A faithful reader has just sent me an e-mail message with a great idea. I am not sure how one does this, but could I, we, organize a petition or a social media effort to ask Bernie, should he not win the nomination [as I am sure he will not] to turn his campaign into a standing movement? We could give people the opportunity to pledge a monthly ten dollar donation.
How would we do this? Would it be a good idea? Can I do it? I do not do Twitter or SnapChat or even FaceBook or whatever the latest social media platform is, but it ought to be possible, yes?
Suggestions please.
I've been waiting for the more cyber-hip (read: younger) to jump in, but I think your idea is very doable. Bernie's campaign already has a huge list of email addresses of supporters. An initial emailing (after the nomination process is over, of course), asking people to commit $, but also to become Facebook friends of the movement (so people can talk with each other), would cost nothing and would probably generate a large number of members. Would Bernie do it? Don't know. Tom
ReplyDeleteI see, on re-reading, that your question was really, "Can we generate a movement to encourage Bernie to lead the movement?" That would be a little more daunting, I think, but not impossible. It might involve spending some $ for on-line advertising to attract people to the Facebook page in the first place. Or maybe just a sympathetic figure with lots of Twitter followers, who'd be willing to ask his followers to re-tweet his message about joining the movement?
ReplyDeleteHow much money are we talking about? I am clueless about these things.
ReplyDeleteI'm really out of my depth now.
ReplyDeleteYou might try one of the online petition sites, then ask your readership to sign and promote it -- especially to any of the grassroots members of the Sanders campaign whom they might know.
ReplyDeleteThis article mentions a few of these sites:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_petition
You probably are aware that Howard Dean started Dean for America, which coverted into Democracy for America after the nomination campaign of 2004. This is a parallel effort to that, so perhaps some effort to combine these rather than "split" would be indicated?
I'm guessing you would be less motivated to lobby for "Obama for America" -- yet a third "movement" -- to combine forces, if only because it is still too identified with one candidate. Movement building is hard :(
Wellstone Action: http://www.wellstone.org is working to put progressives into elected office.
ReplyDeleteSanders has proved the it is a good time for progressives to seek office.