Thread by @naughtydocs

CALL TO ACTION

please reply, RT, DM, and share for all those who support #M4A, #DefundThePolice, #GND and #EndAllWars

This thread is about The Public Servant, a practical way for comrades to work together on a co-operative project that will provide crucial and thorough (1/25)

information on every single candidate for office and current elected official in the country on a platform that will be free, public, and streamlined towards each individual voter’s particular representatives and candidates.

THE WHAT
To begin with, a website/app that will (2/25)

allow voters to enter their address (or any address) in order to instantly generate a page that identifies and details the politicians for that specific address, listed by federal, state, county, and city level. The focus of the information provided will be on three (3/25)

categories:

1) The current officeholder. Who they are, what legislation they’ve accomplished or attempted, their voting record, their political views, how long they’ve been in office, and a list of all their non-individual donors. This bulleted profile will be written (4/25)

in layman’s terms and pointed toward whether their actions since taking office have been in the interest of the collective populace they serve or to enrich themselves and the profits of their donors.

2) The next election. When it is, who is a registered candidate (with (5/25)

profiles of each in the same fashion as the current officeholder), dates and info on any primary elections and registration deadlines, and for prospective candidates, detailed info on how to get on the ballot.

3) The office itself. An easily digestible rundown of what (6/25)

the job entails and what powers the officeholder has, term duration, term limits, salary, any relevant positions appointed by this office (such as Chief of Police) with profiles of those appointees, and a navigable map of the office’s precise jurisdiction. In short, a (7/25)

basic civics lesson.

In the short-term, a goal is for subscribers to receive a monthly newsletter/bulletin with current, up-to-date information on their specific public servants. Leading up to an election, this bulletin will be issued every two weeks with every (8/25)

registered candidate ranked by their own constituents (more on how below) with the rankings based on how much they serve the public (the top) down to how much they serve themselves/their donors (the bottom).

A greater goal is that by the next federal (9/25)

election, in 2022, ALL VOTERS, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US, will receive a hard copy, in the snail mail, of this bulletin before early voting begins.

It must be stressed that recipients of the bulletin will only receive information on the candidates that will be on (10/25)

their specific, individual ballot, from POTUS and Senator down to school board and dog catcher, etc.

THE WHY
Every election, I get a mailer from the LAPD telling me who they think I should vote for. I’m thankful for this because A) it lets me know who the worst (11/25)

candidates are, and B) it’s a reminder that I need to start looking into who is actually running for all these offices that hold sway over so many aspects of our lives. If the cops can do it, so can the people. We need to know who to vote FOR, not just who to vote (12/25)

against. So I spend hours online to find out all I can about my candidates, only to find less and less useful info as I go down the ballot, and uncover super fun gems like how my city council member, a landlord with multiple large apartment complexes, voted against (13/25)

eviction protections during a pandemic, and their only challenger is an anti-abortion fascist that doesn’t have a campaign website. Love that freedom of choice.

We need to know who these people are and what they are doing, and we need to make that knowledge easy to (14/25)

access and disseminate. Armed with this information, we help boost the candidates that fight for our interests, and encourage more brave comrades to step up and run for these offices.

THE HOW
Since we are profiling every elected office in the country, we need the local (15/25)

constituents of those offices to be the voices of the people, or the “tribunes” of each office. We need to find and cultivate at least one tribune who lives in the district of every elected office to research and report on the officeholders and candidates. For example, (16/25)

Alaska has two senators. We will need two tribunes, who live in Alaska, to provide their profiles and updates every month. For congress members, we need at least one tribune who lives in each congressional district. Same with state senators, city council members, (17/25)

county supervisors, etc etc etc.

You can be a tribune for any of the elected officials that represent you. Obviously, since there are 100 Senators, 435 Congress members, and a whole lot more down-ballot offices, tribunes for different offices will be the same person (18/25)

at the outset. But in time, with organization and outreach, we will spread out the work by recruiting more tribunes down to the local level.

THE WHO
You. Me. Us. Everyone is encouraged to become a tribune for at least one office that represents them. But that (19/25)

isn’t all that’s needed. We need ORGANIZERS to find and manage other tribunes. We need WRITERS of all sorts to make the language sharp and user-friendly. We need ARTISTS and WEB DESIGNERS to make this thing look fucking cool, and not bland and boring like every (20/25)

other website in this arena. We need PODCASTERS, FILMMAKERS, and ACTORS to create content that supports activism in electoral politics as a buttress to our comrades practicing direct action and mutual aid. Envision tribunes hosting The Public Servant Podcast or The (21/25)

Public Servant News Show. Take it step further and imagine tribunes hosting debates at all levels, taking the candidates to task on policy and legislation that affect our lives.

THE MONEY
All content on The Public Servant will be free and public. So how do we pay (22/25)

for all this? Donations and subscriptions. Worker-supported, worker-owned. Initially, we’ll need an all-volunteer army. Every worker at The Public Servant will be a tribune, and tribunes will share equally in the profits (when they come) in a co-operative. Salaried (23/25)

positions will have an agreed-upon cap at the necessary living wage of the moment (currently around $80k), with an explicit agreement to never exceed more than 2x the national median income.

Please feel free to ask any questions directly or publicly. DM me if you (24/25)

have the skills and interest to set up the website. Then, we will do a massive call for tribunes.

BE THE CHANGE

Thank you for reading. Love and solidarity to all. (25/25)