Our Revolution is being touted by progressives as the “future of our political movement” and features participation by our own revolutionary sweetheart, Bernie Sanders. Bernie himself will be speaking at a kickoff forum tonight in Burlington, VT. This seemed noteworthy, so I decided to stop into the OurRevolution.com web site to see what it was all about. My first surprise was that it was a dot.com. I had been expecting a dot.org. But there you are, everything is commercial these days, even “our revolution.” (Fine print reveals that “Our Revolution will operate as a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization.”)
My next surprise was that there is nothing on the OurRevolution.com site except a squeeze page asking for your email address and zip code. I decided I wasn’t interested in giving them that information yet, so I clicked on the only obvious link on the page that I misread as “Continue to the Revolution.” My bad — it actually said “Contribute to the Revolution” and sure enough, on the resulting page, I learned that the first step to being a new-model revolutionary was that I had to donate money through ActBlue. There was a form and a bunch of suggested donations from $1,000 down to $15. I tried to write in $0 just to be able to continue to the next part of the revolutionary process but no dice — they won’t let you in until you pay. I am chuckling at the irony as I type this. Actually, I doubt there’s any web site to continue to. For at least the time being, OurRevolution.com is a fundraising and data gathering site.
Finally, I returned to the initial squeeze page and clicked on the site’s privacy policy. To my dismay, a technical glitch prevented me from scrolling down to see the whole document which I suspected was lengthy. Fortunately, I remembered that you can often select what you cannot see, so I did a Select All and copied the privacy policy into a text document, changed the text color from white to black, and read it. Naturally, it was crap, the usual “we will collect any and everything we can about you and use it as we see fit” kind of boilerplate. Nothing revolutionary there!
Sigh. I’m sure Our Revolution is a good and positive effort on the part of good, well-intentioned people, but their opening gambit failed with me. If all they want is money, then this isn’t my revolution. Even a paragraph of well-crafted introductory text would have helped.
For those who are still curious, the event will be live-streamed — on Facebook, apparently, and possibly on BernieSanders.com. For people who prefer a more social experience, you can also attend a designated streaming party such as one being held down at the Marlboro Grad Center.
The event in question:
What: Our Revolution Kickoff Event
When: Wednesday, August 24th – 8:00 pm to 10:30 pm
Where: North End Studio (Studio A), 294 North Winooski Ave, Burlington, VT
Give 'em some meat
Politico, a political site favoring Democrats, has a story about the Revolution being in “turmoil” – at least at the inner-circle level.
About a third of the top team resigned after Jeff Weaver took over. something they say they were promised wouldn’t happen. Weaver favors more traditional fundraising, and money from bigger donors, they claim.
There seems to have been some fighting over Revolution Messaging, too, the group that handled the Sanders campaign web site and email campaigns. They were tossed, then brought back.
I would say that this is probably all some organizational start up and growing pains. It could lead to more than one approach. It takes some time to figure out what to do and how to do it. Then it takes time to get it done.
Still, it seems like they may have dropped the ball by rushing. They should know that supporters want to do something, learn something, engage in some way beyond giving cash. It’s not about the fundraising, as much as it has to be about fundraising, too. Issues and actions drive the income.
The site designers should have provided some issue-laden meat, then asked for cash. They should feature activists from across the country, and track the major issues/campaigns that were Sanders platform.
A sh*t load of money
When the Bern “left” the presidential campaign July 12th he had raised by himself $232 million, and allied super PACs and independent groups raised $6.3 million.
That’s a sh*t load of money. That’s a quarter of a Bill !
These guys can smell the money…
the event
Well, the event wasn’t quite as money oriented. It does appear they are working out the logistics of a long term campaign.
If you missed it, Sanders said that the new organization, that he won’t be a part of due to laws about nonprofits and politicians, will take up the “progressive” platform crafted by the Democrats and use it as a guide to get those platform items enacted.
It sounds like it may become a bit like Kickstarter for politics – they will collect issues and candidates info then share it with their network. They’ll try to point out where helping win in one state can help further down the line.
And Sanders will be in the Senate, working to block or pass various pieces of legislation.
Sounds like he want to get more people like himself elected, so that official DC politics can change, and to do that they are getting people active at all levels, from school board on up.
So, which progressive, Sanders-supporting citizens will run for school and selectboard in Brattleboro this year? Step up and help be the change you want to see.
There can be no revolution while we continue to
base our society on money. It’s not that money per se is necessarily wrong; it is though, totally wrong and detrimental to base a motivational system (which money is) on a tool (again that’s all money is) that brings out the “greedy” in us.
We all have to think of ourselves first, that makes perfect sense because if we didn’t, we’d be ineffective for others. However the idea of “one-upmanship” that money inures us to, only debases us. By using money, we do ourselves such a disfavor. We literally “do a number” on ourselves! Because no one can be an island. What we need to practice for a true revolution is to change our behavior. No revolution worth working for can be life-changing without doing the inner work.
Money is a purely man-made phenomenon. It is like the calendar or the clock. These are human systems, they are not physics and therefore we can make them into anything we want or toss them out altogether. (Our calendar makes no sense either – every year has 13 moons not 12 and why are the days of the months so arbitrary?) Because it’s just a system, a man-made system folks!
That knowledge should empower us. But first it must strike us at the heart and stop us in our tracks – we have been following a template that we had no idea came not from creation, but from people just like us! People who herd people (and make them like livestock)
What is the purpose of money? I’d say to facilitate transactions so we can achieve our heart’s desires. What would you say is the purpose of money? Do you ever give it much thought apart from trying to get more or lose less or work within its bounds?
Money has given us the situation where 99% of the people suffer. Does money work for us, does it bring satisfaction, fulfill our desires? Does it facilitate us to live our dreams, to be free to express our individual genius? But again, can we be happy to achieve our desires while millions and sometimes billions of people just like us on the planet are starving, are bombed, are raped, murdered, used as slaves and all the other sordid messes money has foisted on humanity? Frankly I am not happy to continue on this same path while the world is in such turmoil and devastation.
Money doesn’t incentivize good practices like replenishing the environment when we take from it. Indeed, destroying nature is much more profitable than harmonizing with it in this system.
What kind of revolution do you really want? More white people deciding on everything?
We live in the 21st century. Yet we’re still driving around 100-year old engines that are like tanks while we sit on the edge of pollution asphyxiation. Our air, water and food is dangerously contaminated. Who decides we live like this? Another Bernie or another Obama or another cartel?
We have the technology now to allow you to have your views shaired (shared and aired) on any issue and then you can vote what you believe in. No need anymore for some “representative” to do it for you, a rep who cannot possibly fulfill thousands of views let alone yours. Why are you asking for more of the same? Can you envisage what it would be like if we lived up to the technological promise of the 21st century? Can you envisage finally ending the long litany of toil your ancestors struggled and even died for? Can you imagine what abundance can be ours with current technology coupled with a philosophy of living in alignment with nature?
It starts from within. The rest consists of us putting a blueprint together. Change takes courage. Can we muster the courage to bring a true revolution of thought so that humanity can, after its long and brutal history, finally live its potential?
Well said!
I agree. We’re enslaved by our own creations.
I spend all my time working so I can pay my landlord and a few bills. My landlord needs the money to pay mortgages, taxes, and a few bills. The money works its way to corporations and banks eventually, and then to their directors and investors. Those at the top then have all our money, and are able to come up with more systems and ways to get even more money. Many of those systems put people out of work.
The house I live in was paid for fully before 1900. There is no “cost” there except for upkeep. It’s value should be minimal (not rising) and it should just be passed along to new owners without a price tag (or at a lower cost) when current residents are done with it. It’s the way with our cars, bikes, and most times we buy. They drop in value upon purchase.
But we have another system. An old house gets flipped every decade or two and prices for this older, more beat up object rise? Each new owner ends up putting in enormous amounts just to fix it back up to current standards. Imagine if we all bought used cars, improved them, then tried to get more than the original price of the car for them. No one would buy.
One of the reasons it was depressing for Clinton to get the nomination is because her message is that we should have more of the same. It’s a lack of vision, and a lack of willingness to even try. There is a saying – “Reach for the stars – at least you won’t end up with a handful of mud.” Sanders (and even Trump sometimes) suggests we can do better, and encourage people to work toward those goals.
Thank you.
We need to figure out what we want, then design systems that are geared to achieve what we want. Most people have no vision of what they want. The vision they have is what they can achieve WITHIN THIS CURRENT SYSTEM (excuse the caps). This is too limited a vision. We need to let our imaginations out of the cage. Many of us need to relearn how to activate the imagination. That is our greatest and most valuable attribute. Clinton, Sanders, Trump, the whole celebrity politician enchilada, is yet another decoy away from our practicing our shining capacities. We look to this puppetry, we know it’s money-driven and not “true”, yet we remain entangled in its web. But it doesn’t HAVE to be this way. Awareness is a strange thing. Once you have it, you can’t go back.
The new movement we're starting
I’m always amazed at those who will vote for and argue for things that work against them. Propose a mandatory minimum income, so everyone could have enough to live, and some will say NO.
Try to give strangers free money sometime. They get very suspicious of you and your intentions.
Perhaps part of our latest problem come from demoting education of art, culture, and philosophy in favor of science, technology, engineering and math. Even reading and writing seem to take a back seat to STEM. Creative thinking can be taught, and is one of the reasons I switched over to doing a weekend creativity series… to poke people into doing more with their creative, imaginative selves.
I think part of it is education, and part is permission. People want permission before they play with ideas. They’d like to know they can bat ideas about, and like examples of others who have done what they’d like to do but cannot.
So, permission granted. Dream a bit. Ask for more. We can do better.
Living without money
The Native Americans and other indigenous peoples around the world lived very well without money (wampum wasn’t money).
South African researcher Michael Tellinger (google him) is promoting a moneyless system he calls “Contributionism” in which he provides one such blueprint.
I understand he will be in Vermont in September at Bolton Valley.
Tellinger
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Feartheart.com.au%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F05%2FMichael-Tellinger_485.jpg&f=1
Your Tellinger link
Shows a nice photo of him.
But no story.
Ubuntu Contributionism
Too much of a story to tell in a short comment. Google him. He’s also got a lot of stuff on You Tube.
“Gaia”(Nee “Gaiam”) has several of his series on line, but you have to join to see them.
Clinton is the closest analog we have running for president
Some people want to live without money. I’m one of them.
But none of us, can propose a way of doing so. And, if anyone does propose a way, then they must do so in a manner that must convince 196 nations around the world.
If all these various sovereign nations want to do away with moneyed currency, then the question of where we begin gets extremely complicated.
I’m guessing that most people in the United States are not interested in a revolution to do away with money.
Therefore, Clinton is the closest analog we have running for president.
Even the Sanders people (“Our Revolution”) know they cannot get by without money, therefore they are rather Clintonesque.
revolution
There are many issues with this organization. Some are those of a start up and will naturally work themselves out as it matures. I for one have some serious issues with the way it was set up in the first place. This is a 501(c)(4) – a very particular kind of nonprofit. It is the same kind that came under some scrutiny from the IRS for being too involved in direct politics. They can only spend a portion of their money on “political” issues and can have no direct contact with candidates. So some of the staff that left did so because they felt that limiting their ability to coordinate with candidates was contrary to their vision.
They also do not have to list their donors. That is all private, so no one knows where the money is coming from. In this case one would assume most would be small donations but not necessarily so and we will never know. That was another concern of the staff that left.
It is surprising to me that they did not instead set themselves up as PAC (Political Action Committee). There are restrictions on them also but they are much more transparent – a relative term.
Sen Sanders cannot be involved because of Federal Elections Commission laws. If he has any involvement (not sure if that extends to using his name which they are doing) it must abide by certain McCainFeingold rules around campaign finance reporting. Example all donations of over $1000 have to be identified, etc.
So it is surprising to me that it was set up this way. Seems contrary to Bernie’s emphasis on transparency and his denouncement of 501(c)(4)s over the last years.
Anyway we will see how it shakes out.
Jeanette