(I recently wrote the following – now slightly edited – to introduce a MAGA type candidate for office in NJ to this project. I mostly sought the meeting to find out why nobody seems interested in the project. Solicitations for support almost always received no answer, at all.)
The purpose of the Voter’s Revenge app is to be a “force multiplier” tool for citizens to exert a real effect on primarily incumbents (but secondarily for first-time candidates; and also members of the administrative state, who don’t stand for election).
An analogy:
I used to work for a small business that delivered food from various local restaurants. This was 20 years ago, before doordash, ubereats, etc. We would take orders over the phone, frantically write them down, and add up totals with a calculator.
I wrote an order-taking program, for back-office use, which automated the process. It became much faster, and much, much less stressful. If we had had a higher call volume, it would have been useful to greatly increase throughput, with the same staff (basically 2 people).
So, what I wrote could be described as a tool which greatly increased efficiency. That is inherent in the mindset of a programmer. There is nothing terribly novel about an order-taking program. The value-added is in enhancing a common paradigm.
Likewise, I don’t consider Voter’s Revenge to be particularly sexy or techy. It is, rather, designed to facilitate and automate already-recognized political processes.
While the original version of Voter’s Revenge basically worked, I’ve completely abandoned it. A re-write using modern frameworks and techniques is all but necessary. Not least because the original version wouldn’t render in a mobile device. I basically don’t like using mobile devices for serious work, but this particular app is amenable to a mobile device. I’ve also had a few years to think about what was unappealing about the old version – even to me.
There are 2 major modes that the program is used for. Rather than trying to explain them in detail, I will instead make the case, from other sources, that each mode is well-motivated. I will just consider the most important target of dealing with incumbents. Further details can be had at the blog site votersrevenge.info.
Influencing an Elected Official During their Election Season
this corresponds to the voteslinger posse mode in Voter’s Revenge. voteslingers make redline demands such that the payback for violating their redline is a vote against the incumbent, in either a primary or general election
Pam Popper is a long time activist against medical tyranny.
The following is the money quote from an interview of Pam Popper by Spiro Skouras. The program is called Spiro Skouras w/ Dr. Pam Popper: The Lawsuit That Could End Covid-1984 @ https://tinyurl.com/25m55dby (on odysee.com). I highly recommend listening to the whole interview, which is only 31 minutes, long. It’s sort of obvious, I hope, that a tool like Voter’s Revenge would facilitate and accelerate the specific kind of effective organizing and activism that Pam Popper calls for.
Look, last time you won your election by a couple of thousand votes. We have almost 20,000 voters in your district, and if you don’t vote to impeach {?}, we’re going to take you out this November, and I brought a list of our registered voters so you can see that I’m serious. We could have had the impeachment done in a week, if we had that kind of thing {i.e., list of registered voters willing to vote incumbents out of office}. WE HAVE TO REALIZE, JUST LIKE WE LEARNED FROM THE LAWSUITS THAT DIDN’T WORK, WE HAVE TO LOOK AT – DECLARATIONS DIDN’T WORK; PETITIONS DON’T WORK; EMAILS DON’T WORK; AND EDUCATING POLITICIANS DOESN’T WORK WITH BIG PACKETS OF INFORMATION ABOUT HEALTH AND ALL THAT STUFF. NONE OF THAT WORKS. YOU KNOW WHAT WORKS? EDUCATION ABOUT TAKING THEM OUT. THAT’S THE LANGUAGE THEY UNDERSTAND. And so, one of the reasons we want to build this database is so that we can start undoing the medical tyranny that exists – these vaccine mandates in places like Oregon, and Washington and California and keep bad things from happening in the future. And unless we’re organized with 10’s of millions of people in our database, we will most certainly end up here, again.
(this quote from about 25:00)
Influencing an Elected Official Outside their Election Season
this corresponds to the wrangler posse mode in Voter’s Revenge. wranglers punish incumbents for violating their redlined demands primarily by shaming and/or educating the incumbent’s electorate about their incumbents’ failure
Although it’s much harder to influence a Congress critter who is far from elections season (imagine a US Senator 2 months into his/her 6 year term….), the means for doing so was well articulated by progressive blogger Ian Welsh. (Please be aware that, relative to strong progressive voters, the Democratic Party is not very progressive. The relationship between genuine progressives and the Democratic Party is strongly analogous to the relationship between constitutional conservatives and the Republican Party.)
From: Why Obama And Democrats Don’t Do Much of What Liberals Want (Netroots Failure: Part 2) @ https://www.ianwelsh.net/why-obama-and-democrats-dont-do-much-of-what-liberals-want-netroots-failure-part-2/
Politicians do most things because someone wants them done who can hold them accountable if they don’t do it. That includes bad things, and good things. Anyone who doesn’t understand this reality doesn’t understand even the most basic part of politics.
…
Note that gays were originally ignored by Obama as well. What did they do? They got in Obama’s face personally, heckling him and they organized a very effective donor boycott. As a result, they got much (but not all) of what they wanted from him.
Holding someone accountable means “inflicting pain”. If they don’t do what you want, you must be able to do something to them they don’t like (heckling), or take away something they want (money).
Like FDL or not, the last serious attempt by left-wingers other than gays to hold Obama accountable was when they refused to go along with the Affordable Care Act if it didn’t include a public option. FDL said “if this bill has no public option, we won’t support it.” When it didn’t, they didn’t. You may think that’s not a good red-line, but they had a red line. Of course FDL, virtually alone, did not have the juice: they could not inflict enough pain or take away enough funding or create enough bad publicity for Obama to care, especially when powerful interests (read: insurance companies), didn’t want a public option. (For doing so, FDL was attacked by all the usual suspects on “left-wing” blogs and labelled firebaggers.)
Political power is constituted of getting people elected, getting people unelected and being able to reward or punish people for doing or not doing what you want. If you can’t do any of those things, you have no power.
This is realpolitik.
A Key Point:
Voter’s Revenge is what I call a “Negative Vote Bloc Technology”. It is not designed to directly get anybody elected (which is what a positive vote bloc technology would be useful for.) It is, rather, designed to either make re-election impossible (via voteslinger actions) or difficult (via wrangler actions) if the politician crosses the redlines defined by the voteslinger and wrangler posses, respectively. I have elaborated on this notion in the votersrevenge blog, Negative Vote Blocs vs. Positive Vote Blocs – which could prove more disruptive in the near future? @ https://www.votersrevenge.info/?m=201605 While there have been efforts in the direction of positive vote blocs (such as Nancy Bordier’s https://votersunited.global/ ), AFAIK, they are not having an impact. Of course, successful negative vote blocs could ease the path to successful adoption of more powerful positive vote blocs.
A Critical Point:
Wranglers should be fully acquainted with the the, ahem, loyalty engendering techniques used by the Israeli lobby. In particular, they should be aware of the utility of forcing Congress critters to affirm some declaration that is sympathetic to their posse’s goal, even if the declaration changes no laws. This process is described in the youtube documentary The Israel Lobby in the US – VPRO documentary – 2007. I link to this in my votersrevenge blog post Israel Lobby Techniques Could/Should be Appropriated Into (mostly) Wrangler Actions, and a note on Political Game Theory (sketch) @ https://www.votersrevenge.info/?p=108
In terms of the Voters’ Revenge paradigms, this means that wrangler posses, in particular, should employ similar ‘affirmational’ techniques against politicians. If, e.g., a 2 month period is settled on for setting fresh redlines, there is no guarantee that a non-symbolic, more impactful piece of legislation could be voted on during this period. In which case, the posse demand could be more along the lines of voting support for the sort of non-binding resolutions spoken of in documentary The Israel Lobby in the US – VPRO documentary – 2007.
Furthermore, as Voter’s Revenge posses will start out with considerably less clout than the Israeli lobby, there is no guarantee that even a non-binding resolutions can be forced to a vote. (Apparently, the Israeli Lobby can force symbolic vote issues, at will.) In which case, the posses will have to settle for, e.g., an attestation that will be reproduced on both youtube (etc.) and the politician’s website.
A Final Point:
Voteslinger posses can’t vote against derelict members of the administrative state, such as Anthony Fauci, who never stand for election. However, wrangler posses could still work their magic. Indeed, it’s become increasingly clear to me, due to the covid response (which was constrained and even sabotaged by members of the bureaucracy) that posses dedicated to shaming nefarious non-elected individuals into reputational oblivion are just as important as those targeting elected officials. Punitive wrangler actions directed against bureaucrats carry the same “teach the public” potential as those directed against elected politicians. Furthermore, if the wrangler posses are loud enough, elected officials will also feel some of the reflected heat.
(If anybody doubts that the public health related bureaucracies were dysfunctional, they can do worse than start their research by listening to evolutionary biologist Brett Weinstein, interviewed by Freddi Sayers of the Unherd Youtube channel, in Bret Weinstein: I will be vindicated over Covid )