Ok, it's time to put your moolah where your moocher is.
Take the 1% challenge.
You say you're a progressive; you spend at least (at least!) ten minutes every day reading Daily Kos. That's (at least) 60 hours a year.
Presumably, you read DKOS because you want progressive change; you want government and leadership more responsive to the people.
You probably get angry at things like unnecessary wars, and large legislative boondoggles for large legislator's friends, and the government sitting by while poor people drown (literally and metaphorically).
Maybe, you think Daily Kos is a potent political force.
Maybe you think reading it and making some comments and getting fours is going to bring about that progressive change. Maybe, it will. I don't know. But it won't bring it about very quickly.
In a democratic, capitalistic society, you have three basic powers to change the world.
- You can vote
- You can spend
- You can speak.
Here at Daily Kos, we do a lot of the third; I suspect we're all pretty good at the first.
If we want to be a truly powerful community, we'll have to learn to do the second. We need to put our kash where our kissers are.
Take The 1% Challenge
I challenge every Kossack to make a pledge to donate 1% of their yearly income to Democratic candidates.
One percent. One one-hundredth. Not very much.
Look at it this way:
Most of us give %20 or more of our money in taxes so that a Republican government can fight its wars, wiretap its citizens, support former Arabian Horse Judges, fund the pharmaceutical industry, build new nuclear bombs, pay journalists to print propaganda, did I mention fight unprovoked, unnecessary wars?, give Karen Hughes a job, out CIA agents, fund the oil industry....
So you give %20 or more to help Republicans make real their disastrous agenda. Why not give 1% to Democrats who could make you proud to pay your taxes. You give %20 to the Color Coded Terror scale, why not give %1 to candidates who won't lead by fear, but by ideas?
You spend 60 hours a year (at least!) reading about progressive change; that's over 3% of your waking hours. Why don't you spend 1% of your yearly income to make that change actually happen. Give it this year and every year. That's how Daily Kos will become a real political force.
If you're a student and you get $100 at Christmas, give a dollar to the Democrats. If you're a graduate student and they pay you a $10, 000 stipend then give a $100. If you make fifty grand a year, give $500. If you make a hundred grand, give a thousand dollars (or more, rich boy).
Assume 100, 000 regular readers of Daily Kos. Assume an average income of $30,000 (well under the average income of American at large). If we all took the pledge, we would raise $30 million.
That's a potent political force. That's something that could change this country.
So below in the comments, sign the pledge.
Tell us you'll do it this year. Tell us, if you're comfortable, how much money that is, and tell us if you've ever donated before. I'll keep track.
Then make it happen. The best way to make it happen is to it do it now. Go to Act Blue , and donate your 1% to the DNC.
Or if you want to be more targeted, take your %1 out of the bank in one dollar bills. Put the pile next to your computer screen with a post it note (in DKOS orange) that says SCRATCH WHERE MY SMACKER IS. Take money out as you find candidates you like. IF you run out, you can always give more. Heh.
I will be disappointed if I don't get five hundred pledgers on this diary.