across the political spectrum. 

The tweeting bank currently says that there is not express approval by Senator Sanders. It should be obvious that I think it would be super if Senator Sanders expressly endorsed the #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort. I very much hope this percolates up to him, and he does that. In the meantime, the above wording is suggested for use.

I have no problem with the Sanders campaign using the tweeting bank idea however it chooses. That includes (i) having the wording of the webpage that is linked to by tweets as the Sanders campaign wants, (ii) having the linked webpage placed on one of the campaign's websites and under the campaign's control, and (iii) using the tweeting bank idea for any other campaign issue that the Sanders campaign desires.

The basic idea of the tweeting bank is for it to be self-growing, i.e., recipients of tweets come to the linked webpage and decide to join in the tweeting, and I hope the Sanders campaign senses great potential value in that.

The Sanders ALABAMA tweeting bank

First, a youtube video

TO: As many ALABAMIANS (regardless of political affiliation) as we can tweet to

This message is being tweeted to you individually.

We who are  tweeting to you support Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States.

We share the belief that the American voters should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to confront, before Nov. 8, 2016, whether it is badly corrupt or not, and to pass reform for voters to consider in how they vote in November. For more information, please see 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

While Senator Sanders has not expressly approved this, we think he is the Presidential candidate who would be the strongest advocate that this be done.

We are calling this citizen effort #DeclareForDemocracy.

We want as much publicizing of #DeclareForDemocracy as possible in Alabama leading up to the March 1st primary election.

We hope to send individually directed tweets to thousands of Alabamians, which tweets will have links to this page.

If you come to this page and want to help us do even more tweeting to Alabamians, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

We hope you agree with us that Senator Sanders would be the strongest advocate for this #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort.

Thank you.

GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN THE SANDERS ALABAMA TWEETING BANK
A. General
The tweeting bank involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of "relevant"  Alabama Twitter hashtags or to followers of "relevant" Alabama Twitter accounts  (such as a local political party Twitter account).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to break out of like minded social media circles in order to "push out" messaging to a wider audience. For discussion of this, please read Breaking out of like minded social media circles.
For questions or discussion about The Sanders ALABAMA tweeting bank, go to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/2016congressionalcandidatesdeclarations. To post there, you need to apply to be in the group, and I will approve you.

B. Suggested tweet message
Here is a suggested tweet messages to use, or compose your own message:

Alabamians should embrace #DeclareForDemocracy; we think Senator Sanders is its best embodiment. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-sanders-alabama-tweeting-bank.html

C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find Alabama hashtags and Alabama twitter accounts which show a lot of Alabama twitter users that you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is a Alabama, be selective or indiscriminate as you choose in sending the person a tweet or not.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person. If a "following" list or a "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for Alabama hashtags and "following" or "follower" lists to find Alabamians to tweet to:
https://twitter.com/BCAToday/followers
https://twitter.com/ALcomHuntsville/followers
https://twitter.com/ShelbyCountyGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/UofAlabama/followers
https://twitter.com/AuburnU/followers
https://twitter.com/Sewell4Congress/followers

D. How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list or hashtag listing you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.
If you are using a hashtag listing, be careful NOT to send your tweet using the "reply" button. Instead, send a clean, new tweet by right clicking on the person's Twitter name as specified in instruction 1 above.

REPORTS ON TWEETING
Please submit to the blog author information about Twitter follower accounts or following accounts you have tweeted to, and such information (without identifying you) will be reported here. Also, numbers of page views of this blog entry will also be reported here periodically to confirm that the tweeting that goes on results on recipients clicking on the link and coming here.

The Sanders SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank

First, a youtube video

TO: As many SOUTH CAROLINIANS (regardless of political affiliation) as we can tweet to

This message is being tweeted to you individually.

We who are  tweeting to you support Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States. We are both South Carolinians and non-South Carolinians.

We share the belief that the American voters should use the 2016 elections to force Congress to confront, before Nov. 8, 2016, whether it is badly corrupt or not, and to pass reform for voters to consider in how they vote in November. For more information, please see 2016 Congressional candidates' Declarations.

While Senator Sanders has not expressly approved this, we think he is the Presidential candidate who would be the strongest advocate that this be done.

We are calling this citizen effort #DeclareForDemocracy.

We want as much publicizing of #DeclareForDemocracy as possible in South Carolina leading up to next Saturday's Democratic Presidential primary election.

We hope to send individually directed tweets to thousands of South Carolinians, which tweets will have links to this page.

If you come to this page and want to help us do even more tweeting to South Carolinians, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

We hope you agree with us that Senator Sanders would be the strongest advocate for this #DeclareForDemocracy citizen effort.

Thank you.

GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN THE SANDERS SOUTH CAROLINA TWEETING BANK
A. General
The tweeting bank involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to users of "relevant"  South Carolina Twitter hashtags or to followers of "relevant" South Carolina Twitter accounts  (such as a local political party Twitter account).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to break out of like minded social media circles in order to "push out" messaging to a wider audience. For discussion of this, please read Breaking out of like minded social media circles.
For questions or discussion about The Sanders SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank, go to Google group topic The Sanders SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank. To post there, you need to apply to be in the group, and I will approve you.

B. Suggested tweet message
Here is a suggested tweet messages to use, or compose your own message:

South Carolinians should embrace #DeclareForDemocracy; we think Senator Sanders is its best embodiment. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-sanders-south-carolina-tweeting-bank.html

C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find South Carolina hashtags and South Carolina twitter accounts which show a lot of South Carolina twitter users that you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is a South Carolinian, be selective or indiscriminate as you choose in sending the person a tweet or not.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person. If a "following" list or a "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for South Carolina hashtags and "following" or "follower" lists to find South Carolinians to tweet to:
Charleston Democrats followers
#columbiasc
The Greenville News followers

D. How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list or hashtag listing you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.
If you are using a hashtag listing, be careful NOT to send your tweet using the "reply" button. Instead, send a clean, new tweet by right clicking on the person's Twitter name as specified in instruction 1 above.

REPORTS ON TWEETING
Please submit to the blog author information about Twitter follower accounts or following accounts you have tweeted to, and such information (without identifying you) will be reported here. Also, numbers of page views of this blog entry will also be reported here periodically to confirm that the tweeting that goes on results on recipients clicking on the link and coming here.

Breaking out, Part II

In December, I posted Breaking out of like minded social media circles. [Ed. As indicated in Tactics, generically, I am advocating for "scores or hundreds of volunteer tweeters who are willing to send thousands of individually directed tweets to followers shown on follower lists of other Twitter users and to tweeters who use particular hashtags."]

This blog entry summarizes what has happened with Breaking out of like minded social media circles since December.

I have not been able to get any of DemocracySpring, MAYDAY, RepresentUs, WolfPAC, StampStampede, TakeBackOurRepublic, NHRebellion or MoveToAmend to put a stamp of approval on Breaking out of like minded social media circles. I have not even been able to get any of them to express a view about Breaking out of like minded social media circles. [Ed. MAYDAY has condemned this as "spamming." I have staked out a ground on this with Twitter. See Twitter @Support.]

Perhaps the organizations believe there is no worthwhile potential in Breaking out of like minded social media circles and feel it is best to ignore the same and not say anything.

Since they don't say anything, I just don't know what the reason is. I think Breaking out of like minded social media circles has worthwhile potential, and I have been trying to develop it.

There are a lot of tweeters doing tweeting in their like minded social media circles using hashtags such as #getmoneyout #fightbigmoney #fixdemocracyfirst and #democracyspring. I have informed many of them about  Breaking out of like minded social media circles.

I have received a lot of favorable reaction in the form of retweets, favorites, etc., to the idea of Breaking out of like minded social media circles.  To my knowledge, however, I have not been able to persuade anyone to actually put into practice Breaking out of like minded social media circles.

Breaking out of like minded social media circles calls for extra effort, and some gumption.

It is hard to say if or when anyone else will actually put into their own practice Breaking out of like minded social media circles.

If organizations, such as the above listed ones, put their stamp of approval on Breaking out of like minded social media circles, that might encourage individuals to put it into practice for themselves.

Notwithstanding my lack of success in getting others to put into their own practice Breaking out of like minded social media circles, I still think it has meritorious potential and I want to indicate ways in which I have tried to get it to happen since December, and those ways are suggestive of the potential.

I think the state tweeting banks I have set up (or tried to set up) speak for themselves as to their potential. To get a sense, take a look at the SOUTH CAROLINA tweeting bank. These offer potential to get messaging in front of both politically active persons (such as users of #scprimary hashtag) and also persons in the state who are less interested in politics.

An isolated situation arose this week regarding Illinois. About a week ago, ten to fifteen tweeters tweeted

.@SunTimes @csteditorials ask the #ILSen candidates if they will take the pledge to reject super PAC $ in 2016. @CounterPAC #FightBigMoney

Then, this Thursday, one of those tweeters sent a tweet to one of the Illinois Senate candidates. That caused me to post United States Senate - Illinois and to tweet links to that post soliciting more tweets to be sent to the Illinois Senate candidates and that I would post the same. There have been more than 130 page views of United States Senate - Illinois. Such could be the start of an ILLINOIS tweeting bank, but to get that going takes people who are willing to put into practice Breaking out of like minded social media circles.

Yesterday, I tried again to raise discussion about pushing messaging out beyond like minded social media circles. See Can someone explain #RestoreTheVRA tweeting?

People, we are battling the corrupting influence of money in politics. I don't have to tell you about how many tens of millions of dollar of that money is being used to pay for TV ads, etc., in order to accomplish the political messaging that the corruption money wants.

I am not spending any money in trying to do my messaging, and I believe there is scant money that others have to spend to do messaging they think should be done in the battle against the corrupting influence of money in politics.

Maybe without the money, there is just plain no way to accomplish meaningful messaging, and maybe Breaking out of like minded social media circles is a laughable waste of time.

It would be nice to have someone to discuss this with.

Update 3/6
For more on this subject, see For what it's worth.

Can someone explain #RestoreTheVRA tweeting?

Today my attention was called to yesterday's #RestoreTheVRA tweeting, when I saw the following tweet while scrolling through MAYDAY's tweets today:

Tweet with us today at 1pm ET to urge Congress to #RestoreTheVRA in its 51st year. Then join us in #DC to target those who stand in the way.

— Democracy Awakening (@DemAwakening) February 18, 2016

I went to #RestoreTheVRA and scrolled through the February 18th tweets.

Without doing any counting, let me make a rough high end estimate of 400 tweets by 50 different tweeters.

I don't know how to make any estimate of the number of "impressions" of these tweets. Let's say 100,000 impressions for discussion purposes.

I have a basic question of: How far did the messaging of the tweeting extend beyond like minded persons who share the views of the tweeters and who readily agreed with the messaging?

In other words, to what extent did the messaging reach persons who have little or no knowledge about, or interest in, the VRA, and may or may not agree with the messaging?

That's hard to quantify, but at least the question can be asked: Is there any way tweeting can be done that would achieve messaging that reached significantly more persons who have little or no knowledge about, or interest in, the VRA.

I think the answer is yes.

While I think the answer is yes, the next question I want to ask is: If there is a way to do tweeting that achieves messaging that reaches significantly more persons who have little or no knowledge about, or interest in, the VRA, is that something which is desired?

I would think that the obvious answer to the question is yes, there should be a desire to do tweeting that achieves messaging that reaches significantly more persons who have little or no knowledge about, or interest in, the VRA.

I say that because I would assume that a main object is to expose such other persons to the messaging, to put thoughts about the VRA in their heads, and to try to persuade such other people to agree with the messaging about the VRA.

Can you please help me out on this?

Do you agree that there should be a desire to do tweeting that achieves messaging that reaches significantly more persons who have little or no knowledge about, or interest in, the VRA?

Or do you think that is unimportant and not something to struggle much with?

United States Senate - Illinois

Ballotpedia United States Senate - Illinois

Democratic

Tammy Duckworth - U.S. Rep.^[5]
Andrea Zopp - Chicago Urban League President and CEO^[6]
Napoleon Harris - State Sen.^[7]

Republican

Mark Kirk - Incumbent^[8]
James Marter^[8]

Third Party

Chris Aguayo (Veterans Party of America)^[9]
Chad Koppie (Constitution Party)^[10]

@ABC7Chicago Please ask the #ILSen candidates if they will take the pledge to reject super PAC $ in 2016. @CounterPAC #FightBigMoney

— Zen Soul (@Zen_Soul) February 18, 2016

@TammyforIL Ms Duckworth, will you take the pledge to reject super PAC $ in 2016? @CounterPAC #FightBigMoney

— Zen Soul (@Zen_Soul) February 18, 2016

If more tweets are sent to IL Senate candidates, I will post at https://t.co/TySi3uOAic #FightBigMoney #getmoneyout #maydayus #representus

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 19, 2016

If more tweets are sent to IL Senate candidates, I will post at https://t.co/TySi3uOAic #DemocracySpring #DemocracyAwakens #stampstampede

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 19, 2016

Richard Shelby debate cancelled

Alabama Senate debate cancelled after Hoover Tactical owner bars candidates from attacking Shelby

A debate for U.S. Senate candidates held by the Rainy Day Patriots was canceled. (Howard Koplowitz)

PrintEmail

By Howard Koplowitz | hkoplowitz@al.com 
on February 18, 2016 at 8:39 PM, updated February 18, 2016 at 9:29 PM

A scheduled debate between Republican U.S. Senate candidates descended into chaos and was abruptly cancelled Thursday night at Hoover Tactical after the establishment's owner, a self-described "strong supporter" of U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said the candidates could not speak ill of the sitting senator because he had a prior commitment and couldn't defend himself from attacks.

Gene Smith, the owner, also questioned the validity of the arrangement between the Rainy Day Patriots, a tea party group that organized the debate, and Hoover Tactical for its meetings. He claimed the debate did not fall under the arrangement for "regular meetings" held at the business, and that the Rainy Day Patriots "never booked" the debate. The tea party group disputed Smith's claims, including a member who said the Rainy Day Patriots used the space for debates before.

"Tonight's gathering was never booked with Hoover Tactical. We found out about it yesterday because someone inquired," Smith said before the debate was about to start. "I am a strong supporter of Sen. Shelby, but that does not mean that we would not have allowed a contract to use this room. Because he's not here to defend himself, no negative statements will be made about Richard Shelby."

"Does that apply to his commercials against me, sir?" asked former Marine Capt. Jonathan McConnell, referencing negative ads Shelby is airing against him. McConnell's campaign manager, Rick Renshaw, said the campaign would be leaving the debate because McConnell and another challenger, former Army Ranger John Martin, didn't serve in the military to have their First Amendment rights infringed upon. Smith, who ordered the media not to record his statement, then canceled the debate and asked everyone to leave.

The debate had been in the works for about a week and was posted to Facebook on Sunday. Shelby's campaign said the senator had a longstanding commitment to speak in Bay Minette and could not attend the debate. They said the campaign was not involved in influencing Smith or silencing the forum.

A Rainy Day Patriots member who only wanted to be identified as Steve said the group had been using a room in Hoover Tactical for "at least every month for a couple of years," including candidate debates. He said the incident left a bad taste in his mouth.

"I won't patronize this business anymore," he said after the debacle.

Lee Davis, one of the planned moderators, said the debate was set up to allow the candidates to talk about their positions, and that the debate wasn't set up for the other candidates to sling mud.

"Not one single question even mentioned Sen. Shelby by name," he said.

The four candidates who showed up – McConnell, Martin, former state Sen. Shadrack McGill and Marcus Bowman – said the stipulation about no negative attacks against Shelby was made at the last minute.

"This is Richard Shelby and his thugs basically being a part of the Nazi Gestapo," McConnell said, calling the rule "insane." "It speaks to the cowardice of Richard Shelby."

Martin, McGill and Bowman all said that McConnell's actions were partly to blame for the debate being cancelled.

"They had as much to do with it as the owner in cancelling this event. McConnell can't help himself. It's all about attack, attack, attack," Bowman said. "They can't handle having a conversation about issues that doesn't involve attacks about Shelby."

McConnell campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth BeShears said the other candidates' sentiments were "an absolutely ridiculous assertion."

"It was one of Shelby's cronies who shut it down. Every one of those gentlemen are in this race because they believe it's time for Richard Shelby to retire," she said. "Asking the candidates not to even speak his name is outrageous. This debate has been scheduled for over a week, and Mr. Smith had plenty of time to ask us to meet somewhere else. Instead, he waited until the last minute, then decided to act as Shelby's surrogate and shut down the debate." 

Tweeting to get "protest" candidate on AL06 ballot

Your assistance is solicited to tweet to get me on the ballot as an Independent protest candidate in the Alabama 6th Congressional district. Please see Is there a third way? and Independent protest candidate in AL 6th Cong'l district?.

My deadline to get and take signed ballot access petitions to Montgomery is March 1st.

I am doing my own tweeting to Twitter users in the 6th Congressional district but I need help.

The tweet I am currently sending is:

March 1st deadline for Independent protest candidate in AL 6th Cong'l district. l
http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/is-there-third-way.html

Suggested tweets you could send are:

AL 6th Cong'l district should get Independent "protest" candidate on ballot. Deadline is March 1st. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/is-there-third-way.html

or

AL 6th Cong'l district should get Independent "protest" candidate on ballot. Deadline is March 1st. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/02/protest-independent-candidate-in-al-6th.html

or some other tweet you might suggest.

Also, I am open so suggestions for other textual material for tweets to link to. Just pass them on to me.

A interactive map of the Alabama 6th Congressional district is here.

For targeting recipients in the 6th Congressional district (from which most of the City of Birmingham proper is excluded), I would have a number of recommendations of Twitter account follower lists to use. These include:

Homewood Chamber of Commerce followers
Over The Mountain Journal followers
Trussville Tribune followers
City of Alabaster followers
Clanton Advertiser followers
Shelby County GOP followers
[others to be added in due course]

How to send your tweets efficiently
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 30 to 40 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.

Election law disclaimer

Protective disclaimer: No contributions or expenditures in excess of $5000 have been made to me or by me, Robert Shattuck; thus currently I am not a candidate or a political committee subject to Federal election law disclaimer requirements. Any expenditures are paid for by me Robert Shattuck and are not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.


DISCUSSION:
 Under Federal election law that is applicable to Congressional elections, the definition of "candidate" is set out in the Federal Campaign Guide as follows:

Candidate – An individual seeking nomination for election, or election, to federal office becomes a candidate when he or she (or agents acting on his or her behalf) raise contributions that exceed $5,000 or make expenditures that exceed $5,000. 100.3(a).

The Federal Campaign Guide, at page 40, says this:

Internet Volunteer Activity
General Exception
An uncompensated individual or group of uncompensated individuals may engage in certain voluntary Internet activities for the purpose of influencing a federal election without restriction. These exempted Internet activities would not result in a contribution or an expenditure under the Act and would not trigger any registration or reporting requirements with the FEC. This exemption applies to individuals acting with or without the knowledge or consent of a campaign or a political party committee. 100.94 and 100.155. Exempted Internet activities include, but are not limited to, sending or forwarding electronic mail, providing a hyperlink to a website, creating, maintaining or hosting a website and paying a nominal fee for the use of a website.

Other relevant definitions are

Political Committee – An entity that meets one of the following conditions:
• An authorized committee of a candidate (see definition of candidate).
• A state party committee or nonparty committee,club, association or other group of
persons that receives contributions or makes expenditures, either of which aggregate over $1,000 during a calendar year.
• A local unit of a political party (except a state party committee) that: (1) receives contributions aggregating over $5,000 during a calendar year; (2) makes contributions or expenditures either of which aggregate over $1,000 during a calendar year; or (3) makes payments aggregating over $5,000 during a calendar year for certain activities which are exempt from the definitions of contribution and expenditure (100.80, 100.87 and 100.89;100.140, 100.147 and 100.149).
• Any separate segregated fund upon its establishment.100.5.
Public Communication – A communication by means of any broadcast, cable or satellite communication, newspaper, magazine, outdoor advertising facility, mass mailing or telephone bank to the general public, or any other form of general public political advertising. The term general public political advertising does not include communications made over the Internet,except for communications placed for a fee on another person’s website. 100.26, 100.27 (definition of mass mailing) and 100.28 (definition of telephone bank).

Mass Mailing – A mailing by U.S. mail or facsimile of more than 500 pieces of mail matter of an identical or substantially similar nature within any 30-day period. This does not include electronic mail or other Internet communications.100.27. See Public Communication.

Thus far, my activities have been confined to the Internet, and these Internet activities do not result in any campaign contribution or expenditure. As a result, I am not currently a candidate or a political committee, and I am not subject to the Federal election law requirements. While I am not subject to the same and am not making any expenditures (and hence am not "paying" for anything), I nonetheless make the above protective disclaimer.

Is there a third way?

In the perpetual political war, the two sides have locked into seeming mortal combat for the soul of the United States Supreme Court following Antonin Scalia's death.

This, as gale winds blow every which way in Presidential election politics, which a year ago no one in their right mind would have thought possible.

What sayeth our local pundits?

What questions can be asked of the candidates at Thursday night's Alabama U.S. Senate debate at Hoover Tactical Firearms?

What about you? Are you hunkered down in your encampment? Are you lost in a wilderness, oblivious? Do you see a flag waving off to your left, or off to your right, which you are trying to run to?

Yesterday, I tried to make inquiry of our Alabama legislative delegation in Washington whether the country should write off Congress and that the only avenue for the country's salvation is the Convention of States project. See To RDP re your AL US Senate debate.

A. WolfPAC and Convention of States
Have you heard of WolfPAC?

On its front page, WolfPAC enunciates:

We must reverse Citizens United, Restore our Democracy, and Save the Republic. Join the Fight for Free and Fair Elections in America!

On The Plan page, WolfPAC says:

To restore true, representative democracy in the United States by pressuring our State Legislators to pass a much needed Free and Fair Elections Amendment to our Constitution. There are only 2 ways to amend the Constitution: (1) Go through our Federal Government (2) Go through our State Legislators via a national convention.

Wolf PAC believes that we can no longer count on our Federal Government to do what is in the best interest of the American people due to the unfettered amount of money they receive from outside organizations to fund their campaigns. We point to the failure of the Disclose Act as rock solid evidence that this would be a total waste of our time, effort, and money. We also point to the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to not even hear a case filed by Montana claiming it did not have to abide by Citizens United, as proof that state legislation is not a sufficient measure to solve this problem. We believe that we have no choice but to put an amendment in the hands of our State Legislators, who are not, at this moment in time, completely blinded by the influence of money, and might actually do what 96% of the country wants - take away the massive influence that money has over our political process.

The Convention of States organization speaks in both similar and different ways compared to WolfPAC.

On its front page, Convention of States says the problem is:

The Federal government has overreached its constitutionally established boundaries and has its hands in almost every area of our lives. Our children and grandchildren will inherit a bankrupt nation run by an unaccountable bureaucracy.

The Convention of States, in elaborating the problem, similarly to WolfPAC, says the country cannot look to Congress and an Article V convention of states is required. to wit:

This is not a partisan issue. Washington, D.C., will never voluntarily relinquish meaningful power—no matter who is elected. The only rational conclusion is this: unless some political force outside of Washington, D.C., intervenes, the federal government will continue to bankrupt this nation, embezzle the legitimate authority of the states, and destroy the liberty of the people. Rather than securing the blessings of liberty for future generations, Washington, D.C., is on a path that will enslave our children and grandchildren to the debts of the past.
The problem is big, but we have a solution. Article V gives us a tool to fix the mess in D.C. [link]

Please study the similarities and differences, and ask yourself whether you think that WolfPAC and Convention of States could have a beneficial conversation. I think they could.

B. No Labels

Please also consider the No Labels organization.

Its self-description is:

No Labels is a national citizens organization working inside the Beltway and around the nation to usher in a new era of focused problem solving in American politics. No Labels is for all those who have had it up to their eyebrows with all the petty infighting, party-first agendas and hyper-partisan wheel-spinning that are keeping the government from doing the people’s work.

The website explains the philosophy of No Labels thusly:

Breaking gridlock is a preoccupation and priority of many reform organizations in D.C. and around the country. Often, these organizations are focused on bold systemic reforms to reduce the influence of hyper-partisanship, get money out of politics or put an end to congressional gerrymandering. 

These are certainly worthy and important endeavors — but they are tough, multi-year, state-by-state slogs that may never come to fruition – or only come in time.

It is our view that we need solutions to our most pressing problems now, and we need buy-in from both Democrats and Republicans to find them.

For No Labels, the prevailing hurdle preventing our nation’s progress isn’t disagreement over particular policies. It’s an attitude – specifically, the hyper-partisan viewpoint that leads far too many of our leaders (and citizens) to completely dismiss, ignore or question the motives of people from the other party.

We don’t operate like that. Any member of Congress – conservative, liberal or in between – can win our approval, so long as she or he is willing to work with any other member to find solutions. 

The primary goal of No Labels is to start a national movement that will culminate in a Federal government that sees the presidential administration and both houses of Congress working together to achieve mutually agreed-upon goals that will solve the nation’s problems.

No Labels has a specific National Strategic Agenda to

• Create 25 million jobs over the next 10 years
• Secure Social Security and Medicare for the next 75 years;
• Balance the federal budget by 2030; and
• Make America energy secure by 2024.

The website says that more than 70 members of Congress have expressly undertaken to support the National Strategic Agenda.

Further, No Labels is trying to shape the 2016 Presidential elections by getting Presidential candidates to commit to the National Strategic Agenda, which is to be commenced immediately after the Presidential inauguration by a sustained bipartisan process to achieve one or more of the above four national goals.

Although the Presidential election has been a main feature of the daily news for more than six months, my guess is that most readers of this have not heard of No Labels.

C. Who in Alabama wants a conversation?
If all you want to do is hunker down in your camp as the war for the Supreme Court proceeds, you should have plenty of fireworks to watch.

The gale winds in the Presidential election are near a hurricane, and those give you all the opportunity you could want to roar at the top of your lungs.

The main roaring is by the Presidential candidates themselves. Things at the Congressional level are heating up as well. Senators Shelby and Sessions have drawn their lines in the sand about the Supreme Court, and you can do a ton of rooting with them, or jeering at them, according to the camp you are in.

Scant attention is going to be paid to WolfPAC, or Convention of States, or NoLabels.

When the 2016 elections have played out, there will probably be millions of Sanders supporters who are profoundly disappointed by his revolution falling short, and Secretary Clinton being the Democratic nominee.

You can't project very well on the Republican side right now.

If Trump is not the nominee, God knows what his supporters are going to do.

It is certain that the two sides will wage their perpetual war as fiercely as ever in the general Presidential election in the fall regardless of who the Democratic and Republican candidates are.

Then, the cycle will begin again. As soon as the results of the 2016 elections are in, the two warring camps will turn their attention to 2018, with their eyes ultimately on 2020. The 2016 Presidential election started in earnest promptly after the 2014 results were in, and it is likely the same two year Presidential race will happen regarding 2020 as soon as the 2018 results are in.

And on, and on, and on, it will go, with no sign of any change in the offing.

For 25 years, Republicans have loathed Democratic Presidents, and Democrats have loathed Republican Presidents. Contemplate, or relish, if you will, how much Republicans will hate a President Hillary Clinton if she is the next President. There may be less certainty about how much Democrats will hate the next President if he is a Republican, but there is not going to be a a paucity of hate there.

Now, I did get a tweet yesterday saying "don't worry, a few more years of this and you'll have 40+ states more than ready to convene [a convention of states] & help Congress."

OK, are the candidates at Thursday night's Alabama U.S. Senate debate at Hoover Tactical Firearms going to be asked about this?

Can you point to any Congressional candidates in Alabama who are going to attempt a conversation with Alabamians about this? Please give me their names if you think there are such candidates.

I would like to carry out such a conversation in the Alabama 6th Congressional district (Gary Palmer's district) about what is wrong with Congress and how it might be fixed. I attempted to do this in 2014, but was blocked in my efforts.

Maybe Congress is kaput and useless.

Maybe a President Trump would dictate to Congress to the effect of, "The country has elected me President to make America great again, and you Congress just need to do what I tell you."

On the other hand, maybe Congress can be important. The Presidential stuff is a lot more exciting and entertaining, Congress and what Congress does is a bit boring, and the conversation I would like to see take place is not going to grab you. Unfortunately, there is work citizens need to do to have a decently working Congress.

Please see Independent protest candidate in AL 6th Cong'l district? if you would like a conversation to happen in the 6th Congressional district in 2016 as I am urging. There is a March 1st deadline for this.

Thank you.

@RobShattuckAL06 No in my play book,,,,,, just one way!

— Jackson Co AL Dems (@Jackson_Co_Dems) February 16, 2016

@Jackson_Co_Dems OK

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) February 16, 2016