RyanRSheets
09-24-2009, 06:05 PM
Currently our strategy seems to be to just throw money bomb events out there constantly for our candidates. We find ourselves fighting over who should be allowed to have a money bomb and when. Rather than having a unified effort to take this country back, we have a factionized warzone where each man has his favorite and puts that candidate before any of the others. I'm not saying this is the wrong mentality to have on a personal level, but we cannot afford to have factions! That is why I am pushing for a unified, single day money bomb event that focuses on getting all of our wonderful candidates the funding they need to be competitive in their primaries.
Most people seem to want to dismiss the idea of a multi-candidate money bomb without any conversation on the subject. I was one of those people, actually up until today. The immediate assumption is that a multi-candidate money bomb would be an attempt to split donations between multiple candidates. Obviously this would be incredibly confusing, cumbersome and a waste of time.
What I'm thinking, though, is that we could all decide on a date. I suggest December 16th. On that date, we will all donate to our favorites. The catch is that we will promote the event as a single body and we will use a single website as its vehicle. I will go into more detail about what I want to see on the website below, but the main thing I think would be good would be a single, unified ticker displaying total donations for the day among all involved candidates. This would give it the feel of a big money bomb like we used to have with Ron Paul and it would generate much more excitement.
The ultimate goal of all of these campaigns is to take the country back, right? I feel that this approach is more in line with the premise of the money bomb. It used to be that we had money bombs so we could all get together and donate for the cause of Liberty on the same day. Does it not make sense that we should do the same today?
Furthermore, how much easier would it be to promote a national, full-scale event for candidates all over the country than a single candidate? We would truly be taking a stand for a cause, not a man. This would be a pretty unique event that would generate natural buzz. It has the potential to go viral for that reason.
This would demonstrate to those who are on the edge that we mean to take this country back, and it would probably bring a lot of new people on board. We could use the website as a platform to do mass email campaigns on media personalities and I'm sure we could get people like Glenn Beck to talk about it. This idea would spread like wildfire at tea parties.
So, now that I've given some of my reasoning, here is what I envision for the web site.
1) Unified ticker - This is the single most important part. We want to demonstrate to the country and to ourselves that we can raise a ton of money for our cause. We did it for Ron in 2007 and I'm positive we can do it again; the movement has grown.
2) A goal - Add up what we think each candidate will need to make it past their primary and total it together. That's the long term goal. Obviously we want to be careful how high we set the goal per event, but if we promote it well we can bring in millions.
3) A sidebar showing each candidate's progress toward their goal, updated in realtime.
4) The website should have the ability to direct people toward's candidates. I want this to be as much about having a free choice as possible, but I want to emphasize that it's about getting all of these candidates what they need to compete. This is about taking the country back, not a single office. Obviously money is going to gravitate toward the Senate campaigns, but this feature would help us fund the Representative campaigns.
5) The pledge system, in my opinion, should only request an email address. We don't need to know how much money people are willing to give until the day of the event. The focus should be solely on ensuring that as many people as possible hear about the event.
6) Bios and stats for every candidate are a must. These could be written by the candidates themselves.
7) The system we will use for deciding who makes the list should be debated heavily. I want there to be a consensus that the list is made up of good, honest candidates who will absolutely take their oath seriously. We should probably also have a priority system.
I'll probably add more later as I think of it, but what does everyone think? I want this to be truly grassroots and I want it to be based on the will of the people. I don't want to push for any candidates that have no chance of winning, nor do I want to push for any candidates that aren't really supported by you guys. I want this to be about unifying people and empowering campaigns that might otherwise be forgotten.
Most people seem to want to dismiss the idea of a multi-candidate money bomb without any conversation on the subject. I was one of those people, actually up until today. The immediate assumption is that a multi-candidate money bomb would be an attempt to split donations between multiple candidates. Obviously this would be incredibly confusing, cumbersome and a waste of time.
What I'm thinking, though, is that we could all decide on a date. I suggest December 16th. On that date, we will all donate to our favorites. The catch is that we will promote the event as a single body and we will use a single website as its vehicle. I will go into more detail about what I want to see on the website below, but the main thing I think would be good would be a single, unified ticker displaying total donations for the day among all involved candidates. This would give it the feel of a big money bomb like we used to have with Ron Paul and it would generate much more excitement.
The ultimate goal of all of these campaigns is to take the country back, right? I feel that this approach is more in line with the premise of the money bomb. It used to be that we had money bombs so we could all get together and donate for the cause of Liberty on the same day. Does it not make sense that we should do the same today?
Furthermore, how much easier would it be to promote a national, full-scale event for candidates all over the country than a single candidate? We would truly be taking a stand for a cause, not a man. This would be a pretty unique event that would generate natural buzz. It has the potential to go viral for that reason.
This would demonstrate to those who are on the edge that we mean to take this country back, and it would probably bring a lot of new people on board. We could use the website as a platform to do mass email campaigns on media personalities and I'm sure we could get people like Glenn Beck to talk about it. This idea would spread like wildfire at tea parties.
So, now that I've given some of my reasoning, here is what I envision for the web site.
1) Unified ticker - This is the single most important part. We want to demonstrate to the country and to ourselves that we can raise a ton of money for our cause. We did it for Ron in 2007 and I'm positive we can do it again; the movement has grown.
2) A goal - Add up what we think each candidate will need to make it past their primary and total it together. That's the long term goal. Obviously we want to be careful how high we set the goal per event, but if we promote it well we can bring in millions.
3) A sidebar showing each candidate's progress toward their goal, updated in realtime.
4) The website should have the ability to direct people toward's candidates. I want this to be as much about having a free choice as possible, but I want to emphasize that it's about getting all of these candidates what they need to compete. This is about taking the country back, not a single office. Obviously money is going to gravitate toward the Senate campaigns, but this feature would help us fund the Representative campaigns.
5) The pledge system, in my opinion, should only request an email address. We don't need to know how much money people are willing to give until the day of the event. The focus should be solely on ensuring that as many people as possible hear about the event.
6) Bios and stats for every candidate are a must. These could be written by the candidates themselves.
7) The system we will use for deciding who makes the list should be debated heavily. I want there to be a consensus that the list is made up of good, honest candidates who will absolutely take their oath seriously. We should probably also have a priority system.
I'll probably add more later as I think of it, but what does everyone think? I want this to be truly grassroots and I want it to be based on the will of the people. I don't want to push for any candidates that have no chance of winning, nor do I want to push for any candidates that aren't really supported by you guys. I want this to be about unifying people and empowering campaigns that might otherwise be forgotten.