A modest proposal about turning DU into a massive political force

[rockymountaindem]

Some people here have suggested turning DU into more than just a discussion forum, but also sort of a political action group. As a lead in to what I want to say, consider this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1439054

Someone posted the Zogby poll, and another DUer suggested that we send the Zogby poll to CNN and ask them what they're trying to pull.

I propose that we form some kind of political action core who would represent DU to the rest of the world. For example, on a matter such as this, our representatives could contact CNN and say (with our backing) "43,000 DUers are watching and we're on to you. We know you're lying and manipulating the polls... please stop". Considering that only about 2 million people watch CNN anyway, getting a letter on behalf of 43,000 people might have some impact on them. Furthermore, this might stop disruptors from registering here, because by expanding our numbers they only give our complaints more value.

We could do the same thing with some of our better ideas for the Kerry campaign.

In order to make it democratic, the ambassadors could create a special forum where they explain their activities, and conduct votes (in the form of the usual DU poll) to decide if we should collectively voice an opinion on an issue.

Lastly, if we implement such an arrangement, we would all be wise to invite our friends to join DU in order to swell our numbers and increase our powers of persuasion.

So what do you think? Is this feasible? Is it even a good idea? I hope you agree with me...

[SpiralHawk]

1. Let's go for it.

It is fair, clean, and aboveboard. It is also, as you suggest, Rocky, a potentially powerful strategy.

I second the motion.

[JDPriestly]

2. Good idea

Strength in numbers

[tom_paine]

3. There aren't 43,000 DUers

Those numbers include banished Freepers, banished DUers (some of whom came back under other names), etc.

My own estimate of the number of DUers, 3,000.
Number of lurkers: 15,000

FULL DISCLOSURE: I just pulled those numbers out of my ass. They are guesses only with no factual basis.

[rockymountaindem]

5. So when someone gets kicked off they aren't subtracted from the list?

[rinsd]

7. Not sure.....

"So when someone gets kicked off they aren't subtracted from the list?"

That may be a question for Skinner in the Ask the Admin forum.

[tom_paine]

8. Correct

But feel free to go over to "Ask the Admins" to confirm.

[OneTwentyoNine]

17. I asked the same question months ago

And got no answer but...I really doubt there are anywhere near 30-40,000 on DU.

Another DC script type of forum I frequent kicks your sign up stuff off if you don't post at least once in 90 days. Keeps a fairly accurate record of how many "real" members that you have.

David

[BostonTeaParty04]

42. But with a PAC....we COULD be 43,000 and probably more! n/t

*

[Terran]

37. No

That number includes everyone who has *ever* registered at DU, including everyone who's been banned. There are probably a lot of duplicates, multiple registrations for the same person. Conservatively, I think you could still say there are 25-30,000 solid members, however.

[tom_paine]

41. As I understand it, they are not

[JNelson6563]

29. no but it sounds very impressive!

I've often wondered if they deducted all the tombstoned and sock=puppets what would the REAL number be? I'd wager plenty that it's not nearly as impressive.

Julie

[doni_georgia]

4. Sounds Awesome! Bring it on! n/t

[sugarman]

6. Yes, it's feasible..

I've spent the last hour trying to get someone to reply to my post about organizing a boycott of CNN for one day. I think we have the same idea. Here's my idea...

1. Start popularizing the idea on DU.
2. Email prominent bloggers to get them to promote the idea. The more people who email the bloggers, the more likely they'll get behind the idea.
3. Get MoveOn.org behind us...
4. Get your friends behind the idea.

I'm sure there are others out there who have better ideas. Let's brainstorm

[SpiralHawk]

9. And keep this thread KICKED

If it gets 100 posts or more, then it is getting a vote of sorts.

If more than a couple of hundred people want to do it, then it would be worthwhile to invest the time in setting up the protocols and the mechanisms to make it work.

We could have this puppy up and barking by May 1 -- and at Full Torque by July.

We'd be ready for DU Hyperdrive in the Slippery Stretch to the cold, gray, fateful days of November...

[ursacorwin]

13. so many things we could do...

"action of the day" something simple, like every DU member sending an email to the biggest press ho or liar. 3K or 43K, that's a lot of action. it could be "pegged" at the top of the daily GD.

"DU Meetups for action" same idea, only this time, one a week, in selected larger cities where there are lots of us, where we actually leave the computer table and go make our wishes known. we could protest events that are little known but easy to find thanks to the internet, and get a few hundred DUers at say, the next Lock.-Martin board meeting, or the CBS shareholders meeting. they don't see us often enough, i think.

"DU Bats!" yeah, so i'm a deanie. but the bats work, and this is the time to really show that we're not all talk. and just to be fair, make each bat a two-tiered deal. one for cash, one for action- the poor DUers can pledge time if they don't have cash. pick a candidate or race or 527 like atrios does, set realistic goals, "peg" it to the top of every forum, get a couple of matching donors...we've raised a lot in the past, and money talks. we could run a parallel board for advertisers and corporate 'good guys' to get boycotts & spending sprees going. the big guys pay attention to money.

"DU U!" ha ha, the underground university. we could make a new board that would host real, "mainstream-approved," news, links and info. we could take an attitude like the old DDF, and research important issues to counter rethug talking points. we could email the info to the media, the politicians who need it most, en mass as in example #1 above. we could stem the flow of disinfo before it gets picked up and made 'real' by the teevee news who rely on drudge rather than facts.

and finally:

"DU Rocks!" a fun place where we celebrate our successes and impact. we get celebrities and DU supporting politicians to come by and party with us. we let it get loose and free, and have little contests where we all pledge to sign up a new DUer each week till the election. we could set up creative pages/boards, where DUers can show their other talents. something really wild, yet effective.

i'm sure lots of others have ideas, or could improve mine. we're spinning our wheels without action, and we should remember how much power we have, just on our little machines at home. "together" we can do a lot, and don't think the Powers that Be don't know and fear that fact.

[rockymountaindem]

10. So should I ask the mods about this?

[knight_of_the_star]

11. Good idea!!!

I've had enough of the RW pulling this crap, let's show them what organization can do to them!

[Bombtrack]

12. It's far more likely to happen if the moderators saw the LIHOP/MIHOP/

anti-Israel/Bush=Hitler/Osama is just a misunderstood religious leader bullshit propaganda regurgitation as a tenth as delete-worthy as people saying the word bitch or some other PC crap.

We aren't going to be taken seriously when the vicious paranoid fringe is such a dominant and accepted part of this forum.

[ursacorwin]

14. i want to disagree with that..

sure, right now a lot of folks rely on the teevee in order to 'understand' their world. but increasingly, according to recent studies, that's changing. we're all proof of that, even if we are only a few thousand regular readers. and once you learn what's out there, going back is pretty hard...

and there are many, many stories of and posters who were once 'moderates' or even republicans! (ex-goper is a name here) a little bit of truth at a time, and people start to believe all those "crazy" theories. ahem, a lot of LIHOP people are feeling rather smug these days, and rightly so.

so don't write off the whole site because some threads scare some newer people. learning and new ideas are SCARY to a lot of folks, thanks to our culture of anti-intellectualism. we all know that there are no longer any trustworthy single sources of information. DU has value, more in some places than others. it's a brave new world of free information, and we're all going to have to accept that. even mom and dad sixpack who think computers are irrelevant to them.

it's our job to show them why they're wrong.

[Bombtrack]

16. It's anti-intellectual to make your mind up about something because

of QUESTIONS. Yeah, we all have questions. But there is not one shred of impiracle evidence of most of the answers they purport to have, and most of it can get pretty rediculous when you get down to the fact that they don't even have any real scenarios. In the JFK assassination, you have scenarios, you have chains of possible events. The vast majority of the people putting this stuff out have there own agendas, based in a fringe ideology, which aren't cogent, or really investigative or conclusive in any real way. Are some sights put together all nice and professional and neat, yeah, but all they have is more of the same, questions, and then broad overreaching cloudy accusations of what would have to be dozens if not hundreds of people ok with planning, cooridinating, and conceiling genocide against there fellow citizens. And the fact that so many people, who overwhelmingly are somewhat to very radical politically, are just regurgitating all this without thinking about it intellectually is just sad

[Beam Me Up]

26. "not one shred of impiracle (sic) evidence"

That isn't accurate. There is lots of evidence--hundreds of pieces of it--but this is not what this thread is about. This thread is about the possibility of people at DU coming together to 'DU' something other than share information. I think that is a GREAT idea.

[ursacorwin]

31. talking about anti-intellectualism

while missing out on the correct spelling of several words detracts from the strength of your post. it is my opinion that you are trying to disrupt this important post with a non-issue.

"impiracle" = empirical
"rediculous" = ridiculous

[RapidCreek]

46. Indeed....rediculous

I see this misspelling frequently....and generally attached to the sort of thread you have described. I think I shall do a search on that spelling error and tally up the tenor of the messages it appears in...it shall be interesting. I'll post my result when I finish up looking into it.

RC

[info being]

36. And I won't sign up with the likes of you deciding what's appropriate

[RapidCreek]

44. Is that right?

Interesting. I suppose the same could be said of the group who was anti-terrorist/Reagan, North, Poindexter, Cheney, Bush, Powell=traitor Nixon=Criminal Black and women=citizens as a tenth delete-worthy as people saying the word bitch or some other PC crap.

I'm curious.....are you aware that Israel acted as middle man for Powell in Reagan and Bush's arms gifts to the "terrorist state" Iran? No...obiviously you aren't. Facts be damned, right? Wouldn't want to expose the public to facts. One might be thought of as vicious or part of the paranoid fringe.

RC

[sugarman]

15. I'm sick of bitching...

Let band together, get an idea, and promote it on DU...We can set up a poll to determine what idea we want to promote..

[opihimoimoi]

18. Count the Opi in

Lemme send the Luaus.

[opihimoimoi]

19. On second thought, the longer we wait, the more difficult it becomes to

Beat Bush.

This is their fear, UNITY. By individuals, we threaten no one, a blip on the radar. But, as they did, join forces, a coalition of sorts, then we can be something to be reckoned with.

How? I suppose it has to be fool proof, meaning a system that cannot be comped.

Oh well, any ideas? throw um out/

[rockymountaindem]

20. The representatives/ambassadors

or whatever you want to call them would be distinguised DU alumni, whose loyalty to DU is unchallenged. Therefore, the real members of DU would be able to trust them, and they should be able to ignore secret Freepers.

Then they could accept requests for action, such as contacting the press, members of Congress, the Kerry campaign or other groups. If it is obvious to the representatives that we should all agree, such as on issues like "we don't like Fox News" then they can take actions immediately. If it is a more contentsious issue, they could post polls in their own forum and we can go and vote. As in real life, if you don't vote then don't complain when things do not go your way.

[opihimoimoi]

21. I like it , I like it, as we discuss, the format will evolve into

something thats Fair, Exciting, Meaningful, Workable, and......

[opihimoimoi]

22. The DU able Society???

[Change has come]

23. I'm liking this alot...

Not only for the up-coming election, But from here on out...Just like the religious right has been doing.

[opihimoimoi]

24. Divided we croak, United we CAN DO IT

[tkmorris]

25. I'm in

I have witnessed again and again, often right here at DU, some brilliant individual voices shouting into a the maelstrom. However, as individuals, their voices were lost. It is a collective that moves mountains, no single person has the power.

I have seen such ideas floated here before however. Somehow they never come to fruition. I can only guess that something about the idea does not appeal to either Skinner or Earl. Then again, perhaps it simply hasn't quite taken root before. Either way, should it begin to take shape, I am most definately there.

[MessiahRp]

27. Just a question...

Wouldn't then DU have to file papers as a 527 and all of its contributors be named down to the dollar as a PAC type of deal? That might require a heap load of paperwork to complete to make DU officially capable of anything of this nature.

I love the idea but I'm not sure if we'd be able to pull it off paperwork-wise before the election.

Rp

[ursacorwin]

33. here's a quick search

and some results, i'm supposed to be working so i can't really check it out now. but 527s are the way to go!

http://search.netscape.com/ns/search?query=forming+527+political&fromPage=NSCPSuggestion

[markomalley]

28. I like the idea but...

I would believe that CNN would blow off a block of only 43,000 people. Even if it was that big.

OTOH, if we all sent e-mails in as individuals that said basically the same thing but with different words...spaced over a period of a couple of days right after they release the next pseudo-poll, that might have a bigger effect. Especially if we kept doing it time after time after time...they might perceive us as representing a whole lot bigger block of people than we actually are.

Just a thought...

[Change has come]

30. Kick

:kick:

[rockymountaindem]

35. But if we combined a united DU voice with our personal e-mails

then we might *really* get somewhere!

[markomalley]

47. Just as long as we don't do the "cookie cutter" technique

in sending e-mails out. That is so obvious to everybody concerned. May as well be spam. As long as the core ideas are lined up, the words and maybe even minor points can differ.

Also, if they get 10,000 e-mails in 5 minutes, even if they aren't identical, it is clear that the effort is coordinated. Much better to have them trickle in over a few days.

It's a strategy and would take work, but I think it would bear out some fruit.

[mouse7]

32. Sorry, but majority of DUers talk big and do little

A lot of DUers do a lot of political action, but a whole lot talk about doing it and don't really do anything. It's a commont trait among many activities on the net. People convince themselves the time they spend online is real political action. It's not.

I'm not trying to take the wind out of your sails. I've just seen a people get very disappointed in the past trying to get people to take real action. Set your sites low. Better to be pleasantly surprised if there is a greater turnout, than to be disappointed when there isn't.

[Killarney]

34. One of the reasons I come to DU is because

I get to "do something" every day. Even if it's only to DU a few polls or to write a letter to CNN to correct them or complain about media fairness. I feel like I'm doing something every day. I get a lot of tips and gain a lot of knowledge from DU.

I've also gotten a lot of ideas for the several letters to the editors that I've written from DU.

I'm 100% for any further DU activity. Thumbs up. :toast:

[Samurai_Writer]

38. Count me in!

I'd be willing to be a media liaison for DU. I'm a technical writer and have been a political activist for many years.

[patrice]

39. I've been wanting this for a long time.

I like DU, and I can come here and ask questions and get good answers, and I like that, but I am sort of turned off too because of all the talk. I REALLY want more immediate nationally directed action, not just a lot of mental masturbation. I'm pretty active locally, but it would be good to find some kind of national tool that is more immediately responsive than (the really very good!) national organizations that are already out there.

[donsu]

40. kick

nt

[BostonTeaParty04]

43. The 'owners' of this board might not dig the idea....

It absolutely does drag their names and reputations and time and energy and resources in a new direction. Would they go for it? And if they did, they would be the big bosses. Understandably. If they don't, we surely can't use THEIR name "DU."

If this is an organization brought out by members of DU, perhaps we can get DU's permission to promote it (give links.. allow us to discuss activities, etc.). But we would need to start our very own organization... with its own website and funding, etc. etc.

Which is actually a pretty cool idea.. a FRESH new democratic voice in our midst.

AND, no offense to the DU owners, but we the members could determine our platform. As it is, for example, any politial action group would have to hail DU's rules and beliefs on things. Such as: 100% support of Ariel Sharon. (and sorry, I REFUSE to support that evil, evil man and his policies). IMO... don't flame me!

[imax2268]

45. Kicking...

for a good idea...let's do something...if enough people join in we can be a force to reckon with...

:kick:

[Change has come]

48. Maybe we should start a chat room at yahoo or someplace similiar?

:kick:

[neverforget]

49. Start with an organized effort to lobby Democrats in Congress

in an effort to have them vote for/against particular bills.

[Failure]

50. I'm in...

I'm an excellent fundraiser, and an excellent salesman, and an excellent musician. I think removing shrubby is important to the survival of the planet. I'll do anything I can to help.


failure.

[opihimoimoi]

51. The owners of this here DU must chew this one over

and decide whether of not to go for the SUPER BOWL. They will need a plan, a system, and a whole bunch of vols. Will they do it?

Only Elad/Skinner will tell us.