In the course of the last three weeks or so, I have gotten quite a few emails from political interests - having subscribed to several to see what everyone is up to. (In the interest of disclosure, I should let you know that I am
running for Congress as a Democrat in CA's East Bay area.)
Here is why Democrats suck: I got two emails asking me to help specific candidates, one in Virginia, the other in West Virginia. Here is the Democratic email, and here is the Republican email. Now, forgetting for a minute that one says "Barbara Boxer" at the top, and the other says "GOP" at the top - what are your impressions? One is short, simple, and direct. It asks for help in an interesting, fun, grassroots way. The other is almost 4 times longer, repetitive, uninformative and mean spirited. It asks only for money.
Would you be suprised that the Democratic one was the bad one, and the Republican one was populist, empowering and grassroots oriented - without a mention of money in sight? I certainly was.
Where are the Democrats on stuff like this? I am building
my own software to provide
my own campaign tools like this - why is that necessary? The DNC or the DFA or someone should be investing in open source tools for candidates to use for free that will involve people and harness grassroots power. We should be building on those tools every election, we should be leading the way on this - I have always thought of Democrats as the party of the people, yet here the Republicans are engaging thier grassroots while we're asking for money through mass propaganda.
To give you an idea of other email I got in that time, I also got two emails from Kerry asking me to give money, one email from Campaign for America's Future asking for money, and one from John Edwards asking for money, but also one for a choice of book for their book forum. I actually participated in the book choice.
I got two emails from DFA threatening me as a candidate to sign their pledge for an Iraq withdrawl timeline or nobody in DFA will vote for me, one of which was from Paul Hackett for some reason.
I also got about 10 from MoveOn.org, most of which just letting me know what I should be mad at today. Though one did actually ask my opinion on the CA propositions.
None asking me to participate in an online phone bank. None asking me to walk door to door. None asking me to join the campaign of a local candidate. Aside from MoveOn, none asking me for ideas or anything other than money for any reason. One or two "sign an online petition" or "join our massive fax spam" requests. That's it. Is this the best we can come up with?
While the Democratic leadership holes itself away writing the "new" Contract for America - apparently having learned nothing from Lakoff, continuing to frame it in Republican terms, we have only the SEIU asking ordinary people for the best new ideas Since Sliced Bread. Why is that not coming from the DNC?
We could be so much more connected, we could offer supporters so much more involvement. We have to get to a point in politics where it's not all about the dollars. This is our chance - where are the new ideas? I am contributing GroundWorks to the progressive political community, who will help me with it, help me take it to the next level? Alternately, who will convince the DNC or the DFA that they should build their own? That instead of a $5,000 check to a candidates PAC, maybe providing free, hosted, organized, powerful community and precinct online tools to candidates across the country might have more of an effect?
Why, oh why, are we behind Republicans on this? The difference between these two emails should cause us all to shake our heads.
Update (moved up from comments):
The title was meant to be facetious, I'm sorry it was not taken that way by some. My point was not to actually say 'we are all horrible', it was to point out a view to those of us who are in this so deep everyday it's hard to remember what people who vote but aren't obsessed with politics think. I am a Democrat, I support Democrats, I even tend to vote for them. I have voted and will again vote for Boxer. The point was to demonstrate the general difference that I've been seeing, and asking you all if maybe we're missing the forest for the trees at times. Do we understand what we sound like to people? Do we know what our opponents sound like to people?
You can attack me, that's fine, but I hope you also get the point - that we can be better than this, that we may not realize what people who don't already agree with us may think of these messages. You can think I'm stupid, you can think I'm inwardly sniping, but please also try to consider what I was writing to convey - to imagine what the growing number of decline to state's think of emails like this, and why perhaps people are increasingly declining to state.
More than anything, I want to see the Democrats take back the House next year and now is the time to think about how we are arming ourselves.
I have complained, but now I'm putting my money, time and energy where my mouth is and running, giving away everything I do so that others might build on it or use it themselves. If I don't succeed, maybe someone else will, but at least it's not all about me.
This is for the sake of thinking differently, reconsidering where we are and where we want to be. Can we use email more effectively? Are our emails toned appropriately for who is getting them and who we are trying to get to act? Are the tools available for free to try new things? Do current candidates (who tend not to be too wired) know about them? Are we further today than we were last election? Are we trying anything new next year that we didn't last election?