I'm obviously referencing Dopper0189's rec listed diary about DEFUNDING CONSERVATISM.
It's a great analysis and I think he's dead on.
Here's what you may NOT have known. DKos has a STATE AND LOCAL ACTION GROUP, established at the inception of DK4 for doing exactly that: making significant inroads on the state and local level. I'm going to keep this diary short but I encourage you to visit the "birth" diary as well as one or two of the subsequent diaries to learn more about what we want to do and our plan to go about it.
WHAT IS THIS GROUP ABOUT?
Simple answer:
1) We target specific populations of voters in specific locales. We target them based on the real life consequences they face from conservative legislation. we also target them based on their voter registration (Democrats and left leaning indies) and their voting frequency (people who usually only vote in national elections). (VoterListsOnline - we haz it)
2) Creative Kossacks create flyers that can be mailed to people at our target's addresses. They upload them to a central database. (smugmug - we're getting it) These flyers can be comic, serious, photographic, graphic, textual, whatever. As long that they're on message and to the point. (more on this below).
3) Every Kossack can choose from this selection of flyers, print as many as they'd like and mail them to addresses in the target list for that particular campaign.
Here's what's cool:
We choose our target populations based on specific consequences of republican legislation that effect people's actual lives, like the shutting down of a local health clinic. Then, we communicate that message adding to it the REASON for that consequence (also known as the "blame game" or the "channel the anger" challenge).
For example a flyer might say: "Republican Governor Rick Scott and his republican allies in the Florida legislature passed a measure that shut down 23 health clinic in Florida. Yours is one of them. Florida needs it's health clinics. Let's make sure we get them back and that this can never happen again. Remember to always vote in state and local elections. It matters."
(We can't say "Vote for Democrats" because we're not officially representing the party).
We mail these. Why? Because many, many voters are NOT online. Especially the ones who seem to miss state and local elections and who stand to get hit hardest by the latest wave of republican shenanigans. Plus, I love the U.S. Postal Service.
The entire premise is that if just 500 Kossacks could print and mail 10 flyers per campaign, we'd reach 5000 infrequent voters who are registered democrats (or left leaning indies) who are likely feeling most of the brunt of republican rule. That number is often enough to make considerable inroads on the local level. But you know that. If 10,000 Kossacks did it in each campaign, we create a stealth rogue wave in the next several elections in many states and start seeing shifts at the state level (Alex Sink only lost the FL governorship by 40,000 votes. Argh!). With 100,000 Kossacks, and the cooperation of their local DECs, we would create a tsunami in short order. Think about it.
And this is how we start a movement.
This is how we DEFUND THE CONS.
This is how we get MORE and BETTER Democrats on the state level and groom them up for the national stage. This is how it starts.
I personally can't wait to hear the Talking Heads the day after the election trying to figure out what happened. Trying to come up with reasons why there were so many "new voters" that they didn't think would vote. I can't wait to turn on the local news and see republican heads exploding because some unknown underfunded Democrat is the new Mayor. I can't wait to see cons scratching their heads in confusion because suddenly six of the nine seats on the county commission are filled with unabashed liberals. I can't wait to see the new county and state courts. The republicans won't know what hit them.GOOD TIMES!
I hope you'll consider joining the group and getting involved. And if you're a creative and want to do some of these flyers, come on in!
Revolution, baby! Peace.(ful) Revolution!
6:44 AM PT: I'm off to take dad to physical therapy. I'll be back around 12:20 ET. If you'd like an invite to the group, just let me know in the comments. When I get back, I'll send you an invite.
I'm ready to rock and roll. How about you?
1:01 PM PT: Whew! Thanks to everyone who stopped by. If you asked to be added to the group, please check your DKMail. I sent you an invite.
First diary will be up Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. ET. Bring your specific examples of things that happened in your state or local area as a result of some enacted GOP policy, preferably enacted by State or Local GOPers. We'll vote on which ones to (at)tack(le) first. LOL. And let our creative kossacks loose to make flyers, postcards and other mailable media.
See you Friday!