Being More Effective: A Solution

A Force Multiplier

I keep thinking that Move-On has basically become our liberal mouthpiece and while in many cases, many of us are in agreement with what Move-On is trying to accomplish, it seems kind of limiting to have one outlet for liberal and progressive thinking. It is simply not democratic.

If we accept this premise, we might want to consider other ways to maximize our leverage and our clout so that our audience can pick and choose or fine tune their ideas from the number available.

Good idea?

We think so.

The fact is that there are literally hundreds of democratic mailing lists and conversation groups going on at any one time and, virtually, they are hardly known by anyone outside the lists. But there is something we can do about that using existing technology and it could be a boon for communicating the liberal and progressive message, as a force for education, a means to set the facts straight or for any number of tasks necessitating communicating to large numbers of people within a short time frame. Moreover, assuming that most groups vary from a dozen members to perhaps hundreds, finding a way to come together could really leverage our efforts and serve as a force multiplier to impact positive change.

So what can we do about it?

Here’s an idea that’s been bouncing around in my thoughts for quite some time.

It gives us a way to heighten our profiles; it adds the power of leverage to what we say; it can focus the attention of our political representatives and it may just be the kind of trigger progressives need to be and heard by the conventional media.

What is it?.

I think the best way to explain what I have in mind is to suggest how it might work.

In its most elemental state, a topic would be decided by group concensus.


But first, we would come together by establishing links to each other.

Subjects would be decided by popular vote shared by all the sites and tabulated by volunteers from various groups…to be decided.. A specific time for conducting the Town Meetings would be established.

Established formats for expressing an opinion would be agreed upon.

Everyone would be interconnected and share all of the members opinions.

As an add on, the information and results would be gathered and made available to anyone to download.

Assuming that this could be done, it would make a group of a dozen or a hundred appear like a force of thousands.

I am going to send this out to a small number of groups on my list and see if this idea generates any sparks and whether it could be a force multiplier.

Anybody can get together with me at hubmaster@aol.com to discuss the merits or failings of the idea and it can be improved and shaped through discussions to generate more clout and interest.

What say you?

Les Aaron