Saturday, April 30, 2016

Berniecrat Congressional candidates

As Senator Sanders is losing in his chance to be the Democratic nominee, his millions of supporters are personally deciding what is next for them.

There are Congressional candidates who are calling themselves, or being called, Berniecrats. More Congressional candidates are likely to start identifying themselves in that way.

It can be expected that many Sanders supporters will turn to supporting Berniecrat Congressional candidates.

I think campaign finance reform ("CFR") organizations should decide their positions about Berniecrat Congressional candidates.

One position could be that Berniecrat Congressional candidates are outside a CFR organization's domain of activity, and the organization has nothing to say or do about Berniecrat candidates, including the organization making no recommendation to its supporters about Berniecrat candidates.

As the purveyor of this blog, I am very interested for the CFR organizations to take up the subject of Berniecrat Congressional candidates.

We will see if the organizations do that, and, if so, what the organizations say.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016

What's in the grassroots?

I am seeking grassroots activism.

MAYDAY.US, on its Plan page, says it has citizen activists in 18 states. Its MAYDAYUS Twitter, its MAYDAY PAC Facebook, its MAYDAY PAC Headquarters Facebook Public Group, and its MAYDAY PAC Subreddit report virtually no grassroots activity going on.

Following its civil disobedience action in Washington DC earlier this month, the focus for Democracy Spring appears to be a list of Our Demands for Congress to act on.

Democracy Spring is planning on grassroots activity. This is laid out in an April 19th email as follows:
We have drawn a line in the sand. Every candidate for public office in our country, from President down to city council must choose: stand with the People on the side of democracy, or with Big Money on the side of corruption. From this day forward, there will be a growing political price to pay for anyone who defends our billionaire-dominated political system or the voter suppression policies that compromise our fundamental right to self-government.
We the People have found strength, we have found courage, and we have found each other. From the spark of this moment in Washington, a movement will catch fire across the country, as grassroots leaders from all 50 states return to their homes and organize others to take nonviolent action to defeat those who stand in the way of reform.
To the defenders of the corrupt status quo we declare this: from your offices to your press conferences, debates, and fundraisers, and in the hearts and minds of every voter, we will expose you, we will disrupt you, we will shut you down.
Across America, we will continue to escalate and force this issue into the headlines. We will make the 2016 election a referendum on whether we will live in a democracy for all or a plutocracy for the 1%.
This has just begun, and not much yet has been reported in the DemocracySpring social media about specifics of grassroots activities going on.

The below DemocracySpring tweet from yesterday solicited supporters to ask their Reps "to sign onto Sarbanes letter."
At this juncture, the Democracy Spring social media has not indicated any recruitment efforts to get grassroots volunteers, or even what kind of resources it has to engage in recruitment efforts.

In my efforts, on almost a daily basis, I have been passing to MAYDAY, Democracy Spring and other organizations names of people who have responded favorably to my tweeting and who would appear to me as possible candidates for recruitment as grassroots volunteers for those organizations. To throw out a rough guess, I would say there have been thirty names I have passed along in the past month, and in the months preceding that there have been another hundred names. Further those are not the names of everyone who evidenced interest in my tweeting and who would be a potential candidate to recruit as a volunteer for the organizations. (A main current source of "names" are persons using the #feelthebern hashtag. Millions of Sanders supporters are being confronted with what they are going to do if Sanders will not be the Democratic nominee. Many of these persons could be candidates for recruitment as volunteers in the grassroots here.)

MAYDAY and Democracy Spring have not expressed to me any interest in the names I have passed along to them and basically have said nothing to me.

It is hard to know what to infer from this.

The organizations do not evidence in their social media any active recruitment efforts. Possibly they have recruitment efforts going on  that they don't report, and the organizations don't have any need or use for the names I am passing along to them.

Possibly the organizations don't have much resources for recruitment efforts and they don't have resources to make follow up contact with the names I have passed along.

Possibly the organizations have made follow up contact with those names without telling me.

Possibly the organizations don't believe that grassroots volunteers can do anything worthwhile.

Possibly the organizations don't think they have good ideas for grassroots actions that volunteers will actually undertake.

So, to those who come to this blog and have interest in pursuing grassroots activity, I don't know what to tell you about pursuing such grassroots activity under the auspices of MAYDAY, Democracy Spring or other organizations.

My citizens effort needs all the grassroots volunteers it can get. Right now it has no active grassroots volunteers.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Demand Congress debate before Nov. 8th

Dear Mr. Jamie Raskin:
Heartiest congratulations on your victory against big money in the Maryland 8th Congressional district last night. Please lend your voice as loudly as you can to this nationwide citizen and Congressional candidate demand that the current Congress take up debate of its corruption and act (or not act) before November 8th, so that the 2016 Congressional elections can be a nationwide referendum on our incumbent Congress regarding this issue.

Dear Senator Sanders:
Your campaign hangs in the balance between (i) folding yourself in with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment, and (ii) continuing in an independent way to push and grow the movement you started by running for President. Please do the latter, including by being the leader of this effort to force the current Congress to debate and act (or not act) on its corruption before Nov. 8th, by your issuing a campaign statement along the lines of A campaign statement for Senator Sanders. Please also see Dear Senator Sanders.

Dear Mr. Trump:
In the very first debate, you said the system is broken.


Please may you help our country fix Congress by demanding that the current Congress take up debate of its corruption and act (or not act) before November 8th, so that the 2016 Congressional elections can be a nationwide referendum on our incumbent Congress regarding this issue. If you 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 before November 8th to fix itself. Please also see Dear Mr. Trump.

Dear fellow citizens (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike):
Following Jamie Raskin's win in MD08, please tweet and shout at the 434 other Congressional districts about this, and also at states in which there is a U.S. Senate race this year. See  MAYDAY: Tweet and shout at #MD08; Template for Congressional districts.
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Monday, April 25, 2016

Scratch MAYDAY; what's left at Cong'l level

I think it is fair to say that MAYDAY.US has called it quits on its Congressional plan that it initiated in 2014.

For evidence of this, see the MAYDAY reddit discussion, which was initiated 4 days ago, and which appears at https://www.reddit.com/r/MaydayPAC/comments/4fri4z/after_all_that_has_transpired_im_not_convinced/ This reddit discussion is copied and pasted at the end of this entry.

From said discussion, one could conclude that MAYDAY probably ought to close up shop and send its supporters over to Represent.Us.

This development leaves a gaping hole for trying to accomplish anything in connection with the 2016 Congressional elections.

DemocracySpring may step in to do battle in the 2016 Congressional elections. Time is needed to see what is forthcoming from DemocracySpring.

I speculate that MAYDAY's problems are that it has scant funding and it has very few grassroots activists at work.

I started this blog in November, and I have not yet thrown in the towel.

Currently, I am trying to push for Senator Sanders to become the leader of this effort. See Going for broke in NY State primary.

Senator Sanders' campaign hangs in the balance between (i) folding himself in with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment (assuming he will not be the nominee), and (ii) continuing in an independent way to push and grow the movement he started by running for President. How this choice for Senator Sanders plays out will probably take until the convention in July and perhaps longer.

If Senator Sanders chooses to be the leader of this citizen effort, that would provide great impetus for efforts to achieve progress in connection with the 2016 Congressional elections.

If Senator Sanders does not choose to lead this citizen effort, that greatly diminishes its chances.

Regardless, this citizen effort is an option at the Congressional level that remains following the hole that MAYDAY has created by leaving the field.

Possibly DemocracySpring will consider this useful in trying to do battle in the 2016 Congressional elections.


_______________________________
[below is copied and pasted from https://www.reddit.com/r/MaydayPAC/comments/4fri4z/after_all_that_has_transpired_im_not_convinced/ ]
After all that has transpired, I'm not convinced MaydayPAC is the way forward. (self.MaydayPAC)
submitted  by ImagineJesusPooping
With all the losses in the last few cycles, even if the movement hadn't run out of steam it would still appear rather fruitless.
What is the way forward for people who care about this issue? WolfPAC? Attending these useless demonstrations? Very disheartening.
all 11 comments
sorted by: 
best
[–]benjamindsinger 8 points  
To ImagineJesusPooping and Wulkes:
First, thanks for all your support in the first iteration of MAYDAY.US. It was an ambitious idea, and thus got a lot of people excited.
And yes, the cross-partisan approach is essential for national progress.
The new MAYDAY.US has a different strategy towards a different theory of change.
No longer are we working on top-down change: Congress has almost never led the way on social movements. Change starts at local, then state levels, and once it reaches a critical mass, national change follows. See here:http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-pace-of-social-change/
And unfortunately, about half the states, and many major cities, do not have a ballot initiative process that allows the people to pass reform directly.
So we are now focused on electing candidates to enact reform in city/town councils, then state legislatures, THEN Congress. Once we get a critical mass of states, we show that reform is working and shift national political will. Then national reform becomes a winnable fight.
OK, and what about expensive ads? And what about waving signs around? The truth is, TV ads and mailers help, but are not as effective as personal conversations with voters. And waving signs around might get some media attention, but it's also not the effective political action that gets out the vote for reformers.
Both of those can be part of a larger strategy, but can't succeed on their own.
Running an effective campaign is much harder.
So we're starting MAYDAY.US State Teams.
These MAYDAY.US State Teams will do 4 things:
  1. Endorse reformers
  2. Organize citizens who care about money in politics to join the campaign
  3. Elect reformers by getting out the vote for them (this also goes for defeating corrupt politicians)
  4. Hold elected officials accountable to pass reform, with the threat of losing their jobs if they don't
And MAYDAY.US State Teams have 1 Team Lead, 1-2 Deputy Team Leads, and 4 subteams towards those goals:
  1. State Welcoming Team (to build the movement)
  2. State Activism Team (to run campaigns)
  3. State Press Team (to amplify the message to voters and politicians)
  4. State Digital Team (to support the other subteams)
What do you think of this new plan?
If that sounds like something you'd want to be a part of, you can join at http://act.mayday.us/join_our_teams
[–]ImagineJesusPooping[S] 1 point  
we are now focused on electing candidates to enact reform in city/town councils, then state legislatures, THEN Congress.
Given the difficulty of sustaining any movement, this sounds to me like a losing proposition. The problem with electing local officials is that there are a LOT more local bodies to keep an eye on. It seems like it will get diluted very quickly. Remember, people don't "stay" elected; they have to continuously run for re-election. As focus shifts to the state level, the local yokels will be left to fend for themselves. For this reason, I don't see going all the way down to the local level as practicable. Picking a viable state and focusing on it as a proving ground might be more effective; it would at least be more visible.
I'm not saying the plan you have won't work; I'm just saying that any change it creates will be a long way off. Given that, it will be difficult to keep people mobilized.
I am cooling on the overall notion of financial support for reform-oriented candidates. It didn't work last time around, even with millions of dollars in the coffers (a few hundred of which came from me). I'm not sure why (and I would be interested in a studied opinion on the reasons for its failure) but I am loath to commit myself to a method that has been shown not to work.
The Bloomberg article gives me some hope, though. It might be instructive to look at how the movements they highlight actually gained steam and try to emulate that.
[–]palsh7 1 point  
I appreciate all you do, but please consider the possibility that Mayday's only failure was and is its seeming reluctance to stick to any strategy for more than one cycle. It's one thing to "learn and adapt," but Mayday (and Lessig in particular) tends to work hard to gain acceptance for a plan, then sticks to it for about another month, until things inevitably don't immediately work, and then we get a big email or press release throwing in the towel, and therefore starting from scratch on gaining grassroots "bottom-up" support.
[–]philosophicalbeard 2 points  
[–]ImagineJesusPooping[S] 3 points  
Way too partisan. As much as I agree with many of the goals of the progressive platform, I don't think campaign finance reform should be made a partisan issue. Conservatives need this just as much as liberals, but no conservative would ever join a movement like that. That's what I liked about MaydayPAC.
By creating a progressive echo chamber, the singularly important issue of campaign finance reform gets drowned out by noise (even though literally 90% of the problems you want to fix could be fixed if we take back our elections).
[–]philosophicalbeard 2 points  
Good point. I hadn't thought of that way, thanks for the explanation.
[–]WackyXaky 2 points  
It seems that the important path forward is stateside (or even on the city/county level). If we can create state based public financing and constitutionally legal regulations, people can start to see the value of implementing it nationally. States are smaller and take fewer people and less money to change.
[–]vdau 3 points  
Useless demonstrations?? I hope you're not talking about Democracy Spring. Just you wait, man, the idea of campaign finance reform had its big break this year, it is supported now by practically all Democrats and even some Republicans. Now we've just got to make sure the right reforms are implemented.
[–]ImagineJesusPooping[S] 1 point  
Yeah, useless demonstrations. Remember Occupy Wallstreet? That was way bigger and got way more coverage than DS. The problem is that when demonstrations get big enough to cover, they get co-opted by other movements. I was front and center when MaydayPAC launched, and I would say I helped raise a few thousand dollars through Reddit alone. Now look at it... basically abandoned by Lessig and everyone else, a complete failure. Waving a sign around isn't going to do a damned thing. The fact that Democrats "support" campaign finance reform means nothing - they're just pandering to the issue of the day. They're not going to cut their own lifelines, ever.
I don't know what the way forward is, but I'm pretty sure it's not waving signs around.
Update 4/27
Response to tweet from Lisa Gilbert
There are two things I would say in response to the above tweet.

First, I do not seek a pledge from candidates about what they will do if elected. I am not against pledges but I think the country is fed up with promises and pledges by politicians. Congress refuses to face up, and I am seeking to force Congress to face up. I believe that only the American people united across the political spectrum can force Congress to face up. I seek all Congressional candidates in 2016 to help the American people force Congress to face up by vociferously demanding that the current Congress take this up for debate and action (or non-action) before November 8th, as will allow the 2016 Congressional elections to be a referendum on the current Congress facing up (or not facing up).

Second, I believe DemocracySpring needs to answer A question for DemSpring. As stated at the end of that entry,
If the foregoing question is not delved into by DemSpring, and dealt with, our issue that DemSpring wants to force "into the heart of the 2016 election narrative" is at serious risk of being just another one of numerous partisan gridlock matters that the American people despair of their broken Congress doing their job about, and, as such, disappears in the fog of the perpetual political war.
Again, I am not against pledges, but, if DemSpring does not open up its "pitch" to candidates, I think it will contribute to partisan posturing, which I believe is counterproductive to achieving meaningful progress.

[Edit: Three things] Third, pledges partake of conundrum #2 of Zephyr Teachout's conundrums. Conundrum #2 arguably led to Prof. Lessig abandoning the effort at the Congressional level, and Democracy Spring needs to consider how conundrum #2 may irretrievably debilitate its pledge approach.  As explained at Rationale, I think my approach overcomes the conundrum #2 problem.
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Thursday, April 21, 2016

Whither DemSpring, MAYDAY, now?

Democracy Spring's civil disobedience action in Washington DC is completed.

The effect and publicity of the action seem middling to slight to me. (If you are interested in a more informed evaluation, you should contact Democracy Spring.)

In an April 19th email, Democracy Spring says the following for going forward in 2016: 
We have drawn a line in the sand. Every candidate for public office in our country, from President down to city council must choose: stand with the People on the side of democracy, or with Big Money on the side of corruption. From this day forward, there will be a growing political price to pay for anyone who defends our billionaire-dominated political system or the voter suppression policies that compromise our fundamental right to self-government.
We the People have found strength, we have found courage, and we have found each other. From the spark of this moment in Washington, a movement will catch fire across the country, as grassroots leaders from all 50 states return to their homes and organize others to take nonviolent action to defeat those who stand in the way of reform.
To the defenders of the corrupt status quo we declare this: from your offices to your press conferences, debates, and fundraisers, and in the hearts and minds of every voter, we will expose you, we will disrupt you, we will shut you down.
Across America, we will continue to escalate and force this issue into the headlines. We will make the 2016 election a referendum on whether we will live in a democracy for all or a plutocracy for the 1%.
Exactly what the grassroots leaders in the 50 states will be able to get going during the remainder of 2016 remains to be seen.

MAYDAY is in a similar grassroots vein, saying on its website The Plan page the following:
In 2016, we're going to the grassroots - where the real power is. We believe that when the people lead, the leaders will follow. In fact, we know it to be true.
By organizing on the ground, with a passionate and dedicated group of volunteers across the country, we can impact elections better than any big donor or Super PAC could dream of.
From my limited vantage point, grassroots activity is extraordinarily difficult to "catch fire" and keep going.

In very rare cases, the catching fire of the grassroots can be mindblowingly spectacular, such as with the Sanders and Trump Presidential campaigns.

I think most grassroots activity is fizzle, and fizzling out. (On fizzle and fizzling out of reform efforts, you might find The fate of GOOOH interesting.)

Only time will tell whether Democracy Spring and MAYDAY will achieve meaningful progress in 2016.

I think that the social media of MAYDAY has reported very little grassroots activity for the past year and a half. Possibly lots of grassroots activity has happened and will happen, which does not and will not show up on MAYDAY's social media. My assumption is that a group such as MAYDAY would want to do maximum reporting on its social media about grassroots activities that are happening, in order to encourage other grassroots activities to spring up. My conclusion would tend to be that, if an organization's social media is not reporting much grassroots activity, not much worthwhile is in fact going on.

Judged by this, MAYDAY's prospects for grassroots activities for the remainder of 2016 seem minimal.

It is probably too soon to judge about Democracy Spring. I will stay tuned to what gets reported in their social media about grassroots activities as 2016 progresses.

I have been making my own efforts to get grassroots activity going, as laid out in great detail in this blog. I have not been able to get anything worthwhile going.

I would say that my own lack of success is a factor in my having low expectations of success for Democracy Spring and MAYDAY during the remainder of 2016.

More power to Democracy Spring and MAYDAY if they show my expectations to be wrong.

Comments of others on what I say above are solicited.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

The PENNSYLVANIA tweeting bank for Sen. Sanders



TO: As many PENNSYLVANIA DEMOCRATS  as we can tweet to

This message is being tweeted to you individually.

We who are tweeting to you are both Pennsylvania residents and non-residents. We are Republicans, Democrats and independents.

We believe that the corruption of Congress must be addressed, and the American people must force it to happen this year before Nov. 8th. Our efforts with this tweeting are part of a nationwide citizen effort to cause this to happen.

We believe that Senator Sanders is the Presidential candidate who can best help the American people to force Congress to confront the corruption problem before Nov. 8th. We have asked Senator Sanders to "go for broke" in his campaign about this issue. See Going for broke in NY State primary. Senator Sanders has not yet issued the campaign statement we have requested of him, but we do not need him to do so as a predicate for launching this PENNSYLVANIA tweeting back.

We ask all PENNSYLVANIA Democrats to express their support for our object of forcing Congress to confront its corruption before Nov. 8th by voting for Senator Sanders in the primary next Tuesday.

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

If you come to this page and want to help us do even more tweeting to Pennsylvania Democrats to get them to get out and vote for Senator Sanders on Tuesday, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

Thank you very much.


GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN PENNSYLVANIA TWEETING BANK
A. General
The tweeting involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to followers of Twitter accounts of Democratic party organizations.
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 this tweeting, go to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/2016congressionalcandidatesdeclarations. To post there, you need to apply to be in the group, and you will be approved.

B. Suggested tweet message
Here is a suggested tweet message to use, or compose your own message:
Vote for Sen Sanders on Tues to force Congress to face up to its corruption before Nov. 8th.
http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-pennsylvania-tweeting-bank-for-sen.html
C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find Twitter accounts of  Pennsylvania Democratic party organizations which have a lot of Pennsylvania Democrats who are followers, which you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is a Pennsylvania resident, send the person a tweet as likely being a Democrat.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person. If a Twitter account "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for Democratic party organization follower lists to tweet to:
https://twitter.com/PADems/followers
https://twitter.com/YoungDems_AGH
https://twitter.com/UMDems
https://twitter.com/WCDemocrats
https://twitter.com/BlairDems
https://twitter.com/MontcopaDems/followers
https://twitter.com/YorkCountyDems/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 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.


COMPARISON TO PHONE BANKING
Two million calls by 15,000 volunteers translates to 133 calls per volunteer. In the tweet banking described above, a single volunteer can easily send 100 tweets in an hour and can probably send 200 tweets in an hour. Using the 200 number, if the volunteer tweets for 2-1/2 hours on Saturday and 2-1/2 hours on Sunday, that volunteer cans send 1000 tweets during the weekend. One thousand volunteers can send 1,000,000 tweets and 15,000 volunteers can send 15,000,000 tweets.

Also, the tweeting bank has the potential that recipients of tweets may themselves send tweets (i.e., a pyramiding effect) and significantly increase the total number of tweets that are sent.


EDIT: WILL THIS FLY?
Today (4/20) I have been tweeting to users of the #democracyspring hashtag this tweet:
Tweet and shout at PA Dems to help Sen. Sanders fight against Cong'l corruption. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-pennsylvania-tweeting-bank-for-sen.html 
I have had 440 page views of this entry. I have had upwards of 50 retweets and likes. I have gotten no indication that anyone is tweeting in the tweeting bank.
I very much appreciate your retweets and likes, but they are not going to "cut the mustard."
Pennsylvania is the current, latest tweeting bank I have tried out. The predecessors, I would say, did not get off the ground.
There are other primaries next Tuesday besides Pennsylvania. Tweeting banks can be done for those as well.
Butt cha gotta step up to the plate.
So, please give me evidence that some of you are stepping up to the plate.
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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Going for broke in NY State primary

The tweet
Senator Sanders has tweeted this about #DemocracySpring:
(For more information about DemocracySpring, go to http://www.democracyspring.org/.)


The campaign statement
With the critical New York State primary one week away, Senator Sanders should "go for broke" on the issue of the corruption of money in politics. He should do so by issuing a formal campaign statement along the lines of A campaign statement for Sen. Sanders.

The campaign statement "goes for broke" because it injects Senator Sanders into all 435 Congressional district elections in the United States this year, and it tells the Congressional candidates, Republicans, Democrats and other, to do something. To wit, the statement tells the Congressional candidates to demand that the current Congress address and agree on something about corruption of money in politics before Nov. 8th, or the current Congress will face consequences at the ballot box in November.

The statement does not recommend any particular reform legislation. It only demands that Congress stop avoiding the issue (such avoidance being for the reason that Congress benefits from the status quo even though it may not be good for the American people).

Under the statement, all in Congress will (and should) have a say.

Some in Congress may say they think the corruption of money in politics is not a significant issue, and they will not press Congress to take up the matter before Nov. 8th.

Others in Congress may say the corruption is a serious problem for the American people. They may specify their own diagnosis of the problem and propose what they think Congress should do about it. They may express concerns about the value to the country of 1st Amendment rights of free speech, and that the same should be taken into account in crafting solutions to the corruption problem.

All of this will then be up for debate in Congress in full public view. The critical thing is that the debate take place, instead of debate being avoided (because Congress benefits from the status quo even though it is not the best for the American people).

By making the campaign statement, Senator Sanders will be a leader for all the American people in trying to force Congress to debate and act. Congress may choose not to act, and then Senator Sanders can be a leader for the American people to vote their Congress out of office in November.


The NEW YORK STATE tweeting bank
To further "go for broke", Senator Sanders should urge all in his campaign to participate in a massive tweeting bank for sending tweets to Democratic voters in New York state, along the lines of that which is set out at http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-new-york-state-tweeting-bank-for.html.

If supporters of Senator Sanders throughout the country participate in the tweeting bank, millions of tweets could be sent to New York Democrats. This could possibly sway votes in the New York primary on Tuesday.


Addendum: How you can help
If you want to help on the above, forward this to your local Sanders group for their consideration and pushing up to the national campaign.
If you want to start tweeting to New York Democrats, tweet me or email me at rdshattuck@gmail.com.
If you want to spread the word to Sanders supporters, start sending individual tweets to users of Sanders hashtags (such as #feelthebern). Your tweet might be something like:
We need Bernie supporters to get this going. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/04/going-for-broke-in-ny-state-primary.html Please tweet me back.
If you get offers to help, please pass them along to me for proceeding from there.


4/16 Comparison to phone banking
Two million calls by 15,000 volunteers translates to 133 calls per volunteer. In the tweet banking described above, a single volunteer can easily send 100 tweets in an hour and can probably send 200 tweets in an hour. Using the 200 number, if the volunteer tweets for 2-1/2 hours on Saturday and 2-1/2 hours on Sunday, that volunteer cans send 1000 tweets during the weekend. One thousand volunteers can send 1,000,000 tweets and 15,000 volunteers can send 15,000,000 tweets.

Also, the tweeting bank has the potential that recipients of tweets may themselves send tweets (i.e., a pyramiding effect) and significantly increase the total number of tweets that are sent.
Posted by at 7 comments:

The NEW YORK STATE tweeting bank for Sen. Sanders

[This is a suggested form of New York State tweeting bank if Senator Sanders issues the campaign statement urged at http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/04/going-for-broke-in-ny-state-primary.html ]


 TO: As many NEW YORK DEMOCRATS  as we can tweet to

This message is being tweeted to you individually.

We who are tweeting to you are both New York residents and non-residents. We are Republicans, Democrats and independents.

We believe the only Presidential candidate who is credible for fixing the country's corrupt campaign finance system is Senator Sanders, and it is of utmost importance that New York Democrats vote for Senator Sanders next Tuesday.  (This is a closed primary and only New York residents who are registered Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary and vote for Senator Sanders.)

Our efforts with this tweeting are part of a nationwide citizen effort for the American voters to 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. Senator Sanders is our leader for this effort, per the campaign statement he has put on his campaign website, which can be found at [link to campaign statement when Senator Sanders makes statement]

We hope to send individually directed tweets to thousands of New York State Democrats, which tweets will have links to this page.

If you come to this page and want to help us do even more tweeting to New York State Democrats to get them to get out and vote for Senator Sanders on Tuesday, please follow the guidance provided below and join in the tweeting.

Thank you very much.


GUIDANCE FOR TWEETING IN NEW YORK STATE TWEETING BANK
A. General
The tweeting involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of very large numbers of individually directed tweets to followers of Twitter accounts of Democratic party organizations.
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 this tweeting, go to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/2016congressionalcandidatesdeclarations. To post there, you need to apply to be in the group, and you will be approved.

B. Suggested tweet message
Here is a suggested tweet messages to use, or compose your own message:
It is imperative New York Democratss vote for Bernie Sanders in Tues. primary in order to save our country. http://2016candidatesdeclarations.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-new-york-state-tweeting-bank-for.html
C. Persons to send your individually directed tweets to
The object is to find Twitter accounts of  New York Democratic party organizations which have a lot of New York Democrats who are followers, which you can send your tweets to. If a person's twitter profile indicates the person is a New York resident, send the person a tweet as likely being a Democrat.
Do not worry about redundancy and whether others participating in this tweeting bank may also be tweeting to the same person. If a Twitter account "follower" list is long, you might scroll down in the list and randomly pick a person to start with.
Here are suggestions for Democratic party organization follower lists to tweet to:
https://twitter.com/NYSenDems/followers
https://twitter.com/UBDems/followers
https://twitter.com/NYUDems/followers
https://twitter.com/rocklanddems/followers
https://twitter.com/AlbanyDemocrats/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 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.


4/16/16 COMPARISON TO PHONE BANKING
Two million calls by 15,000 volunteers translates to 133 calls per volunteer. In the tweet banking described above, a single volunteer can easily send 100 tweets in an hour and can probably send 200 tweets in an hour. Using the 200 number, if the volunteer tweets for 2-1/2 hours on Saturday and 2-1/2 hours on Sunday, that volunteer cans send 1000 tweets during the weekend. One thousand volunteers can send 1,000,000 tweets and 15,000 volunteers can send 15,000,000 tweets.

Also, the tweeting bank has the potential that recipients of tweets may themselves send tweets (i.e., a pyramiding effect) and significantly increase the total number of tweets that are sent.
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