1. Fundraising/Member Outreach
1.1. Elections
1.1.1. Federal Law requires that I inform you that your contribution will be used in connection with Federal Elections and is subject to the limits and prohibitions of the Federal Election Campaign Act.... tha't's only the first of the 3 paragraphs and at least 2 questions you have to get through to take a donation for the DNC.
1.1.2. Definition: Liberal: Although they often do not have access to financial assets that match those available to their conservative opponents, liberal intellectuals and professionals have ample organizational skills, access to the media, and practice in creating, communicating, and using ideas. During the past three decades, the chief vehicle through which liberal intellectuals and professionals have advanced their ideas has been public interest groups, organizations that rely heavily upon voluntary contributions of time, effort, and interest on the part of their members. Through groups such as Common Cause, the National Organization for Women, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, intellectuals and professionals have been able to use their organizational skills and educational resources to develop and promote ideas. (Lowi)
1.1.3. DNC
1.1.3.1. Get Democrats Elected
1.1.3.1.1. The book is right. That is totally the main thing that the DNC is supposed to do--win elections, everywhere, as many as possible
1.1.3.2. 50 State Strategy
1.1.3.2.1. The textbook actually said that Obama used this strategy, which I'm sure that he did, because that was the big new strategy that Howard Dean came out with when he became chairman in the winter of 2005, or what I like to call the party's rock bottom.
1.1.4. DSCC/DCCC
1.1.4.1. Recruit Candidates
1.1.4.2. Early Money Wins Elections
1.1.4.2.1. When making the pitch to a DSCC donor for making a donation, monthly, when the election is over a year and a half away you have to paint the picture for why we need the money now. It's not because we need it to spend it now. It's because we need to know as early as possible and as accurately as possible about HOW MUCH money we are go to have total available to support all our senate candidates. No matter what you're budgeting for, it's obviously easier and more effective if you actually KNOW how much you have to work with. We want to be able to approach each decision throughout the campaign knowing that we have the resources to choose the BEST option for whatever it is that we need. We want to be able to get what we know we need, but we can't if we don't know we can afford. And the worst part is that lots of money does come in at the end, but by then all financial decisions are made and we had to get what we knew the campaign could pay for.
1.2. Congress
1.2.1. Pass throughs
1.2.2. Filabuster
1.2.3. Focus of Lobby Efforts
1.3. Interest Groups
1.3.1. How Lobbying Works
1.4. Checks and Balances
1.4.1. How I found irony and fortune in the system's sluggishness
1.5. Federal Courts
1.5.1. Every time a Supreme Court Justice retires we are either pleasantly or painfully reminded of how important it is to have control of the White House and, ideally, the Senate
1.5.2. Can't be "lobbied," but sometimes they can still satisfy a interest group that would have pestering Congress forever
1.6. Civil Rights
1.6.1. As we're each building our projects, pondering whether there is any clear connection in our real lives between the Federalist Papers and being an animal trainer or whether or not the Federal Courts are likely to impact your dream of becoming a fashion designer, at least it shouldn't take too much of a stretch to find a connection between our own passion and the concepts that allow us to have and pursue it.
1.6.1.1. Protection of Political Speech
1.6.1.1.1. Even though I went on at length in my DB post about the many inequities and rights-bruising consequences of extending the protections of free speech to include "unchecked spending of money" for the purpose of altering election and policy decisions, it looks like I probably also owe my past and future career options (fundraising, working for campaigns) to that same Supreme Court ruling in 1976.
1.6.1.1.2. And of course, I was exercising free speech for a living. Every call I made asking for a donation to help us get a new president could probably get me arrested in some countries.
2. Canvassing
2.1. Elections
2.1.1. Obama For America
2.2. Political Parties
2.2.1. DNC
2.2.1.1. Get Democrats Elected
2.2.1.2. Voter Registation
2.2.1.3. GOTV
2.3. Detailed, start to finish guide to voter outreach canvass events
2.3.1. How to create and complete your own canvassing events
2.3.1.1. Steps
2.3.1.1.1. Contact Political Organization/Candidate's Campaign
2.3.1.1.2. Pick a date, time, and target area
2.3.1.1.3. Recruit Volunteers
2.3.1.1.4. Prepare for Event
2.3.1.1.5. Event
2.3.1.1.6. Data Entry
2.3.1.2. Execution
2.3.1.2.1. Select and Contact the Organization you want to help
2.3.1.2.2. Pick your date, time, and target
2.3.1.2.3. Recruit Volunteers
2.3.1.2.4. Prepare for the Event
2.3.1.2.5. The Event
2.4. Knock Knock, Who's There... An Awesome Democrat Talking About An Awesome Democrat
2.4.1. I wanted to actually DO SOMETHING POSITIVE with my project
2.4.2. This is the very small canvass event I put together Friday night
2.4.2.1. The event was only created the day before so I wasn't expecting much of a turnout https://www.facebook.com/events/151212768417359/
2.4.3. Unfortunately, one volunteer got lost around the meeting place and missed us. I had one volunteer who made it.
2.4.3.1. She and I ended up doing one of the bigger packet together
2.4.3.1.1. This wasn't it. We should have done this one, It was neater, that's why used it for my picture
2.4.3.1.2. Inside view
3. Phone Banking
3.1. Civil Rights
3.1.1. Interest Groups
3.1.1.1. Asking Constituents to Call Their State Legislators and ask them to oppose S.B. 21
3.2. Public Opinions
3.2.1. Shedding Some Light on the Undeclared Community
3.2.1.1. It's very hard to know what sort of values, identity or ideology to expect from a voter who's registered party is "undeclared."
3.2.1.2. We could live with a little mystery, but over 50% of registered voters in AK are registered undeclared or nonpartisan.
3.2.1.3. How are the State Parties suppose to recruit candidates who's issue positions are in line with his constituents if have of them insist on being the "mystery flavor"
4. More than Casually Observing
4.1. Presidency
4.1.1. When I was 9 years old decided that I wanted to be President when I grew up. I think my logic was pretty sound: I figured that since the President is in charge of everything, if I was president then I could just step in and fix all the things that were wrong with the world at the time (capture that really bad man that my friends dad had to go to the Persian Gulf to make him stop hurting people, get rid of all the those tax things that people are always complaining about). It seemed so simple I was kinda surprised no body had done it already.
4.1.1.1. Within a few years I had changed my mind when realized that your whole family will never get to be normal again if you're president and I didn't want that for my future family. Plus I probably begun to notice that my fool-proof plan didn't seem to be working well for Bill Clinton.
4.1.2. Coming down off our Hope High: what we wrong in 2009, which led to what we lost in 2010 and how America's memory could really be that short...
4.2. Elections
4.2.1. My very first two presidential elections had to have been the most discouraging, crappy presidential elections ever... I can't believe that I didn't lose faith completely!
4.2.1.1. The first time I ever voted was in the year 2000: the Bush/Gore Election, a.k.a. The Florida Debacle
4.2.1.1.1. http://youtu.be/GSEOd1W3fZA
4.2.1.1.2. I suppose I might have been more concerned that my election wasn't over by the next morning if I wasn't preoccupied with being 18 and already on my way to quitting school the first time
4.2.1.2. By my second time voting for president, I had been raising money for the DNC for 4 months and I was TOTALLY invested in Kerry (or anyone frankly) beating Bush.
4.2.1.2.1. I had little old retired women asking me if I thought we were gonna do it, with urgency in there voice like is wasn't really a question, as they gave me $25 more dollars that they couldn't really spare.
4.2.1.2.2. And, since I hadn't actually been through a REAL loss yet with an election that I cared about and had worked on, I didn't have that persistent, "what-if" fear in the back of my head, or else I would have known better than to say, "I don't know much about the overall campaign, but I do think we're gonna win this. Everyone I talk to has given again and again, more than ever before, even outside of work people want Kerry. I just can't think that ALL this isn't enough--even though it's already more support than EVER before."
4.2.1.2.3. That's what I told Grandma's, that's what I told the woman who's nephew was the first to be killed in Iraq AFTER Bush's "Mission Accomplished" photo-op on the air craft carrier.
4.2.1.2.4. And then it happened again; all sorts of strange stories surfacing about ballots, machines, long lines, missing registrations, this time from a different state, where no one had really been on the lookout
4.3. Public Opinion
4.3.1. My Own
4.3.1.1. Values
4.3.1.1.1. Death Penalty
4.3.1.1.2. Abortion
4.3.1.1.3. Marriage Equality
4.3.1.2. Political Ideology
4.3.1.2.1. Liberal
4.3.2. Self Interest
4.3.2.1. Howard Dean, 2005: "We need to figure out why people are voting against their own economic interests"
4.3.2.1.1. I heard him say that at a dinner fundraiser in Pittsburgh, and it's just always struck me a really big question
4.4. Congress
4.4.1. "At the beginning of the twentieth century, most roll- call votes in the House of Representatives were party votes. Today, primary elections have deprived party leaders of the power to decide who receives the party’s official nomination. The patronage resources available to the leadership, moreover, have become quite limited. As a result, party- line voting happens less often. It is, however, fairly common to find at least a majority of Democrats opposing a majority of Republicans on any given issue. Typically, party unity is greater in the House than in the Senate. House rules grant greater procedural control of business to the majority party leaders, which gives them more in influence over their members. In the Senate, however, the leadership has few sanctions over its members." (Lowi)
4.4.1.1. I figure that if I find this frustrating, then the leaders in Congress must be going nuts!