Comments on: Why Florida Democrats Lose Elections http://www.roblimo.com/node/223 Observations about politics, the Internet, and other random topics Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:58:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: pudge http://www.roblimo.com/node/223#comment-43435 pudge Sun, 03 Jun 2007 14:42:23 +0000 http://www.roblimo.com/node/223#comment-43435 Yeah, you'll never counteract the money interests. But that doesn't mean you can't have an influence. That said, your best chance of influence is probably party involvement. That's where your best chance is to catch someone's ear. I became active in my county's GOP in 2004, and now I'm the district chair, and I know most of the movers and shakers, and the candidates listen to me when I pick up the phone (and sometimes they call me themselves). I don't really care about that sort of thing much, but if you do, maybe that's a way you can go about it. That said, as to grassroots and expensive dinners, we've had those. I saw Dick Cheney for $250. McCain for about the same. That was about what I was planning to donate for the year for the two candidates they were campaigning for, so I put it into the dinners; I suspect for many it was only a fraction of what they would give for the year. Still, a lot of people can't afford that much, of course: and we had ways for them to get in for free, mostly by volunteering to work on preparing for the dinners and so on. For the Cheney event (<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/pudge/tags/roulstone20060417/" rel="nofollow">pictures here!</a>), if you went outside and counterprotested the protestors, you got in for free. Also, our county party is pretty much entirely grassroots. Sure we have a few rich businesspeople here and there, but they don't dominate the process any more than anyone else. Our county chair is a former schoolteacher, our grassroots chair is a retired-cop-turned-farmer, and so on. And our county is powerful in the state party (not as powerful as King County, but at the top of the second tier). We open up the platform committee to all comers, we post things on the county party web site from anyone who wants to post something relevant. Maybe we're Republicans, but no one can accuse us of being elitist. There's the big dinners, but that's the one thing, and we still worked to make sure if someone really wanted to come and couldn't pay, they could. Indeed, if anything, it's the Democrats who are elitist. Maybe has something to do with party domination: I've almost always lived in states (not necessarily counties: my current county is about 50-50 these days) dominated by Democrats, and it's always been the Democrats who are the most elitist, my entire life: in Massachusetts, in California, in Washington. And as best I can tell it's always been this way. Sure, you can want it to change, but it's always been this way. Our entire lives, anyway. Yeah, you’ll never counteract the money interests. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have an influence.

That said, your best chance of influence is probably party involvement. That’s where your best chance is to catch someone’s ear. I became active in my county’s GOP in 2004, and now I’m the district chair, and I know most of the movers and shakers, and the candidates listen to me when I pick up the phone (and sometimes they call me themselves). I don’t really care about that sort of thing much, but if you do, maybe that’s a way you can go about it.

That said, as to grassroots and expensive dinners, we’ve had those. I saw Dick Cheney for $250. McCain for about the same. That was about what I was planning to donate for the year for the two candidates they were campaigning for, so I put it into the dinners; I suspect for many it was only a fraction of what they would give for the year. Still, a lot of people can’t afford that much, of course: and we had ways for them to get in for free, mostly by volunteering to work on preparing for the dinners and so on. For the Cheney event (pictures here!), if you went outside and counterprotested the protestors, you got in for free.

Also, our county party is pretty much entirely grassroots. Sure we have a few rich businesspeople here and there, but they don’t dominate the process any more than anyone else. Our county chair is a former schoolteacher, our grassroots chair is a retired-cop-turned-farmer, and so on. And our county is powerful in the state party (not as powerful as King County, but at the top of the second tier). We open up the platform committee to all comers, we post things on the county party web site from anyone who wants to post something relevant.

Maybe we’re Republicans, but no one can accuse us of being elitist. There’s the big dinners, but that’s the one thing, and we still worked to make sure if someone really wanted to come and couldn’t pay, they could.

Indeed, if anything, it’s the Democrats who are elitist. Maybe has something to do with party domination: I’ve almost always lived in states (not necessarily counties: my current county is about 50-50 these days) dominated by Democrats, and it’s always been the Democrats who are the most elitist, my entire life: in Massachusetts, in California, in Washington.

And as best I can tell it’s always been this way. Sure, you can want it to change, but it’s always been this way. Our entire lives, anyway.

]]> By: Rod Amis http://www.roblimo.com/node/223#comment-43356 Rod Amis Sun, 03 Jun 2007 10:09:38 +0000 http://www.roblimo.com/node/223#comment-43356 My last comment here was humor. This one is serious. Some of us in the Open Source community down here in Tejas are working on things like a Transparent Federal Budget and choosing, as you seem to have from this Blog post, to vote on merit rather than party affiliation. If more tech-savvy people get involved in the process (and the keyword here is *involvement*) we might just be able to be a counter-balance to the moneyed interests. I know, maybe I'm dreaming. What I do believe is that they can't live without our savvy. We're the courtiers. Maybe we should have just a bit more say in how the money is spent. Last I knew, it was still our country. RA My last comment here was humor. This one is serious.

Some of us in the Open Source community down here in Tejas are working on things like a Transparent Federal Budget and choosing, as you seem to have from this Blog post, to vote on merit rather than party affiliation. If more tech-savvy people get involved in the process (and the keyword here is *involvement*) we might just be able to be a counter-balance to the moneyed interests.

I know, maybe I’m dreaming.

What I do believe is that they can’t live without our savvy. We’re the courtiers. Maybe we should have just a bit more say in how the money is spent. Last I knew, it was still our country.

RA

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