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September 16, 2016

The new Downsize DC will give you more “targets”

Our new Engage software will…

  • Cost less to maintain — making us more efficient with your contributions
  • Overcome new tech barriers imposed by Congress
  • Make it easier for you to both send letters to Congress and customize those letters
  • Allow us to spark more pressure on Congress through tools such as Facebook and Twitter

We’ve explored these benefits in the previous four messages in this series. Now…

What if you weren’t limited to only pressuring Congress?

What if you could also pressure…

  • A bureaucracy when it’s about to impose a new regulation?
  • The President when he or she needs to sign or veto a particular bill?

You’ll soon be able to use our new system to do both things.

Plus, Downsize DC will also gain a new ability to focus on specific, powerful legislators such as committee chairs and committee members. This is important, because it’s easier to defeat a bill before the leadership has committed to it one way or another. In the past, we’ve skipped fights we’d have otherwise chosen, because we had no process for choking a new bill in its crib. Now, we’ll have that power instantly because of Engage.

You’ll also gain new powers in election years.

If your so-called “representative” hasn’t introduced bills like the One Subject at a Time Act, the Read the Bills Act, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, you’ll be able to reach out to their opponents, using Engage. You’ll be able to ask challengers to support our bills. This will place additional pressure on the incumbent. Challengers will want to say YES, because we’ll broadcast the news of their campaign pledge.

That’s an immense amount of new power to pressure the Feds. But our new software will let you hit other power centers too! For instance…

We’ve always been fans of “interposition of the lower magistrate.” We’re talking especially about state level nullification — using the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to block enforcement of unconstitutional federal actions.

In our history, we’ve encouraged action against the NSA, the Patriot Act, and the Real ID Act at the state level, with some success. But we’ve never had the software tools to do this in a direct way. Now…

You’ll be able to use Engage to contact your state legislators too!

That’s four more of the 16 benefits we’ve listed on the right side of this message.

We pay for this new software with a $12,000 annual subscription. The initial setup and data conversion will cost $26,000. We’ve already raised a significant amount of those costs. And we’ve…

  1. Acquired the system.
  2. Begun the site re-design (We’ll show you that soon).
  3. Started the back-end programming needed to make Engage work with our legacy systems.

Thanks to other donors who’ve already responded, we only need $14,447 to finish this project.

Can you help us complete this work?

When we launched Downsize DC, we memorialized the Founders. That was 2004. But you’ll still find them listed on our About Us page! They’re listed in the footer of this message. And we’re going to retain their record on the new site, as well.

To get on that list twelve years ago, required a minimum contribution. But, regardless of the size of your contribution, we will…

Put your name on a Refounders roster that will appear in this series of messages, and on the About Us page of our new site, next to the original Founders’ roster.

The “Refounders – 2016” will be listed in rank order based on the size of their gift. Monthly credit card pledgers will be “annualized” for ranking purposes.

Please consider starting or increasing a monthly, credit card pledge.

– OR –

Please demonstrate your confidence in our plan by investing the largest contribution that will make you feel good. Remember, your donation will be memorialized on the Refounders 2016 roster.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer,

Jim Babka & Perry Willis

Downsize DC

P.S. We’re explaining every one of the 16 benefits listed in this series of newsletter messages. If you’ve missed an installment, please visit the blog post titled “ALL the Benefits of Engage.

P.P.S. The Refounders-2016 list as of this morning: Brian Thomson, Robert Hart Jr, Larry Ryan, Jann Werner, Ken Whedbee, Bruce Sawicki, Ferdinand Reinke, Jean McCrady, Robert Lehman, Allan Higgins, Dwight Baker, Nicholas Hasulak, Albert Pigeon, David Rempel, Martin Anding, Wilma Sinclair, Scott Mosher, David Kaup, John Fehsenfeld, Andy Williams, Jonathan Sauer, Mary Swim, Travis Walston, William Buzzell, R Hilliard, Benjamin Moyes, Erik Lindborg, Marc Bessent, Richard Browning, Victoria Kelley, Deborah Bishop, Christopher Norbury, Mel Pinney, John Hathaway, Marjorie Peters, Jaret Osborne, Charles Lankford, Kendra Robb, Jim Compton, Michael Stoll, Craig Finch, Dave Larson, Jack Madren Jr, Ralph Horton, Mark LeBar, Mark Crowley, Robert Lidral, Steven Castrechino, Jim Ferris, Mark Gogan, Dennis Poole, Doug Szarkowski, Randolph Szabla, Steven Schram, Barbara Haskins, Carl Case, John DiLiberto, Franklin Davis, Tom Demers, Ross Primrose, Jerry Titus, David Brown, Frank Pater, Jerry Mabry, Judith Ann Shellabarger, Kathleen Arnheim, Kurt Schurenberg, Michael Maskalans, Pamela Krauskopf, Randy Young, Robert Stern, Steven Busby, Terri Dewell, Thomas Kurzej, Travis Williams, William Cross, Len Hofferber, Andrew Jason, Terry Robinson, William Stoner, Dan Kelly, Michael Hughes, Dana Gudenau, Roger Leahy, Dana Davis, James Troy, Joel Norgaard, Pamela Browne, Shohn Trojacek, Craig Thompson, Peggy Christensen, Virgil Ragsdale, Jim Delton, Mike Spalding, George Hanson, Ronald Pond, Jack Bruns, James Balson, Michael O’Brien, Brice Dobry, Chuck Metalitz, David Gorrell, David Herzfeld, Gregory Williamson, Jackson Harvey, James Wahler, Jeff Stewart, Kristi Granger, Marcelyn Floyd, Odetta Pierce, Pattie Bagwell, Phil Hoff, Richard Fall, Richard Hale, Thibeaux Lincecum, Timothy Doubledee, Bob Ford, Martin Johnson, Tom Morris, Valerie Nixon, Dan Goebel, Larry Upshaw, Luke Elms, Paul Rogers, Steven Hahn, Thomas Thacker, Timothy Streit, Wendell Drye, Jeffrey Hatwig, Dwight Bakker, Gregg Young, Mary Kennedy, R.S. Elam, Raylene Short, Robert Bussey, Tim Haffner, Wes Johnson, Bobby Chapuis, Bruce Boyd, Hana Bernard, Kathleen Chippi, Peter Cappello, Richard Siebold Sue Lewis, Edward Krieger, James Howe, John Davis, Linda Rowberg, Paul Meyer, Carrie Eiler, Charlotte Juett, David Yett, Jon Foster, Mike Clancy, Steven Bachman, Mike Rosing, Adora Jones, Brad Morefield, Brittany Wolf, Dan Moyes, Evan Nagel, John Walker, Liz Winterhawk, Martha Montelongo, Thomas Solt, Tom Mulcahy, William IV, Darryl W. Perry, Brian Happaney, Drew Campbell, Greg Moser, Joseph Theriault, Kit Arbuckle, Michael Phillips,  Paul Price, Michael Kitchen, Roy Hannah.

 

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