If you’ve been following along at home, at work, or in the restroom, you know that much of what I’ve been doing since I hired myself to work for democracy full-time in February 2024 was inspired by Marjorie Taylor Greene.
We all watched in 2022 as about $15 million was poured into her race to try to defeat her by a candidate promising her defeat and ended up losing by about 30%, which reflects not much more than how well her district was gerrymandered for someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Nearly all that $15 million could have been spent in targeted, winnable House districts, which could have kept Majorie Taylor Greene in the minority without any committee assignments. Or it could have been used to flip a state legislature or two, improving millions of lives considerably with things like free lunches, medical debt forgiveness, and focusing on anything besides policing uteri.
For a long time, I asked myself, “But what will you do about it?”
Besides whining and tweeting, of course. Which I will always do.
So this February, when the opportunity came, I decided I would do the one thing I could do to save democracy.
That one thing is “More than I expected to do.”
I knew I needed to do more, and I thought that a big part of that would be asking other people to do more. That’s because all I have is this little social media platform of people who either like me, hate me, or accidentally followed me for something I posted or wrote.
But I was wrong. I’m not asking anyone to do anything.
That’s what I learned from Melissa Walker (seen above making an excellent point, as always) at the States Project, a group that has been obsessed with helping donors find the smartest uses of their money to win power and change since 2017.
Melissa leads the Giving Circles at the States Project. I (and CNN) see these nifty and powerful alliances of shared hope and interest as the left’s secret weapon against the right’s targeted use of concentrated wealth and power. She and her allies at the States Project helped us launch our Flipping Arizona Giving Circle, which has now raised over $16,000 towards our goal of $20,024 to help create a new trifecta in Grand Canyon State. When pooled with others working in the same targeted fashion, this is early money that can genuinely make a decisive difference.
When I talked to Melissa for our podcast in April, she helped me see that this isn’t about asking at all. It’s about sharing an opportunity. I heard her, but it didn’t sink in fully. But the video above focused on that simple yet beautiful point that managed to crawl into my cranium:
Giving Circles are not asking people for money. They are giving folks an opportunity to have a political impact that they did not know was possible. They are helping the light bulbs to go off on the foundational powers in this country, a place where we have not been looking for way too long. And the radical right has. We are lighting a path.
We are leaving the porch light on for strategic giving, and it is absolutely valuable to every single person you talk to. We're bringing them an opportunity. So, really, I believe that with all of my heart, and I know that you all do too.
earlyworm is not asking you to do anything. We haven’t earned that right or responsibility. We’re simply offering you a chance to do the one thing we all try to do: more than we expected.
For me, that meant starting a Giving Circle to ensure people had the opportunity to make the best use of their resources, hope, and worry. This means that I’m now going to double my little personal commitment to the Circle out of appreciation for the 214 other people who have taken the opportunity to create a new trifecta in Arizona.
For you, that could be starting your own Giving Circle, asking others to join Flipping Arizona, putting up a lawn sign, volunteering for a campaign, writing postcards, joining a virtual phone bank, or just spreading the word about all these opportunities.
The one thing I know about you if you’ve gotten this far in this post, is that you care about winning back our freedoms and rebuilding democracy. (Or you hate democracy and are using these words to fuel your evil villainy.) And if we can help you do more than you expected to do in the smartest possible way, that would be our honor.
Here’s the one thing you need to do to save democracy