This Diary is Divided into three parts
- What we did
- What we are doing
- What we can do next
1. What We Did
I was originally inspired to post this diary after reading a report posted by Politico's Ben Smith, where I learned that Congressman Chandler's office was being bombarded by hundreds of negative and racist phone calls in response to his endorsement of Senator Obama. This enraged me so much that I felt compelled to call Chandler's office myself to express my support for him, after which I posted a diary here on DailyKos encouraging others to do the same. I provided the office's contact information in order to facilitate a rapid response - I posted the phone number and mailing address.
That's it. That was my diary.
After a few minutes, I checked back and noticed that the diary made the rec list. I was really proud of myself and began to read the comments. One in particular stood out:
Posted by Sun Dog: Send him money!
Rep Chandler should find himself with a huge chunk of change from supporters in the next week. The guy is putting his own political fortunes on the line to do what is right. It makes sense to help out with campaign donations.
So there you have it. The money thing...not my idea. But I read this comment and decided to run with it. I called Congressman Chandler's office again and through a series of transfers wound up speaking with his campaign manager. I told her that we wanted to help the Congressman raise money and asked if there was a link she could point us to for online donations. She replied that they have no campaign website but that we can donate through ActBlue.com and mail checks to his campaign's PO Box.
I must confess. I had no idea what ActBlue was (I'm relatively new to the netroots), and didn't even know how to go about linking to it. I was resolved to post only the PO Box so people could mail checks, and maybe see if I could figure out this ActBlue thing, but I wasn't optimistic.
Then I read this comment:
Posted by brklyngrl: His ActBlue page
is here. Nothing says thank you quite like campaign cash.
I'm not a religious person (so now you can ponder the irony of "SaintCog"), but if I were then I would say that comment came directly from God - its timing and utility could not have been more serendipitous. I immediately linked Chandler's ActBlue page to the diary, and within 30 minutes we raised $2,500.00!
I spent the remainder of the day occasionally updating the diary, refreshing the ActBlue page, and watching in dumbfounded astonishment as the total climbed to $9,000.00. Later in the evening I got home just in time to see us hit the $10K mark. "That's it!" I thought, "We did it!" So, thinking that we hit the astonishing number that we were shooting for, I posted a quick congratulatory note, removed the ActBlue link from the Intro, and ate dinner with my wife.
20 minutes later, I came back and read this comment:
Posted by leevank: Come on folks!
We got to $10,000 before most people (even on the East Coast) got home from work. The $10,000 was a goal, not a cap. Let's get it up to at least $15,000 before this diary scrolls off the recommended list.
Gaaahhh!! What was I thinking?! I immediately reposted the ActBlue link and watched in amazement as we continued to climb: 11K...12K......15K!!!
From there you know the rest. We hit $20K the following morning, and even exceeded that total. Along the way many other Kossacks' comments contributed as well. InsultComicDog gave us regular media updates about where this was being reported, and even the idea to post this recap diary came from some commenter (I apologize to whomever posted that - I can't find you in the sea of 600+ comments!)
So there you have it. Now you all understand how we did this. If it were just me, then Congressman Chandler would have received a few hundred happy phone calls that Day, and that's it; and if it weren't for Sun Dog, Chandler would have received no money; if it weren't for brklyngrl Chandler would have received only a few checks in the mail - maybe a few hundred bucks; if it weren't for leevank we would have raised $10,000 less than we did.
We literally did this together. This is the power of the netroots. With our collective efforts, we can do incredible things. No one person can do this by his or her self. We build off of one another's talents, knowledge, and contributions. In any task or trial we decide to undertake, we exceed even our own goals and expectations!
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2. What We Are Doing
This is who we are. This is the Netroots. This is the kind of thing we are capable of. Or rather, this is only the beginning of what we are capable of. What happened here was not a fluke. It was not just some bizarre thing that happened in some obscure corner of the internet. This is the final realization in our 200+ year struggle to achieve a true American democracy, and it begins with us shattering an illusion that elected officials have used to deceive us for far too long - the notion that politicians have any power at all.
They don't.
Power belongs to, and comes from, the people. Elected officials are tools; they are instruments of our power. They are merely temporary guardians and stewards of the power that we grant to them on a temporary basis, to wield on our behalf in a responsible manner, and in a manner that serves us.
Barack Obama understands this. "Yes We Can," he says, not "Yes I Can." In everything Senator Obama has said and done this campaign, he has openly recognized that the movement he helped to ignite is not about him; it is about us. This is not mere rhetoric, and these are not "just words." This is the thoughtful conclusion of a profoundly insightful and intellectually honest man. It is the first time an elected official has openly and humbly conceded to the people the power that rightfully belongs to us. Barack Obama understands that he is merely a part of this vast union of citizens called the United States of America, and he recognizes that this power collectively resides with all of us.
This is why the Netroots and the people-powered-politics behind it has overwhelmingly come out in support of Senator Obama, and it is because of us that his campaign has succeeded in triumphing over the campaigns of others who have relied on a self-centered message funded by corporate donors, lobbyists, and prominent party insiders.
Critics ask derisively what Obama means by this abstract notion of "change." This is what change means. It is the democratization of democracy, the full realization of a hope conceived in the minds of our founding fathers so long ago - a civilization where power truly rests with the people. This change is not about Barack Obama. It is about us.
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3. What We Can Do Next
This is who were are. You all saw what we did for Representative Chandler when he came under fire. The super delegates saw it. Even the media caught a glimpse. We raised $20,000 in a span of 24-hours. Think about that for a moment. A group of a few hundred online bloggers accomplished this in one day. Imagine what we could accomplish if we expanded our netroots network to encompass the rest of the Democratic Party.
The Republicans have no such networking apparatus as this. They are still trying to understand what the internet is, let alone how to use it. And it scares them. The Republican Party knows that if a day should ever come when people vote en masse in huge, unprecedented numbers, they would suffer enormous and permanent electoral defeats, and their entire power structure would crumble. The Republican Party as we know it would cease to exist.
For this reason, Republican legislatures across the country have taken extraordinary measures to suppress voter turnout and registration. Most recently, a patently discriminatory and unconstitutional law in Indiana passed by the Republican legislature that requires all citizens to furnish a photo ID at the voting booth was upheld by a Republican dominated Supreme Court. This follows earlier efforts in 2004 to suppress voter registration drives by Republican led legislatures in Florida and Ohio.
They believe they scored a victory. But they only succeeded in pissing us off.
This is who we are. We are a community of citizens who raised $20,000 for a Congressman because he received a few racist phone calls. Did you really think we would just sit back while you try to rob us of our fundamental right to vote?!
If the Republicans want to make voting difficult, we are going to make voting easy. We are going to make it so easy, in fact, that for the first time no one will have an excuse not to be registered and not to vote. Here's how we'll do it:
VoteZip.org
This is a website begun by a group of us across the country that aims to make registering to vote as easy as entering your Zip Code. The idea is that if any citizen anywhere in the country wants to register, all they need to do is log on to VoteZip.org and enter their name, phone number, and Zip Code. The VoteZip.org database will then match the the registrant with a local volunteer by zipcode. The volunteer will then be notified and contact the person to help them register - either by making an appointment to meet in person or over the phone.
But we need volunteers for this! There are appx 42,000 zip codes in the U.S., and we aim to cover ever single one. We raised $20,000 in one day for Congressman Chandler. How many voters do you think we can raise in 100 days? 1,000,000? I think we can. But then again, I thought we would raise only $10,000 for Congressman Chandler.
Volunteer to register 1,000,000 voters in 100 days!
There is much that we need to share about votezip.org - our grassroots commitment, our bottom-up power structure, why it is necessary to supplement Obama's 50-state voter registration drive, etc. The site is also still in development. I recently received an email from one of our fellow Kossacks offering to give the site a face-lift.
I will post a follow up diary explaining VoteZip.org in greater detail either over the weekend or on Monday.
I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude and affection for everyone on DailyKos. We are incredible.
Yes We Can.
