Idea to Mobilize Nation to Stop Alito!

I've written this as an open letter to MoveOn.org. I'm aware that they haven't always come through on issues important to us here at DU. f they don't step up to the plate, we could decide to try it ourselves.

Dear MoveOn.org:

Millions of people want to know what they can do--beyond signing petitions and helping pay for ads--to stop the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. It's time to have another one of your vigil campaigns, where members sign up to hold vigils in their communities. But this time, I recommend three additions to the plan:

1. Ask that the vigils happen daily in each community until either the Senate Judiciary Committee votes him down or the full Senate votes on Samuel Alito's nomination.

2. Ask organizers to request each day of people who come to the vigils that they come back again daily, each time bringing at least one more person (or get a substitute and an additional person if they can't return) AND that each person recruit one person each day in another city or town to organize vigils in their own community. The idea is to have both the size of the vigils and the number of vigils increase at least twofold per day. This could build very quickly, especially if we started with 1,000 or more vigils around the nation, even if those vigils average only 10 people or so on the first day.

3. Ask organizers and participants to use the vigils to spread the word exponentially. Distribute piles of flyers or sheets of stickers or car signs there that people can use to get the word out.

Will you do it? No other organization has the infrastructure and the following to make this happen as quickly as you can. I believe we can have millions of people in the streets by mid-week next week with this plan. It could make the difference. Take a moment to imagine.

Isn't it better than all those moments imagining what will happen if Alito gets onto the Supreme Court?

Here's the math:
Day 1: 1,000 vigils x 10 people each = 10,000 people
Day 2: 2,000 vigils x 20 people = 40,000
Day 3: 4,000 vigils x 40 people = 160,000
Day 4: 8,000 vigils x 80 people = 640,000
Day 5: 16,000 vigils x 160 people = 2,560,000!
If this plan works, that's 2.5 million people in five days!
Day 6: 32,000 vigils x 320 people = 10,240,000!

Now, I know that there are some kinks in this idea, like people running out of out-of-town friends to invite to hold their own vigils, but these numbers don't take into account anyone holding their own vigil or joining an existing one without being specifically invited! So they could grow even faster than this.

How can we not try it? The stakes are so very, very high.

Thank you for your consideration of this simple idea.

(Edited to improve subject line and introduce content)

I like the viral marketing component. I'd like to see further discussion about how to harness the value of the power and strength inherent in having so many people assembled. Like if you consider a petition, it is so often simply dismissed and ignored regardless of how many signatures there are. Well what if Senators were approached from an angle that says, look, we your constituents understand you may be considering an aye on Alito and we want you to know that such a vote would not be representing us; since I don't expect to persuade you to change your mind all by myself, I would like to know what you would consider a strong enough response such that you would become convinced that a no vote reflects the will of your constituents? Will 50,000 people surrounding your office suffice? OK, maybe you don't say it that way, but the point is to try to get someone on the hook so that you have a legitimate target to aim for at which point you have reason to expect a change to occur, or at least a hook on which to hang your call for accountability. This is how I imagine we could manufacture a tipping point.

How would you go about establishing that for each senator?

I guess this amounts to throwing down a gauntlet, challenging Senators to declare where their "line in the sand" is located so that we can have a chance to prove that we are at that point and beyond. It does sort of suppose a degree of reasonableness that might not exist. Senators wouldn't be obligated to respond and could ignore your request like a petition. This may be a nice useless theoretical strategy. I hope not. Maybe the trick is to get the media to force the question, which would also help establish the frame for people that if only a certain number more were to join... Or maybe we should just start a rumor ;-)

that could be affected by the people, could they? I mean really, how is capitulating to thousands of constituents demanding a response really any different from capitulating to millions of dollars from a lobbyist demanding a response?

Oh, I guess it's time to go to sleep...

It's Reich-Marshall Alito to you. The only other problem I see with the plan is a lack of guts in Amerika... It's not like it was in the late 60's... No rich kids like Saint Hurst are jumping the fence either... too much goose-stepping going on for people to get really pissed like we were back then. Still, it's a nice thought but I liked Utopia the way Plato told it, so maybe my opinion is too idealistic.

I hope they now realize how they are needed now!

They're adamant about only working on the issues they've chosen and--despite much pressure from membership--election theft/fraud/reform isn't on their list. But the Supreme Court is.

If there were a lot of interest shown on this thread, I could get it to them to show them people like the idea. But it doesn't look like I'm succeeding in getting people even to *read* the idea to see if they like it!