On Bird-Dogging Presidential Candidates

Tonight, there will be a presentation on the NHRebellion walk, Dixville Notch route, which is entitled "Activist Training: Bird-Dogging the Presidential Candidates."

On January 18th, on the Nashua route, there will further be "Presentation by Zephyr Teachout & Bird-Dog Training," and January 20th, on the Keene route, there will be "Bird-dog training provided by American Friends Service Committee."

In the Lesterland paradigm, the Lester election that the funders vote in, before the rest of us participate, has started. See Look who's in the news.

It seems to me that a good geometric object for depicting the distribution of pernicious effect of "money in politics" (resistance to reform) is a hyperbolic cone. In the broad base, at the lower level, there is the most open mindedness and least resistance. As you go up the cone in the center where it projects upward, the resistance to reform increases "exponentially" and the potency of the resistance increases similarly. This is in part because those at a slightly lower level are attuned to the preferences of those just above (necessary in order for the former to be able to move up).

In short, while there is the most power and influence at the Presidential level for advancing reform, I think only the most miniscule attention is going to be paid to the reform movement at the Presidential level.

There is nothing wrong with trying to bird-dog the Presidential candidates about reform, but the paucity of any impact should be kept in mind.

The hyperbolic cone referred to above is well acknowledged by the reform organizations, such as Move To Amend and Represent.Us, who have focused on working from the bottom up. Move to Amend has been assiduously at work for some years to get passage of resolutions by local governing bodies and state legislatures in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Represent.Us has gotten focused on anti-corruption laws at the local level.

This lower level, grassroots effort is very arduous and takes longer than is desired, but it is viewed by Move To Amend and Represent.Us as what is necessary to achieve success ultimately.

MAYDAY's plan is at the Congressional level, which is in the midrange between the lower level of local resolutions and laws and the highest level of Presidential politics.

It would seem that more needs to unfold from MAYDAY regarding its midrange approach at the Congressional level.

6/15/15 See Bird-dogging in NH today