As John has already started to flesh out what Peanut Butter PAC is, and it appears that very soon, progressive activists will have another tool at their disposal to effect real change. Change that was mandated by the people on November 4, 2008 when Barack Obama was elected to become the 44th President of the United States and the Democrats were elected to the biggest majority in both houses of Congress since the Lyndon Johnson administration. Obviously, 2009 leaves us with some mixed feelings since some great things(Lily Ledbetter law, expanded stem cell research, progress on High Speed Rail) were accomplished and some things disappointed progressives(TARP didn’t lead to nationalization of banks, expanded Medicare buy-in was nixed by Jumpin’ Joe, lack of any progress on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell). Rather than reflect on what went wrong in 2009, I would like to explore what progressive values are in my first post to this blog, and give my two cents as to Jane Hamsher’s proposal we ally with the Tea Party crowd.
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Archive for December, 2009
A perfect demonstration of the power of this concept
Look at the member survey at the top of the right hand column – as of this posting, only 6 people have voted, but they show a willingness to raise $27.00 every week. Multiply that by 52 weeks in a year and six people would be raising $1,404 per year! With all of my online fundraising efforts over the past three years, I’ve managed a little over $10,000.00 for the candidates and causes I’ve supported, but just six donors to this PAC can raise almost 15% of my three year total in just one year.
Imagine what we can do with 3,000 members – 1,000 people donating on each donation day would raise over half a million dollars every year. Please spread the word about this PAC – we need members who want to make a difference…
BIG NEWS: Peanut Butter PAC receives $200 in seed money!
I’ve begun talking to online activists and the conversation has been very favorable so far, the concept behind this PAC has been well received – and it’s resulted in a Western Union transfer of $200 to get the ball rolling! I’m applying for my federal EIN and getting the rest of the blog paperwork together over the next few days, and I’ll be using that seed money to open our bank account and begin advertising the PAC. Free or nearly free advertising will be the first avenue we pursue – presented below one idea for a community building diary at DailyKos, please let us know what you think in the comments.
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Organizing, and why this blog exists…
DailyKos diarist thereisnospoon nails it as usual with this column about the importance of organizing to defeat the folks we’re fighting against. He boils it down to a matter of organizing – until we can sway millions of people to vote for their best interests, politicians will have no reason to fear us and they’ll continue to sell us down the river. Here’s a few choice words of wisdom:
The problem is people like me, and the people I work for. I’m what they call a Qualitative Research Consultant, or QRC for short. Here’s my website. There’s even a whole association of us who meet regularly to discuss ideas and tactics. Together with the AAPC, the MRA, the AMA, ESOMAR, and a whole host of other organizations you’ve never heard of, we have more power and control than you know. We’re extremely good at what we do, and we do it all behind the scenes, appealing to and manipulating your subconscious brain in ways that your conscious brain has little to no control over.
Give us a little money to test some things out, and we can work magic. Our business is persuasion, and we’re very good at it. Just watch PBS Frontline’s series, The Persuaders to get just a small inkling of what you’re up against. We can make a company that earns a 38% gross profit margin manufacturing purely propriety products seem hip, cool and progressive. We can take sugar water and sell it back to you as a health drink, and even Whole Foods shoppers will believe it. We can take 30 different brands of vodka with almost exactly the same ingredients, and make you understand instantly just what kind of person drinks which brand, and how much you should expect to pay for each, without a moment’s thought. For any given category of products, I can show you a bunch of different brands, and you’ll be able to tell me a wealth of information about each one, despite the near absolute similarity of their actual products to one another. One exercise we QRC’s like to conduct involves actually turning a brand into a person in a group discussion; it’s called personification. And you wouldn’t believe how effectively and universally we can tailor a brand’s image, right down to what kind of car that “person” would drive, and what music he/she would listen to. So much attention has been paid to Naomi Klein’s outstanding Shock Doctrine, that few pay much attention anymore to her far more provocative and important work No Logo. If all Americans truly internalized the message of No Logo, people like me would be out of work, and we could really reform this country.
First things first – we need to organize in order to effect any changes. Please join my PAC, we have a lot of work to do…
Lieberman, again…
Holy Joe just won’t quit – he’s all over the blogosphere again today after he said he may run as a Republican when he’s up for re-election. It’s a shame we didn’t send him to K Street in 2006 – and we have to wait until 2012 to even try to send him packing again!
Jed Lewison over at DailyKos nails it with this:
Maybe, just maybe, Lieberman isn’t as motivated by revenge as the CW suggests. Maybe his real goal is to solidify his conservative support, support that he’ll need to have any chance of winning re-election in 2012.
Whatever the case, every day that Joe Lieberman remains a member in good standing of the Democratic caucus is yet another day that Joe Lieberman makes Democrats look stupid.
That’s reason enough for me to get this PAC up and running – please join me…
Petition: Hadassah Lieberman is a paid spokesperson for the Susan G. Komen Foundation!
While her husband puts the brakes on health care reform, the Susan G. Komen Foundation is paying Hadassah Lieberman to be its spokesperson. Please join me in signing this petition asking the Komen Foundation to give that job to someone more deserving:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – we have to get this PAC up and running so we can max out to an actual Democrat in CT for 2012…
Sites we like: Round-up, version 1.0
Here’s a quick recap of some important posts at the sites listed in our “sites we like” section:
From DailyKos:
From Crooks and Liars:
From Democratic Underground:
We need to get this PAC going so we can max out to Lieberman’s primary opponent…
Steering committee
I’m on my way to an annual event in Massachusetts Democratic politics – Kate Donaghue’s Holiday Party in Westboro. As I was getting ready, it occurred to me that a steering committee would be a good thing, so I’ll be asking for volunteers among the activists at the party. If you’d like to participate, please register for an account and leave a comment on this thread.
Support PeanutButterPAC.org here
We’ve created a Zazzle store with logo gear that will go a long way towards making our PAC successful – please visit today and make a purchase so we can be up and running after the first of the year!
Let us know in the comments if there’s any other products you’d like to see – we can make mousepads, postage, travel mugs, and lots of other products…
About PeanutButterPAC.org
PeanutButterPAC.org is an ideologically oriented political action committee favoring progressive politics, truly a people-powered public policy PAC. Think of it as a method of making a big difference for just a little money – year round, small dollar weekly donations, in sufficient numbers, can make a gig difference. There are three categories of weekly donations to the PAC:
- $2 Tuesdays
- $3 Thursdays
- $5 Fridays
PAC members are asked to make a small sacrifice in their daily lives and send the money in as a donation. Maybe you like to buy coffee on the way to work, or you’re an an office worker who buys lunch every day in the office cafeteria, or a smoker who thinks one pack less per week would be a good thing. We ask that you sacrifice one day’s worth of this money (e.g. pack a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, hence the name of the PAC) and donate it. Once you’re a member, you’ll be able to nominate progressive politicians you like into the candidate pool, write blog entries promoting them into the PAC award system, and you’ll be able to vote for other candidates as well.
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