now everybody is up in arms and wants to reform our election system. if we proved anything this cycle is that our election system sucks and it isnt gonna get fixed unless we get millions of Americans to yell and scream until Congress fixes it. but how do we do that? more specifically what will kossacks do?
this is a dirty nasty legislative fight that will take more than a couple emails to fix. and it wont come from people donating a bunch of money to a 527. except for the Sinclair movement thats just about all we have done here.
there is more to be done than passing a law that says slap a printer on an electronic voting machine. there are registration regulations, redistricting, campaign finance reform (public financing, free airtime, disclosure rules...) the list goes on. i am not saying we need/have to fix all of this in the next couple years but we sure as hell need to do something. it is too damn important to keep the status quo.
so how do we achieve our goals? do we reinvent the wheel every time? lets take the example of Sinclair: a new website was made from scratch, they had to figure out how to staff it, find a donation system and coordinate with the other groups (people) working on the issue. that is a crap load of work to do, basically you are starting up a new organization with every issue that comes along. that is inefficient. there has to be a better way.
what are the other options? you know what, people in dc have been doing advocacy work for decades. i know, we can donate to them and leave the professionals to do their work. what you dont like that? you want to be involved you say. guess what so do i.
but wait a minute we cant do it all ourselves, but do we trust others to do it for us? is it to our advantage to have actual real people working the halls of congress on our behalf? or is signing a petition enough? what does it take to get reform passed when we are totally out of power in Congress?
it is going to be a damn hard fight. just the meager reforms of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform to 10 YEARS of hard, consistent fight up on the hill. millions of people wrote letters and personally went into district offices and lobbied their legislators. they got so close many times only to fail. thats what it is going to be like.
do the netroots have the stomach for it? how can we take our passion, googling skills, willingness to donate and turn it into reform? right now i dont see us doing much other than infighting.
so what is our strategy?
i have asked a lot of questions during this rant, now it is time to offer up my suggestions. either we need find a good way to partner with a reform organization that is willing to open itself up to input, advice and research from the netroots. or start a real organization (read c(4)) that combines the dkossary, diary system and a good website that allows for group coordination. but you will need some people working full time. having your own lobbyist up on the Hill is an amazing resource. having someone in charge 24-7 to marshal and focus the troops is also important. and of course a press person to answer questions and hold press conferences.
personally, id rather have the 1st option come true. i fought for it for a long time within an organization i worked for. but two things happened 1) they ran out of money 2) they have plenty of people signing their petitions and emailing their reps, but nobody contributes anything else (time, knowledge and/or money).
you want something to do, go out there and do it. donate to a reform organization. do some research and send it to them. go write on their blogs and offer suggestions. call up your legislator and as for a meeting. bring some friends, you probably will only get to the staff, but they are the people you need to convince. or figure out a way to start and organization. dont just yap and call each other names. its time for reform and it starts with you.