[Sosfbay-discuss] How Did Party in Berkeley Go? Anybody Get a Good Picture of Deacon Alexander?
Gerry Gras
gerrygras at earthlink.net
Mon Feb 8 18:41:43 PST 2010
Brian Good wrote:
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> I was disappointed that so many people abused the strategy session to
> engage in long rambling reminiscences and I fell asleep twice during
> that.
I did not attend. The main reason I would have gone would have been
for the strategy seesion. Sounds like I did not miss much.
> I'd had little sleep the night before, and because my car had
> broken down on the trip up I stank of antifreeze, so I didn't feel very
> sociable, and I didn't even think of bringing up my strategy issues:
>
> 1. A public finance (Prop 15) campaign would be a great organizing
> vehicle. If we get just 15,000 $5 donations we get a million dollars to
> run a professional Secretary of State campaign, just like a real party.
> If paid staffers choose to use their pay for political activities these
> funds could be a real energizer for the party. Since we have 111,000
> registered Greens today, if we can't get the 15k donors in four years we
> should just give up.
Or change the org from political party to something else.
Good point.
>
> 2. Campaign Finance reform. The average congressional rep takes in
> $1.5 million per election, and according to Lawrence Lessig, spends 40%
> to 60% of her time raising that money which, because of gerrymandered
> safe seats, they don't need. Much of this money goes to the Democratic
> party, and much is paid to consultants who get enormous sums with little
> transparency. Since fundraising success is a factor in gaining
> committee chairmanships and other perks, Reps have to spend their time
> as party fundraisers instead of solving our country's problems. The
> Dems suck. We don't.
I am not sure what your point is. I assume that you are trying to
argue for the need to work on campaign finance reform. If so,
I agree. I expect to be working for Prop 15, and supporting
the national Fair Elections effort.
>
> It was great to hear the inspiring story of how in the early days
> 79,000 people were persuaded to register for a party that didn't yet
> exist. During 2003 antiwar demonstrations it was said that people
> crowded the registration tables four deep to sign up.
>
> Ray said that continuing to run campaigns where we get 5% of the vote
> was just guaranteeing that we'll continue to be ineffective. It seemed
> that few people wanted to hear that.
I wonder why.
> It was nice to see a reunion
> amongst the old timers, people chattering excitedly. But it reminded me
> of 9/11 Truth conventions where people go to have their dissenting
> beliefs reinforced by like-minded people. I wonder if there's something
> cultish about continuing to convince each other that it's enough just to
> pull in a few thousand votes. If we are to convince the mainstream that
> we are a viable alternative instead of a perennial protest vote, we need
> to convince ourselves of that first.
Seems reasonable.
Gerry
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> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 19:40:12 -0500
> From: alexcathy at aol.com
> Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] How Did Party in Berkeley Go? Anybody Get a
> Good Picture of Deacon Alexander?
>
> I'm surprised this e-list isn't crackling with news about the 20th
> Anniversary party up in Berkeley.
>
> How did it go?
>
> B.T.W. did anybody get any good pictures of Deacon Alexander? I would
> like to post one on my blog.
>
>
> Alex
>
>
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