| Blogosphere Day is about people coming together to change the direction of their country -- in short, it's about democracy.
And in a more perfect world, the fantastic expansion of the public dialog engendered by the blogophere is all it would take to build a thriving democracy. The true marketplace of ideas would rule.
But in this, less perfect, world, it takes infrastructure as well as great ideas. And that takes cold, hard, cash making its way from supporters to deserving candidates.
That’s where Act Blue becomes essential. |
| Act Blue enables Democrats from all walks of life to work together, pooling their contributions to elect candidates who represent their values. In the past three years, Act Blue has sent $25 million to 1700 Democratic candidates, from over 200,000 contributors, and helped channel the rising tide of grassroots energy and commitment to retake Congress in 2006.
Is Act Blue really that important? After all, small contributions have always been available to campaigns. What’s the big deal about this whole online thing? (I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but I’m pretty sure some of you also talk to the non-singing members of the congregation on occasion. Let me suggest a couple of points to use.)
Better yet, let’s pick Matt Stoller’s big Open Left brain:
So what is Act Blue? They dub themselves the online clearninghouse for Democratic action. The way I think about it is that Act Blue is a new type of unofficial party committee, designed around tools and neutral third party handling of data rather than a specific set of politicians to support. While the DSCC looks at the Senate, or the DCCC at the House, Act Blue works to find the people at any level in the party who want to work, and gives them the tools to raise money for whatever they need.
It's a perfect hybrid approach to the Federal/State model of America. Unlike parties in parliamentary systems, political parties in America are cross-cutting amorphous networks of people, with no consistent standard for who is and isn't powerful. Every state has different laws and a different political culture. In New Jersey, the county party leaders raise money and pick state Senators, but in other states party officials at the municipal committee level are the ones who glue the party together. Act Blue, when they enter a state, doesn't care who uses their tools, they just want to find the people who need them. And what they are finding is, in essence, the Democratic Party. They have taken the internet, which doesn't care what state you are in but just serves web sites and data in a neutral manner, and made the Democratic Party look a lot more like it.
Think about it. Where would your favorite netroots politician be without Act Blue?
Whether it was Ned Lamont showing the real face of Joe Lieberman to the world, Senator Jon Tester coming through a contested primary nobody thought he’d win, or Jerry McNerney, or Patrick Murphy, or Marcy Weingrad forcing Jane Harman to actually listen to her constituency for the first time in years, or [insert your preferred name here].
Money wasn’t the only thing that made these campaigns outstanding. But if they hadn’t had that money, a lot fewer people would have known about them.
And Act Blue didn’t stop with the federal races. In the last cycle, they took on the huge task of expanding into state races-including Texas. Recently, they added party committee funds from all over the nation.
They’re making it easier to have a robust financial underpinning to the Democratic Party. They took a good idea, and built it into a reality. Then they kept on improving and expanding it.
Without the support of the folks at Act Blue, I promise you that 2006 would not have been as happy an outcome. Now on the 4th annual Blogosphere Day, we're supporting Act Blue. By building Democratic infrastructure today, we're building support for progressive victory in 2008, and strengthening our movement for the long haul. Please support Act Blue today.
Democrats are ahead online because of Act Blue and the blogs, but the other side is watching and learning. Your support is crucial for us to maintain and build our advantage. Please support Act Blue today.
Act Blue is on the road to raising $100 million this election cycle. But that won't happen if we wait to support their work. It's a 16-month journey to November 2008, and if we wait until we only have a year, or six months left left, we won't reach our destination.
Please support Act Blue today, as well as that handsome and capable Senatorial candidate mentioned in my previous missive...
More Democrats like these, please. We're willing to pay for them. |
