Thanks, David. I feel small in the social media landscape, but you have helped me see it differently. My band released GOTV videos for the 2020 & 2022 election and we are going to release our 2024 video in a few weeks. We cover popular rock anthems and I think our 2024 will capture the moment we are in. You can find our first two here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXzrEjoGgYw&pp=ygUPd3lsZCBvbGRlIHNvdWxz
Exactly the inspiration we needed today. Kathy and I are searching to make an impact and David is right that with even a small “audience “ we can make a difference since it multiplies. Everyday we must do something!
I recommend the free newsletter "Chop Wood, Carry Water". Jessica Craven provides daily scripts for contacting Congresspeople, opportunities for texting/postcards/GOTV traininglinks to support specific down ballot races/grassroots organizations, and a special Sunday edition highlighting positive developments from our collective actions.
I also recommend the free newsletter "Abortion, Every Day", which details the specific efforts by Pro-Life zealots to rollback women's rights. Jessica Valenti details the manipulative, deceptive language used, the legal distortions, and the groups fighting, state by state, to counter these coordinated GOP campaigns, and how you can help.
You just reminded me about a guy who put together letters of complaint about Alito and Thomas to send to SCOTUS etc. It was a link I found on Threads but can’t find it again on my phone. I need to print sign and post those letters!
Just read this after a morning with fellow like-minded pro-democracy friends listening to a first-time running candidate sharing his views on how we fight in very red South Carolina. Thanks for further encouraging local activism with your always articulate and important words, David.
The catastrophe of 2016 put me into this mode -- and led to my discovering the DSR network. It's taken awhile to understand the depth of the democratic (small "d") collapse in our politics. Cowardly and greedy GOPers educate us about how low they can go on a daily basis. I no longer have the physical strength to move to a battleground to work a campaign as I have for the last three cycles, I don't think. But we'll see.
Keep activism suggestions coming for the masses of us who can't engage full time -- let's blare on social media, but what else?
A very welcome suggestion, finally, about how to influence the great mass of unread voters. It’s hard not to think that the major news outlets aren’t hedging their bets in their coverage of DJT so that they’ll be in a position to get access during a second Trump administration. At the end of the day it’s the responsibility of citizens, rather than institutions (governmental or otherwise) to keep democracy alive.
It is not political engagement by the populous it is CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. Key to your goal is to phrase this appropriately so people feel compelled to act. Political is a dirty and nasty word. You are asking people to engage in their American Citizen Duty. Please pass this on.
This is what I have been doing since 2015. It’s the only thing I can do. I consider it important. Thank you for using your platforms to encourage others to do the same.
As always, David, well put and valuable. I would humbly add that there is room for individual efforts outside of digital media. My favorite lies with Field Team 6 (fieldteam6.org) where, among the many options for individuals to contribute to the common effort, I have decided to send Get Out the Vote and Vote D postcards, personalized by me to lists of recipients in key markets/Districts identified by Field Team 6. I can choose as many names in one "bundle" as I wish -- I buy the Vote postcards and the stamps, and I use a pen to write key portions of the message. Field Team 6 provides tailored suggested wording for messages to specific targets, but was comfortable with my using my own message as well.
This certainly doesn't have the multiplier effect you describe, David, but it is one-to-one, and offers at least the hope that someone I have written to has acted on my encouragement and registered to vote at voterizer.org, the site provided by Field Team 6 with a QR code attached to the message of the postcard. I hope some of your readers will add this to their wide selection of opportunities in the digital sphere. Thanks for your fine work.
Thank you for these very useful suggestions and the information on where people currently get their news was most interesting. I was a fledgling adult in 1961 and remember the Kennedy years well. It was such an exciting and optimistic time!
Thanks, David. I feel small in the social media landscape, but you have helped me see it differently. My band released GOTV videos for the 2020 & 2022 election and we are going to release our 2024 video in a few weeks. We cover popular rock anthems and I think our 2024 will capture the moment we are in. You can find our first two here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXzrEjoGgYw&pp=ygUPd3lsZCBvbGRlIHNvdWxz
And here https://youtu.be/EWhT1jJ0ldo?si=0IqLUYWxU2ggGZHq
I never thought our greatest enemy would be within but here we are.
Glad I could help...and keep it up!
Exactly the inspiration we needed today. Kathy and I are searching to make an impact and David is right that with even a small “audience “ we can make a difference since it multiplies. Everyday we must do something!
Exactly right.
I recommend the free newsletter "Chop Wood, Carry Water". Jessica Craven provides daily scripts for contacting Congresspeople, opportunities for texting/postcards/GOTV traininglinks to support specific down ballot races/grassroots organizations, and a special Sunday edition highlighting positive developments from our collective actions.
I also recommend the free newsletter "Abortion, Every Day", which details the specific efforts by Pro-Life zealots to rollback women's rights. Jessica Valenti details the manipulative, deceptive language used, the legal distortions, and the groups fighting, state by state, to counter these coordinated GOP campaigns, and how you can help.
Thanks. Will take a look.
You just reminded me about a guy who put together letters of complaint about Alito and Thomas to send to SCOTUS etc. It was a link I found on Threads but can’t find it again on my phone. I need to print sign and post those letters!
Just read this after a morning with fellow like-minded pro-democracy friends listening to a first-time running candidate sharing his views on how we fight in very red South Carolina. Thanks for further encouraging local activism with your always articulate and important words, David.
Thanks for saying so. Onward and upward!
The catastrophe of 2016 put me into this mode -- and led to my discovering the DSR network. It's taken awhile to understand the depth of the democratic (small "d") collapse in our politics. Cowardly and greedy GOPers educate us about how low they can go on a daily basis. I no longer have the physical strength to move to a battleground to work a campaign as I have for the last three cycles, I don't think. But we'll see.
Keep activism suggestions coming for the masses of us who can't engage full time -- let's blare on social media, but what else?
A very welcome suggestion, finally, about how to influence the great mass of unread voters. It’s hard not to think that the major news outlets aren’t hedging their bets in their coverage of DJT so that they’ll be in a position to get access during a second Trump administration. At the end of the day it’s the responsibility of citizens, rather than institutions (governmental or otherwise) to keep democracy alive.
Thank you.
It is not political engagement by the populous it is CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. Key to your goal is to phrase this appropriately so people feel compelled to act. Political is a dirty and nasty word. You are asking people to engage in their American Citizen Duty. Please pass this on.
This is what I have been doing since 2015. It’s the only thing I can do. I consider it important. Thank you for using your platforms to encourage others to do the same.
And thank you for what you've been doing!
As always, David, well put and valuable. I would humbly add that there is room for individual efforts outside of digital media. My favorite lies with Field Team 6 (fieldteam6.org) where, among the many options for individuals to contribute to the common effort, I have decided to send Get Out the Vote and Vote D postcards, personalized by me to lists of recipients in key markets/Districts identified by Field Team 6. I can choose as many names in one "bundle" as I wish -- I buy the Vote postcards and the stamps, and I use a pen to write key portions of the message. Field Team 6 provides tailored suggested wording for messages to specific targets, but was comfortable with my using my own message as well.
This certainly doesn't have the multiplier effect you describe, David, but it is one-to-one, and offers at least the hope that someone I have written to has acted on my encouragement and registered to vote at voterizer.org, the site provided by Field Team 6 with a QR code attached to the message of the postcard. I hope some of your readers will add this to their wide selection of opportunities in the digital sphere. Thanks for your fine work.
Thank you for these very useful suggestions and the information on where people currently get their news was most interesting. I was a fledgling adult in 1961 and remember the Kennedy years well. It was such an exciting and optimistic time!