Quote of the Day: “Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Source: The Soul of a Man Under Socialism, 1891
Subject: Passing the “Read the Bills Act” and the “One Subject at a Time Act”
Here’s how we plan to do it. 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’ve accumulated $2,125 in January. Our goal each month is $6,000. 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 will grow constantly larger, making greater outreach possible.
Or, you can make a one-time donation to help fund our outreach.
Use our secure online contribution form.
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
P.S. Today, we’ve given you some basic “elements of the plan.” But our strategy is explained in much greater detail in The Downsize DC Vision. This week we’ve heard from DC Downsizers who said things like, “I recently received a copy of your Downsize DC Vision and was very impressed with the contents,” and, “I want to inquire about bulk orders of The Downsize DC Vision booklet.” You can find out why they were so impressed. We send a copy of The Downsize DC Vision to every new donor. Please, help us carry out this plan by making a contribution.