"If you vote, you get a grade of 'D'"...let's get cracking people!

[DebJ]

Below is an email I sent to our local Grassroots political action group and some fellow Dems active in the county dem party. What a dream if we could stir up something like this nationwide!
We're not stopping here in York, Pa. We have a meeting at the end of the month to get ideas together and start working....1534 days of tyranny to battle!

To anyone else willing to keep up the momentum and WIN OUR COUNTRY BACK! WE HAVE EVERYTHING TO LOSE NOW; WE CAN NOT STOP NOW.


Here's what I want to do, starting right now. Kerry and Bush say we need to unite the country...well, there are a lot of things both Dems and most Repubs will agree on. They voted in W because of the abortion issue, and their blind version of 'moral issues'. But when it comes to many issues, like social security, I think most Repubs and Dems ARE united...AGAINST PRIVATIZATION!! There are other issues we will be able to unite on. W is making this a first priority; we need to act FAST!!!!

This is my idea:

I want to knock on every door in my voting district as fast as I can....hopefully my fellow poll watcher will do some too.

I want to go to these doors with:

a) blank voter registration forms...this needs to be an ongoing process. Motor voter is far from perfect, judging from the complaints I have received. By next election, we need a lock down tight list of who is who and where they are and what they want.

b) a handout for every household with the phone numbers of Platts, Specter, Santorum, and the White House. If I can squeeze out the bucks, I will make little cards for everyone's refrigerator. Our representatives need to be called, and called, and called. It is a very quick thing to do. Voting is just the very beginning. Didn't Dean say that if you vote, you get a grade of "D"?

c) a petition objecting to the privatization in any form of Social Security. I would like to ask someone how to word such a petition. It needs to be very, very simple. Something like:

"We, the registered voters of York County, Pennsylvania, Springettsbury Township, voting district 7, in which 1100 of 1600 registered voters participated in the November 2, 2004 election, wish to advise our representatives in Washington, D.C., that:

WE DO NOT WANT SOCIAL SECURITY TO BE PRIVATIZED IN ANY FORM WHATSOEVER.

It is our duty to inform you of our needs. It is your duty to represent our expressed needs. It is our duty to hold you accountable to this standard. We upheld our duty to vote, and to become informed, and we will also hold you accountable for appropriate representation."

Then the voters would print and sign their names and addresses.

If I can get 500 signatures in my district, or more, and other districts do similarly, and we send these petitions to Platts, Specter, Santorum, and the White House, then:

a)they will have to respond

b) too expensive to respond individually

c)newspaper seems like the best resource to me. Either they respond to us in a newspaper statement, or we go to the paper and demand a response from them.

I am updating my computer database with the October 12 voter registration list. I will be adding Repubs as well, with appropriate notation of party. I want EVERY voter on my list. I will be noting those who will participate in such petitions. People who are not at home will get a little flier asking for their support. They can call my house and I will come by to get their signature, or I will try again later, time permitting.

If we do things like this, and keep it simple, people will see that the the Democratic Party is alive and kicking, and INCLUSIVE, and fighting for all of the country's best interest (sorry, excluding the really wealthy who have naught to gain from SSI). I will get to know my neighbors, they will know me, we will become a community, united.

I liked knocking on doors. I also learned one has to not waste time, and let's keep things as simple as we can. Pick up as many as you can as quickly as you can, and get them talking to their neighbors, too, to pick up more. Snowball it.

That's my idea. Will any other committee people jump in on this game? Or come up with a better one? I can't do this myself. Are MoveOn people available?

We need to get cracking now! We only have 1,535 days to go!

[John Q. Citizen]

1. As long as voting doesn't count

and the elections are fixed, your plan, while admirable and noble, won't make a bit of difference.

[DebJ]

2. I refuse to accept defeat. I refuse to not fight. Everything. We

must fight EVERYTHING. But more than anything, we need the support of our citizens. I will not sit around and just suck my thumb.

[John Q. Citizen]

3. I'm with you on the fight part,

but we have to choose our battles when possible.

The most effective way to stop Bush is to insure fair and accurate elections.

If we were already there, we'd have the White House and the Senate right now. Over the last three elections, (2000, 2002, 2004) the fraud we call elections insures we lose.

And we wouldn't be fighting to prevent the privatization of SS.

We'd be fighting to hold the Demos accountable, a fight I would much prefer to wage because then we'd have a chance of winning.