What's Precinct Project 2016 About?
First, this is not my group. It's your group. I'm just using the functionality of Linked In to provide a place to associate.
Anyone who becomes a member of Precinct Project 2016 may call me at 909-274-0813. (In fact, I'd like to talk, at least briefly, with each and every one of you.) If the conservation sounds like it might be of interest to others, I may ask your permission to record it and share it.
Every year since 2009, Project City Hall has brought more and more people (low thousands) into the major party organizations. This is not about voter registration, but about centers of power in the party organizations that control things.
It's also not about policy. Let's just agree that we can't all agree on what's important and how to accomplish it. Before you can get to that discussion, you have to be in a position of power. As an individual voter, or even a small group of voters, you have no power.
Since the 2010 election, the political powers-that-be have known that the people are coming.
In 2014, the empire struck back -- in states like Arizona (McCain), South Carolina (Graham), and Wyoming (Simpson). When a United States Senator does something, it makes the news.
- McCain's big purge
- RINO Revenge: Graham, McCain Remove Tea Party Foes
- Retired Republican Senator Leads Effort to Smash Local Tea Party
You have to wonder why an imperial senator would stoop to mix it up with regular Americans like you and me. It's pretty simple, really. They recognize where the power comes from and they're out to make sure that they control it. They like the status quo and they're going to do everything in their power to keep it.
That's where you come in.
Early in this effort we started a blog to publish the organizational activities. That's at http://projectcityhall.blogspot.com/
You can use the small search control in the top left corner of the site to type in your state name and see what we've done in your state in prior years.
For example, here's what we did in Florida in 2012.
We've learned a lot since 2009. It's detailed knowledge. It's not easily available anywhere else. And it's not available in a single place.
In 2016, forty (40) states will elect new party leadership, from the precinct level on up. In addition, they will elect delegates to the presidential conventions.
Some states, like California, Florida, and Indiana only hold these elections in presidential election years. The rest hold them every two years, most states in even-numbered years and the balance in odd-numbered years. Every state does it differently.
We don't need millions of people to become the powers-that-be within the government-backed, two-party duopoply. We don't even need hundreds of thousands. We just need enough to become a majority in a majority of precinct, town, city, county, congressional district, and state committees. It's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction, 1/10th of 1%. For those of you who aren't math majors, that's called infinitesimal.
All of these committees have volunteers and followers. Using the Pareto principle, 80% are followers and 20% lead. We need to find the 20% (of the 1/10% of 1% of America) who have the inclination to be that 20%.
When you take back control of the tens of millions of dollars that flow through and at the direction of the party system, you have the power to influence office holders.
When you take back control of the organizations and the tens of thousands of volunteers who actually do the work to elect the candidates from the local to the federal level, you have the power to influence policy.
This movement is not about policy. It's about politics.
State statutes in every one of the 50 states endow the major parties with power and benefits. Working outside the two-party duopoly is quixotic exercise. Even on the off-case that a single candidate, like Jesse Ventura in Minnesota, pulls off an upset, it's not sustainable. The machinery is working against you, day-in and day-out. You're paying for it, to boot.
Only a fraction of a percent of the people in this country can describe how the party system works. People whose only contact with the parties is when they see a D or and R next to someone's name on a ballot don't know how it works.
The suggested goal for 2016 is to ascend to the positions of power within the parties.
These are some of the activities and strategies that support that goal.
- Identify the states where regular people can easily become the party.
- Compile a directory of who comprises the party organization within the states.
- Collect copies of the party rules for all levels. (This is already well underway.)
- Identify those who are there for the power or to support the powers-that-be.
- Recruit people (the tenth percent) to replace those people.
- Learn the rules in order to effectively exercise power.
- Gather and disseminate the knowledge of how to become an elector to the electoral college and a delegate to the national convention.
The beauty about the goal is that you can keep doing exactly what you are doing. You can support your favorite candidates. You can promote your favorite policy objectives.
You just need The Slight Edge. Change one habit. While you're doing everything that you're already going to do, become an elected member of your local party. It's simple to do. It's simple not to do. It's the path to power. If you don't take it, someone else will fill the vacuum.
