This week, DemSpring's supporters are carrying out a mass sit in in Washington DC, for demanding that Congress immediately pass reform, or else arrest the demonstrators.
DemSpring says, however, that "[g]iven the current makeup of Congress, immediate reform is extremely unlikely."
The sit in and the "outreach" are ostensibly how DemSpring intends to achieve its objective to "force [the reform] issue into the heart of the 2016 election narrative and make the election a referendum on whether our democracy should belong to the People as a whole or to the billionaire class alone."
Publicity from the sit in may make a contribution towards that objective.
Realistically, however, for weeks to come, the 2016 election narrative is going to be consumed by Trump, Cruz, and a possible contested Republican convention, and by Sanders versus Clinton on the Democratic side.
In this 2016 election narrative, DemSpring will likely not be more than a tiny blip in the national political consciousness.*
For almost a year, the Presidential election has offered DemSpring, and its sponsors such as MAYDAY, an extraordinary opportunity to try to inject themselves into the national consciousness on the coattails of Bernie Sanders' campaign to get big money out of politics and of Donald Trump's campaign assault on a broken and incompetent establishment in Washington DC.
Ostensibly the organizations have made no effort during the past year to slip stream into the fast and furious lane of the Presidential election.
I imagine the volunteer resources of the organizations are extremely thin. I can understand that DemSpring believed dedicating itself for six months exclusively to planning this week's sit in was necessary, and it had no resources for developing the "outreach" component in its 2016 agenda, which is to start shortly.
It would be great if DemSpring's agenda could catch fire in the hinterlands the way, say, Bernie Sanders' campaign caught grassroots fire starting 10 months ago and has led to enormous, impassioned active support of tens of thousands of Sanders volunteers around the country
As exciting as this week portends to be for DemSpring, I think there needs to be a facing up to the question of "where's the beef" going to be in DemSpring's outreach program in the coming weeks after the sit in is over.
MAYDAY spent most of 2015 trying to do "outreach" to current members of Congress. MAYDAY's 2015 efforts don't seem to be a precursor for DemSpring now to succeed in "forc[ing] the reform issue into the heart of the 2016 election narrative and make the election a referendum on whether our democracy should belong to the People as a whole or to the billionaire class alone."
I wish the prospects for DemSpring's objective for the 2016 election were more sanguine. I hope DemSpring can come up with much beef in its "outreach" efforts.
Time will tell what DemSpring will be able to achieve between now and November.
_________
*DemSpring supporters registered much complaint on the first day of the sit in (4/11) about the main stream media not covering the sit in. This morning (4/12) the early morning cable news played many times a video of Trump railing against the "rigged" and "crooked" delegate selection system. I saw nothing about the sit in.
Related blog entries
A question for DemSpring (4/2/16)
Can Trump win with DemSpring's issue? (4/4/16)
What's for grassroots to do ((4/7/16)
Realistically, however, for weeks to come, the 2016 election narrative is going to be consumed by Trump, Cruz, and a possible contested Republican convention, and by Sanders versus Clinton on the Democratic side.
In this 2016 election narrative, DemSpring will likely not be more than a tiny blip in the national political consciousness.*
For almost a year, the Presidential election has offered DemSpring, and its sponsors such as MAYDAY, an extraordinary opportunity to try to inject themselves into the national consciousness on the coattails of Bernie Sanders' campaign to get big money out of politics and of Donald Trump's campaign assault on a broken and incompetent establishment in Washington DC.
Ostensibly the organizations have made no effort during the past year to slip stream into the fast and furious lane of the Presidential election.
I imagine the volunteer resources of the organizations are extremely thin. I can understand that DemSpring believed dedicating itself for six months exclusively to planning this week's sit in was necessary, and it had no resources for developing the "outreach" component in its 2016 agenda, which is to start shortly.
It would be great if DemSpring's agenda could catch fire in the hinterlands the way, say, Bernie Sanders' campaign caught grassroots fire starting 10 months ago and has led to enormous, impassioned active support of tens of thousands of Sanders volunteers around the country
As exciting as this week portends to be for DemSpring, I think there needs to be a facing up to the question of "where's the beef" going to be in DemSpring's outreach program in the coming weeks after the sit in is over.
MAYDAY spent most of 2015 trying to do "outreach" to current members of Congress. MAYDAY's 2015 efforts don't seem to be a precursor for DemSpring now to succeed in "forc[ing] the reform issue into the heart of the 2016 election narrative and make the election a referendum on whether our democracy should belong to the People as a whole or to the billionaire class alone."
I wish the prospects for DemSpring's objective for the 2016 election were more sanguine. I hope DemSpring can come up with much beef in its "outreach" efforts.
Time will tell what DemSpring will be able to achieve between now and November.
_________
*DemSpring supporters registered much complaint on the first day of the sit in (4/11) about the main stream media not covering the sit in. This morning (4/12) the early morning cable news played many times a video of Trump railing against the "rigged" and "crooked" delegate selection system. I saw nothing about the sit in.
Related blog entries
A question for DemSpring (4/2/16)
Can Trump win with DemSpring's issue? (4/4/16)
What's for grassroots to do ((4/7/16)
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