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Text File | 1994-10-22 | 20KB | 357 lines

GovAccess.027: net-based, computer-aided citizen political action

Mar.14, 1994

[  This is a slightly-modified version of will appear in my
"Access to Government" column in the April, 1994, issue of BOARDWATCH
magazine, the oldest rag for bulletin-board sysops and users;
8500 W. Bowles Ave #210, Littleton CO 80123; 800-933-6038;
email/[e-mail] .  ]



HOW CITIZENS CAN PURSUE PRACTICAL, POTENT, GRASSROOTS
POLITICAL ACTION - NET-BASED, COMPUTER-AIDED

by Jim Warren

(c) 1994.  May be copied-in-full at any time after Apr.15, 1994, in any form,
provided this notice is included and no fee is charged for the specific copy
nor for a paper publication of which it is a part.


This details how individuals can personally pursue powerful, effective
political action.  I am convinced that its use will explode in the '96
presidential elections and will mature by 1999.
  Delightfully, this only works for positions that have broad public support,
though usually among disorganized and geographically scattered citizens.  It's
useless for covert special interests; in fact, it can overpower their
insiders' clout.

Let me not understate this:
  *I believe that the mature version of this approach will dominate
irresistable citizen-based political action in the 21st Century.*

There are two reasons for wanting access to government:
*  A docile serf's interest and fear concerning what benefit and harm his or
her Master has decided to impose.
*  A free[wo]man's interest in participating in the process of his own
governance - exercising citizen control over government power.
  The latter requires the power to act - to effectively participate in shaping
one's own destiny, the difference between a slave and a freeman - as well as
timely access to information on which to base informed action.

I stumbled into developing parts of this while pursuing last year's effort to
mandate free online access to Californica's [sic] legislative and statutory
information, outlined in my December, 1993, *BoardWatch* column.
  However, this adds *major* features and enormously expands its empowerment
of individual citizens.

As time permits, I expect to personally use it this year to:
(1) help make state political disclosures and other public records freely and
timely available, electronically,
(2) redress the Clinton/Gore administration's bizarre anti-privacy efforts to
prohibit peep-proof personal and business communications, and
(3) reverse the Patent Office's zeal to grant 20-year monopoly-patents for
every iota of software innovation - but only to those with enough wealth and
lawyers to obtain them and defend them.
[If interested, send me email.]
  However, this political-action system is presented here, in general terms.

TYPES OF APPLICATIONS
  Typical citizen uses include:
*  Persuade one decision-maker - an elected official, appointed commissioner,
public administrator, President, etc.
*  Persuade a controlling percentage of a small legislative or policy-making
group - typically a majority of a state or Congressional legislative committee
or Commission or Board.
*  Persuade a controlling percentage of a larger group - usually the upper or
lower house of a state legislature or Congress.


The following first outlines some political fundamentals, then offers nuts-
'n'-bolts details of how to apply networked computers to those fundamentals to
achieve citizen-based control over government.


FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTION
  The body politic - when given (1) adequate information on which to base
informed decisions, (2) adequate time in which to fully consider the
information, and (3) the belief that its actions *can* make a difference -
*will* act for the common good, better than any single overseer or governing
body.  The only alternative is a Master Class ruling subservient citizen-
serfs.

POLITICAL PLATITUDES
  Government is force.  (George Washington said it.)
  Politics is persuasion.  (I said it, though surely thousands have said it
before me.)  Thus, political power is the power of persuasion - the power to
motivate others to do as you wish - company politics, community politics,
sexual politics, etc.  This concerns governmental politics - using persuasion
to control government force.

Given that government imposes its will upon us all, it is absolutely justified
for any citizen - hoping to control his or her own destiny - to pursue maximum
political action, seeking to persuade as many others as possible to join
together in directing government.
  It's also absolutely inescapable.
  Politics is about persuading government decision-makers - singularly and in
globs - to use government force as it "should" be used, which of course, is
determined by the eye of the beholder.
  It particularly concerns persuading constituents to direct their
representatives, and voters to replace unresponsive elected officials with
candidates who appear like they *will* be responsive, or - in the case of
ballot initiatives - to vote as they "should" vote on such measures.

MATH PREREQUISITE
  Politics had its own "modern math" - memorized by every successful
politician.  Example:
  Most of the House of Representative's 535 Congressional Districts have
perhaps 560,000 population.  But only about half of the population is
registered to vote - maybe 280,000 per District.  And only about half to two-
thirds of those who are registered typically vote - 140,000 to about 180,000,
often identifiable by how recently they registered and the number and types of
recent elections in which they voted.
  Naive potential activists might then think they need to persuade at least
half of about 160,000 voters to support their views - and promptly give up,
wheezing, "You can't fight city hall."  Not so!
  Most contested elections (with *numerous* exceptions) are won by a 5% to 10%
margin, or less - perhaps 7,000 to 18,000 of the typical number of actual
voters in a typical House race.  And that's the backbone-dissolving hidden
horror haunting professional politicians:
  *A single individual who can swing 35,000 to 9,000 voters from one side to
the opposite side can often control an election!*
  Furthermore, the most-persuasive advocacy is by non-partisan citizens
contacting other citizens - for elections - or by groups of them to their
elected representative(s) - for government action.  Politicians *know* how
powerful any single persuasive, tenacious citizen can be.

FURTHER POLITICAL PRAGMATICS
  Elected officials enter and remain in the meat-grinder of public office for
some shifting combination of three rewards:  ego to feel good, power to do
good, and salary+percs as compensation for difficult work - just like most
folks who hold jobs that they like.  Ego, however, tends to play a *much*
bigger part than in most other jobs.  Thus stroking it and flailing it can be
more persuasive in politics than in most other environs.
  Excluding physical force, there are three approaches that are irresistibly
persuasive to elected officials:
*  Praise and/or other rewards for desirable action,
*  Criticism and/or other penalties for undesired action, and
*  *Apparent* ability to *potentially* impact their ability to remain in the
elective offices from which all their rewards flow.
  And the *belief* by an elected official that a citizen can deliver
significant support for or opposition to their re-election completely
overshadows the power of the first two rewards - including financial "rewards"
from lobbyists and special interests.

To emphasize:  *The potential ability to sway only a few-thousand voters for
or against an elected official is the most persuasive tool in this nation's
real-world politics.*
  And our interconnected thinkertoys massively-enhance citizens' personal
political power - as individuals, ignoring wealth (but requiring tenacity).
Here's tomorrow's grassroots political-action system, available now:

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  A user must have at least the following equipment:
*  Desktop computer with a diskette or "large" hard disk (size hints, later),
*  Modem, 2400-baud or higher and basic datacomm software, connected to a
residential-quality dial-up telephone or better (a fax-modem increases the
system's political power),
*  Plain-paper, solid-character printer with a typewriter-style monofont;
laser-printer optional but preferred (color printer may be useful; dot-matrix
printers are harmful), and
*  For state or federal action, a personal account on an Internet host is
essential, typically costing under $30/month.
  That's all.

Caveat:  Such equipment and connections should belong to an individual
citizen-activist and be used on their own time - protected by the First
Amendment's speech and assembly freedoms - or be owned and operated by a
registered political organization.
  They'd best not belong to a school, nonprofit organization, business or
corporation nor operated during work-hours.  Otherwise, they become "in-kind"
political contributions that may be prohibited or require disclosure in formal
campaign filings.  (Incidentally, the same holds true for telephones, copying
machines, etc., used for political action - Beware!)

DATA REQUIREMENTS
  The body politic must be able to communicate with itself; i.e., it must be
able to identify and locate its decision-makers - its voters.
  A soapbox in Hyde Park is no longer sufficient for effective political
action.  *Modern* activism, if it is to be significant, *requires* access to
voter-registration data in machine-readable form - at least names and mailing
addresses for the action's targeted area(s).  These are almost-universally
available, usually at very low cost, though often only on 9-track dinosaur-
compatible magtape.  (Beware!  Some incumbent politicians and political
machines, that already have well-developed voter lists, want to severely
restrict such citizen access to the nation's most-powerful decision-makers,
the voters, in the name of privacy.)
  It is *preferable* but not essential to also have computerized names,
addresses and fax numbers of broadcast and print news-media and reporters, and
of radio talk-show hosts, and for community organizations and businesses and
their leaders, and of elected officials and senior public administrators -
helpful but not essential.

OPERATOR SKILLS
  Colonial times and the radio era required oratorical skills to be
politically effective; that excludes many of us.  In the TV era, a pretty face
and svelte body are perhaps the most important political prerequisite; which
excludes most of us.  In contrast, this citizen-action system is based on
content; not slick voice nor trite facade.  Our computers are our Great
Equalizers.  But we *do* need ability:
1.  At least one person must be skilled in writing persuasive communications -
just as was essential in the times of Patrick Henry's electrifying pamphlets
and the anonymously-authored Federalist Papers.
2.  Someone must have working knowledge of how the targeted real-world
political environment actually operates - local, state, federal, legislative,
executive, administrative, elective or regulatory, and so on.
3.  One or several people need to be able to build and maintain simple
datafiles - most being rather small except for an area's voter-reg files,
which can still fit easily on a micro.  E.g., something less than 800,000
voter-reg records for Silicon Valley's Santa Clara County take less than 275
megabytes in uncompressed fixed-field format.
3.5.  Desktop-computer graphic-arts skills sufficient to create 8-1/2" x 11"
leaflet-copy about the advocacy subject may be useful.

There's one final prerequisite - *always* required for effective political
action:  A monumental amount of time and personal tenacity.  But, for this
system, it's only needed by one or a very few organizers or coordinators.

*NOT* REQUIRED
  No powerful boss or dictatorial director is needed.
  No traditional political organization is needed.
  No large or established operation is needed.
  No fatcats or big political bankrolls are needed.  In fact, no one needs to
receive, have or control loot beyond pocket change - just enough to cover the
cost of net-connections and the above-noted equipment and data-files and their
use, as follows.

TUTORIAL FOR NEW USERS
  Let's say the Awful Bill (e.g., the administration's anti-privacy/anti-
crypto bill) has been introduced in Congress, is to be heard by the Committee
on Stuff, and Rep. Gladhand is a key member of that committee - and you don't
live in Gladhand's District.  So how can you - as a mere peon citizen - impact
Gladhand's vote or the committee's decision?
  "Important" people have greatest sway over Gladhand's vote - especially
hustlers inside the Washington Beltway.  Excluding them, individualized
letters and faxes might help (though only one of Gladhand's minor staff will
see 'em), phone calls are counted, and form letters and form postcards might
be better than nothing.  So write Gladhand a one-page personal letter and make
sure it arrives no earlier than about a week before the hearing.
  But a dribble of communications from outside of an elected official's
district is often ignored.  Some legislators even instruct their staff to
discard anything from well-beyond their district.
  So what else can you do to participate in *your* governance?

CITIZEN-TO-CITIZEN ADVOCACY
  Throughout history and including today's mass-market Herding Era, citizen-
to-citizen personal advocacy has *always* been, by far, the most persuasive.
Even between strangers.  Therefore:
  Get the names and addresses of as many voters in Gladhand's district as you
are willing to contact by mail.  Write to them as a concerned citizen, writing
to a fellow citizen who "should" be concerned.  Seek to escalate their concern
to a level where *they* will contact *their* Representative, Gladhand - who
*will* be attentive to those voters' comments.  Limit the letter to one page,
apparently-*typed*, addressed to the individual voter - possibly enclosing
several additional pages of supplementary information and references.  *Don't*
use fancy fonts and graphics.
  Unlike semi-useless form-letters to Gladhand directly, letters to voters in
Gladhand's turf can be fixed form, individualized only in their address and
personal signature (with ink that is clearly different from the printer's
black color).
  Well-crafted letters to Gladhand's voters can prompt them to draft their own
individualized letters to their representative.  Even though most addressees
won't actually contact their legislator, their awareness of the issue will be
escalated - and that's infectious.  Gladhand *will* hear about it.

MAGNIFYING YOUR IMPACT
  How can you further seek to shape your governance?  Urge others to do as you
have done - everywhere; not just in Gladhand's district.  The net's perfect
for it.
  Offer copies of your form letter(s), supplementary information, and letter-
printing scripts for popular word-processors, by anonymous ftp [file transfer
protocol].  Encourage others to customize everything to their own style,
perspectives and concerns.
  Use the nets to help coordinate this grassroots action:  Obtain the full
voter-reg list for Gladhand's district.  Offer to provide any desired quantity
of names and addresses of Gladhand's voters to those who are willing to
similarly-send some quantity of letters.  When providing names, do nth-name
selection so as to spread the individual sender's letters widely across the
District.
  Note that volunteers *always* do what they want to do, rather than what you
want them to do.  Those who are cooperating in the action need to know what's
actually being sent and when it's really arriving.  Therefore, include at
least one "seed"-name in each voter-list sent to a letter-emitting volunteer,
fully disclosing what you are doing and why.  This will require having at
least one and preferably several cooperating addressees in the target District
who can feed back what they receive from whom, when.
  Almost all of this can and should be fully disclosed - the best kind of
political action, an open grassroots effort.

PENETRATING COMMUNITIES
  As you connect with supporters in or near Gladhand's district, also offer
them digital copies of handbills and door-stuffers that they can print on
their own laserprinters and post on local bulletin boards or distribute to
friends' and neighbors' message boxes (with the caution that stuffing U.S.
Snail Service boxes is ill-eagle).
  Newspaper surveys typically report that the Letters-to-the-Editor column is
*the* most-widely read section of a newspaper!  Suggest the topics, but not
the wording, for "Letters to the Editor" to local newspapers, along with lists
of their addresses and names of their Editorial-Page Editors.  Even if the
letters aren't printed, a floodlette of them can stampede media interest among
herds of reporters and editors.
  Do the same regarding radio talkshow hosts in Gladhand's turf.
  If the issue is likely to be of interest to community organizations, offer
the same kinds of information organizations and their chair-creatures.  Ditto
for local business leaders if the issue impacts business.

Back to Congress, these same techniques can be equally applied to all the
members of the Committee on Stuff - especially those who are leaning in the
"wrong" direction.  (Voters are much more-likely to complain about their rep's
wrong-headedness, than to write letters supporting desired action.)  And, by
the time the issue comes to a floor vote, you will have built a potent net-
based, computer-aided grassroots political-action volunteer-mob with which to
flog 50%+one of the legislative body.
  Effective community action is never easy, but you no longer have to be
handsome, wear a tie, walk a precinct, nor subvert yourself to the dictates of
an established political organization in order to have a *potent* impact.
  *Make waves!*  Net-surf for Freedom!

JUST LIKE THE OL' DAYS
  Neat, huh?  This is akin to the last time a rag-tag minority of malcontents
revolted against "established leaders and proper authority."
  Patrick's descendants will again draft inflammatory rhetoric, provoking the
disorganized but discontented colonists to act.  Ben's descendants will again
crank up their household printing presses, leafleting friends and strangers
around the colonies.  George's descendants will map their plans on digital
foolscap and coordinate volunteer MinutePersons with electronic carrier-
pigeons.  And Paul's fleet-fingered descendants will again race around the
bumpy electronic roads, disturbing the peace with shouted warnings about the
royal efforts to resist the irresistable - *citizens*, once again voluntarily
acting in concert to regain control of their own destinies.
  Mount up, folks.  We have a heritage to honor.



"SELF-INFLATING PUFF-PIECE"
  Warren [345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; [phone];
[e-mail]] led the 1993 citizen effort to make state legislation
and statutes freely available online, is now pushing for similar access to
campaign-finance disclosures, received the Electronic Frontier Foundation
first-year Pioneer Award and the Society of Professional Journalists-Northern
California James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award (1994).  He founded
*InfoWorld*, was founding host of PBS' television's "Computer Chronicles,"
founding Editor of *Dr. Dobb's Journal* and has chaired various computer
organizations.
  He began working as a programmer in 1968 after ten years teaching
mathematics, holds three graduate degrees and has taught computing at various
universities including Stanford.


Mo' as it Is.
--jim
Jim Warren, columnist for MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc.
345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/415-851-2814
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