Media Alert: Jim Babka is scheduled to appear on Straight Talk w/ Jerry Hughes at 3:06 PM Eastern. Details are available at the blog.
Quote of the Day: “Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?” — Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Subject: What is it going to take to Downsize DC?
We must gain the size and strength to stop the politicians from doing bad things. Because DownsizeDC.org constantly has new members its important to repeat our view of what it will take to do this.
* We must recruit an army so large that it can . . .
* Apply relentless, overwhelming, resistence numbing pressure on Congress, and . . .
* Make our ideas seen and heard by everyone, everywhere, every day
We’re making steady progress toward this goal. Our goal is $6,000 per month, plus 20 new monthly pledgers. Because of snow storms at our operations office, I don’t have precise numbers to share with you, but we’re roughly halfway towards reaching each of these numbers. And . . .
THERE ARE ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT IN THIS MONTH.
If you’d like a quick, exciting description of how we’re going to execute our outreach and recruitment plan, please read “The Elements of the Plan,” which I’ve appended beneath my signature.
If you can help us meet our January goal by making a generous contribution or starting a monthly credit card pledge, use our secure online contribution form.
Every new contributor gets our full strategy document: “The Downsize DC Vision”
You can start a monthly pledge for as little as $5 a month, or as much as you want.
Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
THE ELEMENTS OF THE PLAN
Here’s how we plan to pass our “Read the Bills Act” (RTBA) and “Our One Subject at a Time Act” (OSTA). Step One . . .
* Write a simple letter introducing people to RTBA and OSTA (you’ll see this letter soon)
* Get a good volume discount by printing a large quantity of these letters
* Mail these letters to people likely to love RTBA and OSTA
Why letters? Because they allow us to target the most likely responders. Direct mail provides higher recruitment rates than any other form of advertising, including the Downsizer-Dispatch. These letters will ask people to . . .
* Join DownsizeDC.org for free
* Receive the Downsizer-Dispatch for free
* Use our quick and easy Educate the Powerful System to pester Congress to pass RTBA and OSTA
All people have to do is give us their email address. We expect a high response. The Downsize DC Army will grow rapidly. In addition . . .
We’ll ask people to contribute so we can send the letter to more potential supporters. These donations can be as small as a dollar. We’ll use this money to mail more letters and recruit more people.
Step One will bring us the supporters we need to launch Step Two. We can’t say how many people we’ll need yet, but here’s how we currently envision Step Two. We will . . .
* Start concentrating our mailings in the smallest media market
* Recruit enough people in that area to begin advertising there (radio, TV, newspapers)
* Saturate that media market, growing constantly as we do so
* Overwhelm the local members of Congress with advertising and pressure from their constituents
This will make each district inhospitable to members of Congress who don’t support RTBA and OSTA. We will compel them to introduce or co-sponsor these bills. We’ll then move our efforts to the next smallest media market.
Imagine how you’ll feel when this stage of our plan comes to your area.
We call this strategy “Pick-off the Herd.” It will allow us to follow the path of least resistance, constantly growing in small, easy steps, so that we can do more and better things all the time. We’ll pick off the members of Congress one by one until we have the votes in Congress to pass RTBA and OSTA.
By the time we finish this process we’ll have the size and resources to make our ideas heard by everyone, everywhere, every day. We’ll be able to educate the public on a host of issues, and fight and win on those issues. “Pick-off the Herd” combined with RTBA and OSTA will give us the lever we need to Downsize DC.
We’ve arranged things so that the cost of executing this plan can be as low (or as high) as each participant wants.
Because we already have our 2009 operating expenses covered, we’re already piling up money for the first step — printing the letters. We’re trying to create a “growth machine,” where we just “turn the crank,” growing larger and larger with each turn. The more we raise the more we can do and the faster we can grow.
The best way to turn the crank is by starting a monthly credit card pledge for $3, $5, $10 or more — just a few cents per day. If we recruit just 20 new pledgers each month our reliable monthly income for outreach will grow constantly larger.
Or, you can make a one-time donation to help fund our outreach. Use our secure online contribution form.