[P2P-F] Fwd: Empowered or Entasked? Distributed Organizing's Unfulfilled Potential

Mon Dec 28 15:40:49 CET 2020

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Micah L. Sifry from The Connector <theconnector at substack.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 12:56 AM
Subject: Empowered or Entasked? Distributed Organizing's Unfulfilled
Potential
To: <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>

Dems are getting good at distributed campaigning, but is that
enough? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
Empowered or Entasked? Distributed Organizing's Unfulfilled Potential
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVkk1v4yAQhn9NfGuEwR_4wCHaKlLS2OmhaZqThWHiENtgYVzH-fVLmh52JQaGd2YYiWcEd1AbO7PeDC54bKWbe2AapqEF58AG4wC2VJIlSZYiRAPJIhnSmAZqKM8WoOOqZc6OEPRj1SrBnTL6UZAllNDgwrgkSUyFEJhQlPEs4zLFlNKMEnImkXy25aNUoAUw-AY7Gw1Byy7O9cOCrBZ47Ze7gDBag3DGLoexGhwXzVKYzsd6b9D1ZgIL8sXYF9COD433pRqcVdXoQC7I2pkG9IK8wrwNBf6cv3DbbK4GF9eG5K-raPdnO1WkQL_6XNzFtP84oGKeFD-ukdduxXUVFddDXNzz0Of3guRqr7aTPG7c_uMU5fdaef3u7z_6473d17Y9HQvEj9m40WhJZfp-fsvREXOldio8fH4P-xV27pZGh2tdvt-ojs7lW346BYphhFGIMQ7TOCbJMlw2EIZtaNO2WkSoq_F_3xFY1ilxgdaLGKHIp9QPSD8xz6j0Zzdq5eYSNK9akE987jkEP0DLGjRYPxyy5I6FCaJJnKUkoRQ_cXm-OE1RFkdp4PtI46s0-xfRXxjEzJc>Dems
are getting good at distributed campaigning, but is that enough?

<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVkEFuxCAMRU8z7CYCkgBZsOim10AEnASVQAROq9y-zGTTSggsG_v7P2cR1lwufeSK5HUZvA7QCX5qBEQo5KxQTPBaiElSqojXg2dqVCRUsxSA3YaosZxAjnOOwVkMOb0aJqF6RTbNZkF9z_wEy2D91M-WiUVNduwFd0yJW9aePkByoOEbypUTkKg3xKM--o8H_2wHN3A5JXCYS1fPuaJ1X53Le6sdkI8ILRCSi4E_97bH9ozPGpZykaA55ZRxzpkcm2zHui9gLLIi4_wY6L7yfwNJ0W3ABrElOaVD-7K-bL5rzaVp736mgJeBZOcI_gaAN8Y3ErNCgtLwemNRM0GVGCfZC6X4bbgR4lLSaRwkaTo-t66k_5r8BYrLi9I>
Micah L. Sifry
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVkEFuxCAMRU8z7CYCkgBZsOim10AEnASVQAROq9y-zGTTSggsG_v7P2cR1lwufeSK5HUZvA7QCX5qBEQo5KxQTPBaiElSqojXg2dqVCRUsxSA3YaosZxAjnOOwVkMOb0aJqF6RTbNZkF9z_wEy2D91M-WiUVNduwFd0yJW9aePkByoOEbypUTkKg3xKM--o8H_2wHN3A5JXCYS1fPuaJ1X53Le6sdkI8ILRCSi4E_97bH9ozPGpZykaA55ZRxzpkcm2zHui9gLLIi4_wY6L7yfwNJ0W3ABrElOaVD-7K-bL5rzaVp736mgJeBZOcI_gaAN8Y3ErNCgtLwemNRM0GVGCfZC6X4bbgR4lLSaRwkaTo-t66k_5r8BYrLi9I>
Dec 22
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVUk1vozAQ_TXh1sg2YODgQ9tsNkQtqN20CXtBxkzAAQwF05T8-jVJV9qVrBn5zfe8EVxD0fYT69pBW7NI9dQBU3AeatAaemscoE9lzigNPIR8K2dOjn3Xt-SQHnuAhsua6X4EqxuzWgquZavmgID6tm-VzAWP5y5CR-JjhwYY5x6l3KMC8BH7WNzK8jGXoAQw-IR-ahVYNSu17oaFfb8ga_N0CaJVCoRu--UwZoPmolqKtjE23kkjP7ERczajrn3d9cDF3M_CXuu2AqNXMG2xIO_TgdRVeGpJdKrs59W98_S4PWd2hL7xKbqIc7x7Q9F0lqJ5LxP7tcuII2P5JBV_kca_Sw4vMj79IM-rgkQ7k-fyNoRNfRFTSEP1gBOJ3OhUXOLHcAhVZP4zvq2TfYT4PhhDhZYHrePNl3OowuHj7lf0RZu1OsdY7X7Sp9f9A0-Sj_K3v7HrTbEgdNRNOrRjL8CM8ncJ33gDuRybecR5dksyggjChBDsua5Nl3hZAcY17r06WzioKch_a7R61khRQm1AgpBjXIo50dVmuE2NbkYl9ZSC4lkN-Y12fTuea9G0AAW9Oao85ZphinzqBp5NfZ_caDZ3QTwPBa7jWaZO3pooxf6l9g-9Ft9X>
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVUk1vozAQ_TXh1sg2H4aDD9FWkZIG0kPTNCcE9oQ4gI2MKSG_fk3SSruSbY3fvJmx5w0vLFTaTKzTvfXmI7dTB0zB2DdgLRhv6MHkUrAoSihCsSdYIHAcxp7s87MBaAvZMGsG8LqhbCQvrNRqDkii2I-9CwsohFiUUUJIwssgKDiiCCdRkiBBI548yxaDkKA4MPgGM2kFXsMu1nb9wl8tyNotewGulQJutVn2Q9nbgtdLrlvn69yGttMjGBAv2ryAskVfO1vI3hpZDhaE4zh261wu6drqGtTCf4Vpizn5nL5IU2-ummTX2k9fV8Huz3Ys_Qz94FN25-P-44CyaZTFcY0cdsuuqyC7HsLsnmLH77ifyr3cjuK4sfuPU5DeK-nwu7s_8Dnf7mvbnI4ZKo7JsFFoGQv6fn5L0ZEUUu4kPnx-9_sVsfZGg8O1yt9vsQrO-Vt6Oi1INNg27_VgOLin_zbhB29ByKGdvzRr4klGEEGYEIJpGPrREi9rwLjBhjblIkBtRf5ro2dYK_kFGgcShAJHqeZED5_TNp-bNyhppxxUUTYgnrLb5_A8iuYVKDBuqEReWIYjFEdhQv0ojslTZjcXhFKUhAH1XB2hXZRi_0r7F_bk4JQ>
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVkkGP6iAQxz-Nva0BSml76MG8jYmurXtY1_XUUBgV20JD6Wr99I-ubvJeAgR-MzDMzF9wBydjx6wzvQumpXRjB5mGa9-Ac2CDoQdbKpkxlsYIJYHMqMRJlASqL48WoOWqyZwdIOiGqlGCO2X0dCFlSZgE54zSOJRHxBGLEplSlkpapYwxDBKnMhaPsHyQCrSADL7BjkZD0GRn57p-Fi5mZOmHO4MwWoNwxs77oeodF_VcmNbbOj-h7cwVLMgXY19AO97Xfi9V76yqBgdyFi6dqUHPwlcY11iQz_GLNPXqYkhxqcP8dUE3f9bXKizQk4_FXVy3HztUjFfF90vk2a24LGhx2UXFPcfevxNhrrZqfZX7ldt-HGh-PynP7_78w6f3Nl_r5rAvEN-nw0qjeSLj9-NbjvaEK7VRePf53W8XxLlbTHeXU_l-SzQ9lm_54TAjbHBt2ZvBCvBf_838yVuQaminlKZGPKGvk_MVmLzP3IKnXExt-QWByggiCBNCcBxFIZvjeQ0YN9jGTTWjqD2R_0oc2KxV4gyNhwQh6l1OU7wfm--7j9i2g1ZuLEHzqgH5kIR7COvnb-UJNFgvOFlyl2GGEhalcciShDwk4DVD4hilEY0DH0caf0tn_7b9L3zW6m8>

Dear readers:

Thank you to those of you who have expressed your appreciation for The
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Now, back to our regular ruminations…

If you were a Biden volunteer, or want to look under the hood to understand
how its distributed digital organizing team of 28 people managed to
mobilize 160,000 volunteers who together made 88 million calls to voters,
held 200,000 “relational conversations,” sent 150 million texts, and
supported 11,000 supporter-led events, cumulatively managing one-third of
the campaign’s total voter contacts, then this detailed post-mortem
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVUMtuhSAQ_ZrLrgZQARcsuulvGB5zlVwEA2Mb-_XF66qTeSTzPscZhCWXU--5IrncjOcOOsFPjYAIhRwVyhy8FmKSlCri9eCZGhUJdX4WgM2EqLEcQPbDxuAMhpyugUmoXpFVWzBcuGm0A7XAqaReCfVUwCjAxAZ7nzWHD5AcaPiGcuYEJOoVca-P_vPBv5omg6tJJTxfIXX1sBWNe3Uub622N2OCNvnIZTEp_EKpJGhOOWWccybHsRcd617AWGRFRvsY6Lbwf4tI0VtwK8SW5JQOrWW54L1rDd3c4nakgOcMydgI_gaON31vKuYFEpRGq58N6vaTEuMke6EUv4E2ZriUdBoHSdodn9tU0riCyymBw1z-AC5ziRY>
by *Nathan Rifkin*, the campaign’s director of distributed organizing, is a
must-read.

I really have to take issue with his argument, however, that what the Biden
campaign built by necessity because of the pandemic “is part of a long
organizing tradition in America, from Huerta, to Alinsky, to Gompers, and
countless more, that stretches back centuries.” To the degree that
distributed organizing removes people from their local contexts and turns
them into just-in-time “act now place agnostic” volunteers assigned shifts
on a rolling basis, distributed organizing is more like the kind of
dehumanizing industrialized factory work that organizers like Samuel
Gompers fought against. Or, to be even more sharp about it, it’s like the
Amazon warehouse solution to retail, with campaign volunteers as the worker
bees handling incoming rush jobs, only to do good things like help remind
voters where their polling place is rather than box up a toaster. It’s
“Resisting
Alone
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUM2OhCAMfprhNgZQEA8c9rKvYRC6DhkEA3U3vv3WMSHQtP34frxDWEs97V4asuua8dzBZvhrCRChsqNBnWOwWk8j54YFOwRhlGGxzT8VYHMxWawHsP1YUvQOY8kXYNKmN-xlpXZ8CUoY43olpDAL54OZoJfODbJfblp3hAjZg4VfqGfJwJJ9Ie7t0X895Dcd0lTh5uh82ajjKkafgCqh1DRNVCRCppihtWeFFhs6-vO514LQLjfRSi65kFKKUaled6J7gxBJ1DEtj4Fvq-zasRDOvy8WVu0W_QsSNSXpppX1cvyZkZiZ3u3IEc8ZslsShDsLvBP9pDOvkKFS0mF2aIXmRqtp7LUx8vZOYclx5JMaRkY8oRAqW3yBLzmDx1L_AWlQj8I>,”
2020-style.

To be fair, Rifkin is describing a special situation—a national
presidential campaign, plus one that chose (perhaps unwisely) to stop
almost all face-to-face campaigning because of COVID-19. To be able to
convert thousands of stuck-at-home supporters into helpful cogs in a larger
machine was miraculous. But I’m not sure it’s a model for anything beyond
this special case.

Whenever I see a campaign staffer or politician, for that matter, use the
word “empower” when the word “entask” is more accurate, I think back to a
post my friend *Zephyr Teachout* wrote 13 years ago entitled “You Don’t
Have the Power
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkMuOhCAQRb9Gdm14KOCCxSxmfsMgVCtpBINld_z7wTYhl9QrN_c4izDncpot70guGfHcwCT47BEQoZBjhzIGb6QcFKWaeNN5pntNwj4-C8BqQzRYDiDbMcXgLIacroNBaqHJYuggtNLs6cAJJ7Rgg-0dl5RLUI517La1hw-QHBh4QzlzAhLNgrg14qfhf_UhuGUrsAcPCVuX19qbYp4ftSxnLc58PHxODe9_eRVNqwwDPhb7hseWPzVLMJxyyjjnTPW9kC1rX8BYZEXFqenoOvN2P6YdrXtdFqSYNbgFYm1ySru6Ml95v7Mad6z_eqSA5wjJThH8TQJvnl824wwJSuXsR4uGSaplPyghteZ38oqKK0WHvlOk-vhcr5LBBVxOCRzm8g_jz40m>.”
“Power is when you get to decide the rules of the game, not when you get to
play it,” she wrote. “A factory worker uses a lot of force, but doesn’t—not
in his daily job—have power.” She went on, with great prescience:

“It is important to distinguish between distributed work and decentralized
power. Distributed work will be clearly central to future electoral
politics. Candidates will experiment with more complicated Internet-enabled
phone banking matching systems, door-knocking systems, and donor incentive
systems. However, distributed work is not necessarily work in which the
power is decentralized. The fact that I can send a suggestion into Coke.com
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUMuOwyAM_JpyjICE14HDXvobiICboBKIiLOr_P3SRrJsyZ7RzDh4hKW2y-71QPJpDq8dbIG_IwMiNHIe0FyKVkqjKNUk2ikyLTRJh3s1gM2nbLGdQPZzzil4TLV8CEbqUZPVvsQoGONgtNZmlNGwyAA410F3gHndsv6MCUoAC7_QrlqAZLsi7o_x58GfvUJ9wxDqRpLllFPGOWdKiFEObHgDY5k1lefHRLeFD8c5H-jD-0todkthhdyXnNKpQ5aP6e-te3Z9bmdJeDkofs4Q7zh4P-Ub0C1QoPVnRefRMkm1FEaNUmt-2-95uVLUiEmRrhNrZxWLK4RaCgSs7R-PGHmu>
or participate in a contest about their next marketing effort does not
meaningfully transform my lack of power in the organization into a fact of
power. Likewise, the fact that a citizen might sign a petition or engage in
a massive distributed literature-dropping effort may show great ingenuity
on the part of the designer of that system, and involve new technologies,
and enable people to be part of the political process—without giving any
person involved any meaningful political power, or meaningful way to have
strategic input or make creative decisions.”

Now, let’s look at how Rifkin uses the word “empower,” which shows up
multiple times in his essay. [emphases added]

“Distributed organizing programs, as this post will explain, represent a
radical vision of volunteer organizing, an evolution of caucus organizers
and neighborhood team leaders for the internet age. A decentralized
organization to train and *empower* hundreds of thousands of volunteer
organizers to achieve goals otherwise impossible with only paid staff.”

“Put another way, the goal of the distributed model is to *empower* large
numbers of volunteers to act in decentralized unison towards a common
purpose, with processes and leadership to support the creativity members of
the distributed team show as they work, frequently independently, to
achieve the group’s goal.”

“The primary challenge was not how to recruit the most volunteers, though
that certainly played a role. The core challenge was how best to *empower*
volunteers to engage in the most impactful work.”

“[The team] then reinvented relational metrics, which have often relied on
‘messages sent’ or ‘user contacts upload to an app’, to instead track
volunteer leaders, voter contact shifts, and finally, reports filed on the
number of conversations our volunteers had and what they learned through
their conversation — how is your contact voting? Who are they voting for?
Tracking reports on conversations vs. just ‘messages sent’ was critical to
ensure conversations were actually happening — and *empowered* volunteers
to reach out to their people however they felt comfortable. Volunteers
didn’t need to use Vote Joe to have their conversations. They could do so
via phone, social media, or text message, and simply use the Vote Joe app
to report back to the campaign.”

“As a series of principles, distributed organizing programs organize and
train teams of volunteer leadership, *empower* volunteers to act now from
wherever they may be, and build out new technical tools and solutions to
engage in big, structural organizing.”

“While the line between ‘Distributed’ and organizing is ultimately
artificial, the impact of organizing programs that radically trust and
*empower* volunteer leadership is anything but. Distributed programs should
not be looked on as something distinct from the long tradition of
organizing. The practice, and the vision, of hundreds of thousands of
volunteers and organizers making up a distributed program, is just one part
of a long organizing tradition.”

Actually, now that I think about it, Rifkin isn’t entirely wrong about
where this kind of organizing fits into the labor tradition. It’s a form of
hierarchical organizing that many labor activists may indeed recognize, the
one where power flows upward into the hands of a few leaders and decisions
are delivered downward, with little to no participation from the
rank-and-file in those decisions. So, I’m not as enthusiastic as he seems
to be about the prospects of campaigns getting better at this kind of
organizing. It’s very Zoom webinar with the chat disabled, if you get my
drift.

All that said, I’m happy to see that Rifkin has started his own newsletter, The
Distro
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVkM2OhSAMhZ_msjSA8uOCxWzmNQw_VclFMFhn4tsPXleTNG3S9uTkO94iLKVeZi8HkrtNeO1gMvweCRChkvOAOsVgpBwVpZoEMwSmhSbxmOYKsNmYDNYTyH66FL3FWPItGKXuNVlNCC6Mgo9CSTcz1vvRg6VOz4MTVKvhsbVniJA9GPiBepUMJJkVcT9e_deLf7fKFleba5zfMXfH6Q60_t35spFoOOWUcc6ZEqKXHevewFhiVSX3Gui28P-CarboV0htySkd2styY3xujWJqcztzxGuCbF2C8ADiE9MHeVogQ23xhcmiYZJqKUbVS635A9QS4ErRUQyKNJ9QmiobXMGXnMFjqX9JsIHe>.
His bio reads, “Chasing utopian futures. Director of Distributed Organizing
@JoeBiden & @TheDemocrats. Was @ewarren. @IronStache, @HFA, @Bernie2016 &
more. Started a union.” I’m looking forward to reading more from him.

Subscribe now
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVUsFuozAQ_Rq4bQQGDBx8yCZbNd2SKGqaTU4I7IE4GJOaoSn5-jVNVe1KliW_mfG8eW94gVB3ZmSXrkd3unIcL8A0XHsFiGDcoQeTS8EoTWPPS1zBQuEnUeLKPq8MQFtIxdAM4F6GUkleoOz0VJDSJEjcE6siHoWiKsuIpHFE4yiqyoInNKR-VZGE39sWg5CgOTB4BzN2GlzFToiX3gnmDnmwB0_AO62BY2dm_VD2WPBmxrvWxqYnN7IEJ3jArgHtBEsYn3xO9uOBqGZ17sj63ATZch4-L54ux8NWbs6_SLasyXpn8dtrv2r3IV-saLY7fmS7lZ_t-G39cpXFYX2z9ZI_7uXzriGbZRau5FXyYC8n_EhO6kjwXdg_q-1sbprD9mN_O7y8hfj7p3euNm9pesxVNd82jcKF-SMei9fo49w7hA7Y5i0IObQT40nLL7DvBsPtOMvv0X5cpagBv-JWCgSNNoHEsZdGYexKRjzi-YQQ34oc0Jk_a8D3lW9iVTqh19bkP91cw1rJT6AsSDwvtCn1xOAzZs20Pdp20BLHHHRRKhB3n_G-LZ9s8xo0GLtFIi-Q-dRLaJTGAU0ScvfVLsI3QdtHdLZKs3-9_AuWb9vf>
Odds and Ends

--One emerging theme from the 2020 election is more people at the state
level talking about shifting resources towards long-term local organizing.
This thread
Lara Putnam @lara_putnam
1) @4st8 is always right about everything & especially this, and 2) I've
been meaning to create a thread of examples of What Investing in Grounded
Political Infrastructure Looks Like, & this is the shove I needed. Here
goes! 1/~17,000

Ben Forstate @4st8
Really think the PA Dems should make a major push to fund permanent staff
positions (Exec Director/Organizer) for all counties with 150k+ populations
and regional positions for the smaller counties.

December 19th 2020
8 Retweets60 Likes
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwtkN2OhCAMhZ9GLg3_4AUXm2zmNQhiR8kiGqw78e0XZzYhQKHt6fliQJi3erl9O5Dcm8drB1fgdWRAhErOA6pPk9N6MJRaMjk5MassSYd_VoA1pOywnkD2c8wpBkxbuQsGbYUli1PGqBCfXEcmWLDjqJ7c2hBAmMFKyT-y4ZwSlAgOfqFeWwGS3YK4H5346vijLXyle6A-bmuLcqjB7yeWcEcHBjyPdmFCUiGZsIoPmjdlpjrxaE2-OSPJccop45wzo5TQPet_gLHMqsljJ-k68_44x9Ys_twypLo1xQVye-SUypYy33bff82tb-d6loSXhxLGDNMHBH5wvtH4GQrUhnnyAR3T1Go1GKGt_TfeSLU56aCkIU1n2lpVcbhA3EqBiFv9AyjyiwA>

by *Lara Putnam*, who follows the topic closely, is indicative. Take, for
example, this oped
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUcGuhCAM_JrlhgEE0QOHd3m_YRC6K1kEA_UZ__7hbkLopDDtdOoswiuXy-y5IrmvGa8dTIKzRkCEQo4KZQ7eDMOkGRuJN9LzUY0k1PlZADYbosFyANmPJQZnMeR0E6Zh7EeyGiUlaOgFODbyxT_lohfQN9QgB6W-be3hAyQHBv6gXDkBiWZF3Ouj_3mI33bO8-yO1IpHsB5K5_LWsnkPd-6DKPjaAGxbk05rjr6JoRFqzYk-c6EetuyKxUpDoms-KWaKa2nA0t0WvBq7heAizIua1AJeUuYcp0qwnlppgT7ZLdz3zA-qW3GLJBjBBONCCK6V6oeOd2_gPPKi4_KQbHuJrh5LRevet2pSzBbcCrElBWOyfXndLn7emolzi1ubFK8Zkl0i-K-_-N3Sx_H5BQnaJOBni4YPbBzUpPthHMXXz7YAoTWblNSk9fG5sZLBFVxOCRzm8g9gaaz1>
by *Emmett Soldati*, who is running for NH Democratic party state chair:
“The Democratic Party hasn’t invited enough folks or reached out to enough
communities on a regular basis. We too easily write off a lack of
engagement from voters as a lack of interest in the values that we stand
for. Instead, our party, perhaps from the pressure of First in the Nation
or to impress donors, has calculated with surgical precision a plan for who
gets a door knock, a mail piece, a call — and who does not.” Likewise, this
story
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkEGOhCAQRU_T7DSAgLhgMZu5hkGoVtIIBsrpePvB7oT8Soqq_PrPWYQ1l8scuSK5ZcbrAJPgXSMgQiFnhTIHb5SaRko18UZ4pqUmoc7PArDbEA2WE8hxLjE4iyGne2FSetBkM2JavBdOSjYx4JILNi3cOq2eUqlF-K-tPX2A5MDAH5QrJyDRbIhHfQw_D_7b3tvWLaQVc9pzwi1evct763PKaSuMN6Fjk1xsWqFz-Ux4daF2FUOMHW7QtVzdEk9oUySYe5Nxztko5aB61r-AscjKGJeHoPvK-3ouFa173VakmD24DWJrckpFG1nv8J-_ln1udT9TwGuGZJcI_osFv3A_oOYVEpQG3c8WDVNUKzmNg9KafzE0bnwc6STFSJqPz20rmXa6yymBw1z-Aen0kj8>
in the Washington Monthly by *Gabby Birenbaum* suggests the key to the
revival of Democrats in Orange County, California—a longtime Republican
stronghold—has been the growth of local clubs.

--A coalition of advocacy organizations led by Accountable Tech have sent
an open letter
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwtUMtuhDAM_JrNrSgPSMIhh730N1BwvBAtJCiYVvx9w1LJ8tvyzIAnnHI53ZZ3Ypcb6NzQJfzdFyTCwo4dyxCD07o3nFsWXBuE7SyL-_AqiKuPi6NyINuOcYngKeZ0HfTaKstmZ83ouVJtyy1HHWDU6vXySgMKlDDK-60_QsQE6PAHy5kTssXNRNv-UM-H_K7mAfKRyI8VGMLc5DLVLvh183FKNc0bpq8bda1YdJJLLqSUwnSd0o1o3ijEIopZxkfL10k2-zHu5OHdQF5ZcWuEGZfalJy3dWW6yH1mldtQ43qkSOeA6UIRbtp0i_cRYpgwYamihsGTE5pb3fVGaWv_aVZdpDG871rD6p-Q61VyNCPklBAolz-vVIkg>
to the Biden transition urging it to “to treat disinformation as a
fundamental and intersectional threat – one that stands as a barrier to
progress on every issue.” Among the letter’s good recommendations: pushing
Congress to revive the Office of Technology Assessment, putting online
voter suppression on an equal footing with offline; and appointing a
disinformation expert to the COVID-19 taskforce.

And on a final note, as we head into the holidays: If you’re a Beatles fan,
this advance peak
<https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkE1rhDAQhn-NOUoSzYeHHErLQg8tpafeJCZTDauJxHG3_vvGXRhm4J0vntdZhDHlw6xpQ3KmHo8VTIT7NgMiZLJvkPvgjZSdolQTb1rPtNAkbP1vBlhsmA3mHci6D3NwFkOK50IndaPJZDohf5XXUgivrBBDZwWVSjaaUe98GXm8tbsPEB0YuEE-UgQymwlx3armpeKXEvf7vT7SjvsAtUvLqVh0U9VcblXz9jr8fP-149fn-wcJhlNOGeecKSEaWbP6CozNLKt5qFq6jLze9mFD667nKZLNEtwEcxE5pW0ZGU-sR69Q9aUuewx49BDtMIN_AuPTtocF_QgRcrHT9xYNk7QAd6qRWvMnYHGEK0U70SpS_vhUtqLBCVyKERym_A_MsoU9>

at *Peter Jackson*’s upcoming movie, drawn from hours of unseen footage,
should leave you with some holiday joy. Or just plain joy! See you in the
New Year!

Leave a comment
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