Open Planning Conference (Voting Segment)
Edit: I will let this set as is until Friday morning (CDT) as I think through the wording for the next segment. I need to work out the details of producing the ordered list for discussion given the "flatness" (statistically speaking) of the voting pattern. I also want to address a few things mentioned in the comments. So, expect this to go off the Front Page at any time in the next 12 hours or so
I have constructed a POLL with what I have gleaned from the Open Planning Conference Tomorrow article. I apologize for any transcription errors or blunders I may have committed as I assembled this list.
To Do List:
- Using the poll below: vote for as many items as you think should be included in a discussion to follow.
- Using the comments section of this article suggest additional items and wording that come to mind.
- Use the "thumbs up" toggle to rate any additional items.
- At the end of a reasonable interval of time (to be determined) I will rank order this list. Please comment on same in the usual fashion.
- I will then present this list as an initial working agenda for discussion.
Thank you for participating.
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The Sanders campaign, currently the largest and best organized group on the American left, could put aside elections for the time being and use its resources to build bridges between everyone else: Black Lives Matter, Fight for 15, 350.org, etc. etc. Not to create yet another organization, but to help all the non-electoral groups talk to one another, then step aside and see what happens.
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Comments
Great stuff- we need action (FIGHT)
First let me say thank you for all this hard work on this poll and I love it. Secondly, we need to have some short term and long term goals. From my standpoint we all have talents and abilities to work with each other as long as we have an agenda- goals, objectives, and plans. But finally, and the most important thing, please take note I am trying to avoid being harsh or critical- but we need to GET OFF OUR ASSES AND FIGHT. We can bitch and moan about the results and talk about how we are oppressed and the system is not fair- well too freaking bad- lets quit complaining and get to working.
As liberals/progressives/left leaning people we are freaking smart and articulate, we use data to support our positions with passion, BUT we shy away from confrontation. To me this was one of the biggest failings of Bernie's campaign, there were so many issues with Clinton- flipping flopping, corruption, elite support, and he did not go after her on them. Moreover, do you know why conservatives win elections because they freaking fight tooth and nail and a lot of times dirty.
My rant is that we need to fight, and we need to fight the good fight for the good of our community and this country. Stop being passive and get involved and fight for what is right and good.
So first, lets get a goal or two- a few short term and a few long term. Then create a plan. We will work the plan and most importantly FIGHT!!!!!
Maybe we should have something like a sign up sheet
Where people can list the skills they most desire to use, if the skills are not already listed, or can put their user name under a skill that has been previously listed. Maybe we could form relevant groups after that and a way for the groups to communicate and make requests with each other.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Great insight
In my line of work that is call roles and responsibilities document (RACI Matrix is the official name). If we can get this herd of cats to focus on some short term and long term goals then that will be the next step- assess our abilities, talents and skills then determine how we can collectively get stuff done.
You'd be duplicating what
Brand New Congress already has online.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
the idea that one action is the answer means we already lost
An idea is not responsible for who happens to be carrying it at the time. It stands or it falls on its own merits.
You have lost me . . .
I certainly never thought "one action is the answer", and I am mystified by your comment.
Maybe he wasn't speaking to you...
He could be musing out loud. We all know we need a shot gun approach - maybe even a drone or two.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
mea culpa
Your point is well taken. The process should be to float ideas a freely as possible. We never know which random firing neuron will produce the very flash of insight needed.
I had a results #3 hang
don't know if you can control that. But thought you should know.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I have only just begun . . .
At this point I am just a Script Kitty. I do not know how their site works. I have only tried a few test cases to probe how errors might occur, and am unable at this time to say anything useful.
No harm
no fowl, or is that foul? Or foal?
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
here is a great addition to the list.
Came from this comment. http://caucus99percent.com/comment/107508#comment-107508
No point in getting out the vote if we can't stop them from stealing it. We should have amassed a volunteer effort to work or monitor the polls.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Yes - election fraud is a biggie
We need to go back to paper ballots and have a single set of voting rules across the country.
That's a long term goal and is partially addressed in the poll, I'm just reiterating it.
I've started compiling a list of venues and/or progressive journalists we can contact as #ExitLeft (my preference
gets going, I'll share that once I've actually got enough to share. A big part of the success of that action is having it noticed.
Thank you for your labor.
The poll should prove helpful as we move forward.
I realize that we can't do everything at once, but I agree that we need short term and long term goals.
One short term goal is Brand New Congress, which is already in action for this year's election. I assume they'll be running people as indys, and the requirements for an independent candidate aren't as stringent as for new parties.
Speaking of new parties: Yes!
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
A Community of Progressives
and type "A" personalities. As hecate pointed out: "Cats. Don't herd well. Generally scatter." As an amateur community organizer I am goal oriented in the sense that if a group has no internally motivated objectives, I tend to drift away.
The articles at this site have been stimulating, and that, in and of itself, is valuable. So, my purpose here is to see if (relating to all the issue oriented dialogue) it might be possible to generate clearly defined action scenarios. Whether executed by this community or offered to some other group is of little concern to me, the existence of possible avenues of redress, or real world solutions is exciting.
As usual, I am coming at this as a physicist: If what I theorize never influences how I might interpret a real world observation, then I haven't fulfilled my destiny as a Physicist. This sense of "mission", if you will, was instilled in me (by my parents) from before I can remember.
That is why I ranted about Fighting
We have many excellent, talented, and well written individuals in this community. However, we need take action to get results. We can talk, talk, complain, and moan about outcomes- but we need to take action (Fight). Heck even it does not produce the ideal results, we will make a difference. Think about it everyone here gave a few hours a week or month to our common goals- it would yield freaking great results.
I am a project manager by trade, and working over 20 years in this role- let me tell you and everyone else- if you freaking want something, first you need to figure what you want (goal) and if you apply some effort (objectives and plans) to it then guess what things get done and most of the time you get most of the desired outcomes- nothing is ever perfect.
So I beg and plead with everyone, continue to be a keyboard warrior, but do something to make a difference.
I voted for 2 things.
I am waiting to see what happens next with Bernie, and I'm ready for a new party.
Right now, still in the old party, I want us to work on changing the platform and the convention:
1.End the superdelegate system
2.Reform state party voting. No more caucuses/Allow Open primaries/early voting in every state
3.Kick out Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the DNC head
4.End lobbyist $$ in campaigns
5.Create a primary calendar that does not favor red states
6. Extract a commitment from the presumptive nominee to end Citizens United and her use of it.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/04/hillary-clinton-agrees-citizens-u...
I believe we should call and write the DNC and our state delegates. What ever moves they make now, will affect us in 4 yrs. You know darn well, the DNC will start working on HRC's re-election immediately and they will fight these changes which don't work to her advantage.
My $0.02
Interesting that on that long list, no mention of the BrandNewCongress organization. Why is that? I think the idea of running a national campaign to encourage people to vote out their corrupt Reps and Senators is rather ingenious, and certainly deserving of inclusion on any potential to-do list.
Beyond that, allow me to re-post something I wrote on the Kossacks For Sanders site yesterday:
I endorse the idea of bailing on the Democratic Party, except that I strongly recommend anyone who's able to should instead opt for registering as a Green. Consider:
article for further details.)
If a large number of Bernie supporters would only channel their anger and disgust into trying to ensure the Green Party is on the ballot in every state come November, and that Jill Stein dramatically improves on her 2012 vote total, it could truly be an important step forward in giving voters in future elections something more substantive than two barely distinguishable flavors of more of the same.
No doubt the Green Party has its shortcomings and problems, but if there's a perfect option out there I for one am as yet unaware of it. Like they say, better to light a candle than curse the darkness!
inactive account
I love the quote
"better to light a candle than curse the darkness"- thank you so much for sharing this invaluable insight and quote.
Please everyone take note- this is the mentality and approach we need to take to proceed forward. We need to stand and be brave- let us light the way
I am so much in favor of your spirit--
I hate to oppose your letter.
But you asked a question, and it deserves an answer: Why isn't there more talk of the Brand New Congress?
Because most of us spent from 2003-2010 doing exactly what Brand New Congress wants to do. It was called Democracy for America, which is still sort of going. Its history and the history of the Dean movement have been flushed down the memory hole, mainly, I think, b/c nobody wants to think about what the end of that narrative was.
It wasn't good.
However, I'm not entirely opposed to the idea of continuing that strategy. I *am* opposed to continuing it without due thought. IOW, since it horribly backfired on us last time, how do we prevent it from doing so again? Perhaps the answer is as simple as ditching the Democratic party. The leadership in DC was, arguably, what obstructed and twisted Dean's strategy and funneled money toward Big Money Democrats and pseudo-progressives like Jared Polis.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Why no mention of BNC?
The same question I had when I read the poll.
I'll offer an explanation, the vast majority of people @ C99 and other online communities do not understand the value and the need to create political power. The vast majority have never been district leaders, have never run for office and srsly have no clue about how to defeat the Oligarchy and literally "take back our country".
Howard did understand, and with DFA made progress in 2006. But Dean and the Obama campaign was utterly outdone by the Sanders campaign, who didn't just come out with the next generation of campaign tools, they created a whole new class of online tools - exponentially beyond anything seen on the planet, much of the software and coding was 100% totally custom.
I cannot stress this point enough, Sanders raised 135 million dollars from working class and middle class people, went toe to toe with the Clinton machine and came so close to knocking her out in the first 3 races, with only months of lead time.
Why was BNC not included, because the author doesn't intuitively understand what happened over the last 13 months. We made history.
To this day people don't understand that Apollo 8 was the exponential jump in capability and in some ways was just as important as the Apollo 11 moon lander. Without proof of orbital insertion, essentially creating a 2 body orbital system (Apollo 8 and the Moon) the Moon landing never happens.
And thats why I will not vote in this poll.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
BrandNewCongress
The contents (as reflected in the items listed) of this poll have nothing to do with me in anyway shape or form.
Your inferences and insinuations about me, the author, are unfounded and misplaced.
I think agreeing on explicit goals needs to come first.
Which are most urgent? Then we could talk about how (actions) to get there, in what order, or which at the same time.
Instead of "limiting" lobbyist and corporations influence, I'd like to eliminate them as a goal.
thank you for all of your work, PriceRip
After a lot of chewing it over, I'm thinking that #DumptheDems is the best hashtag. Has good alliteration and good rhythm. And the added benefit that it states what we are about to do plainly in three words, without any guessing about it.
I'm also giving some thot to what we who live in Texas can do to make it clear that we are onboard with #DumptheDems. We have no registration exactly to change, but I'm sure we could certainly find some unified action to take on the day chosen.
So here are my choices:
Name of movement=#DumptheDems
Day of Dump=Last day of convention.
Now I know that some cannot Take the Dump that soon, but we could hold other events for those folks, like #DumptheDems(name of state) for those who need to set a later date. We could all take some sort of action with them as show of Solidarity on that day. The more actions, the better, in my book.
I strongly suggest not waiting until September or October as some have suggested as I think we will run out of steam if we do that.
This is my 2 cents worth, I'm sure we will reach a good outcome by putting our heads together.
Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons
what brings us all together
Is really anti-capitalism, no? There is this excellent article at counter punch by Ron Jacobs that may be helpful. I don't really know how to do this, hope I'm doing it ok. We need to organize around what what we want our economy to look like. All our struggles, the environment, income inequality, Black lives, real elections, all of it can easily fit under this unifying umbrella.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/09/the-shows-over-on-with-the-show/
okforahuman
What brings us all together is anti-corruption
Because capitalism is massively corrupt, and corrupting, that includes capitalism. And yes, I believe it's at the root of the problem, but I also believe you'll get a far more massive and mobilized movement if you define the movement as being anti-corruption and pro-democracy.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Poll Question
PriceRip- when I view the survey results- it states about 225 people have taken this poll. I am not sure if you understand the data behind it, but as a point of clarification does that mean 225 separate individuals took it, is this assumption correct?
225 separate individuals ?
This would not even be close. The only interpretation that fits the situation is that 225 clicks were registered.
I think we should actually form a new party
But we should ALSO form an infrastructure that networks existing groups together. A key part of this infrastructure should be an independent media/communications network.
That is so important that I'm not sure how the media thing is garnering only 2% of the vote so far.
We did just watch the media essentially hijack and distort this whole process.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Create & wield political power
As I stated on a recent featured essay.
Learn how to run a campaign, learn how to be a candidate.
Nothing else matters. Not one of the poll answers matters one iota, if people are not willing to to create and wield political power.
How on earth can anyone expect to... lets say create a new party..... without the prerequisite knowledge set? How the hell do you think Bernie did it? Because he and his staff put all the pieces together and accomplished more in 13 months than the Green Party did in 16 years. Srsly people, look at what Bernie did, and tell me I'm wrong, go ahead and tell me I am not hitting the bullseye of the target.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
Looks like July 29 is being floated by TNWomen4Bernie
Not sure the support for this, just saw it and thought I'd share:
"#PeacefulProtest Change your affiliation to Ind on July 29th to send a powerful message to DNC" https://twitter.com/TNWomen4Bernie/status/741073848204820485
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking
NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc
In order to counteract
all the very effective and ubiquitous propaganda foisted on the average citizen, we have to create, support, and effectively disseminate our own media. Many people simply do not know that the job of the MSM is to propagate pure bullshit.