How shall we carry on?

This is the last dash. After that, the future of democracy requires covering politics from the ground up.

Kamala Harris supporters at the Capital Ellipse not plotting a coup, from Kamala Harris’s Instagram

This is it, the last messy dash of the homestretch.

The fundraising deadline for States Project Giving Circles has now passed. We’ve raised $67,437.10 to flip Arizona, $18,573 to keep Michigan, and $103,885 to fund local organizers through the Movement Voter Project (MVP).

For now, we’ll only continue to raise money for MVP. I’m a monthly donor, and I hope you’ll become one, too, if you can. Because the trusted messengers MVP funds not only help turn out the voters we need most. They also are the key to transforming policy and keeping sporadic voters engaged. And those organizers will play a vital role in defending a Harris/Walz victory from the coup attempts we all know are coming. So please keep giving to fund local organizers if you can.

Now, I have to get a little personal. Thank you to everyone who has boosted these efforts in any way. We’re doing what we can and a little more than that. It matters.

You may have noticed that the earlyworm society on Patreon has been shut down. Hopefully, you got your refunds if you were a backer. There is a policy against raising direct donations for campaigns. I didn’t know that. But I found out the hard way.

Ironically, I think we got flagged for raising money for MVP, a pro-democracy group, and you’re allowed to raise money for that. But yes, we sent as much money as possible to campaigns. (And it probably didn’t help that I recently sent a post to backers thanking them for their support with an itemized list of our efforts similar to the one above. I also fantasized there about expanding earlyworm to create a hybrid of Substack, ActBlue, and—you guessed it—Patreon to focus on downballot races and ground game organizations. I’m not saying they feared me; even I’m unsure I could pull that off. But perhaps I had become Dickarus, flying too close to the sun.)

This euthanasia of the earlyworm society answers a big question I have about what I need to do next. Because I can’t do that. Running a society of people committed to saving democracy requires setting up a non-profit. There are lots of those. I believe there is room for a community with vast tools for those of us obsessed with democracy. After all the voters are counted, I’ll decide if I’m the person who can do that. For now, I shall post daily ideas for saving democracy at www.erlywrm.com.

We’re regrouping at IKnowHowMuchYouCare.com.

If you’d like to see this work carry on and expand, please go there—free or paid, your support means a lot. Just click “Subscribe” or “Be a part of this.”

I’d love to keep rebuilding democracy for a living. I hope my efforts are worth backing. Regardless, I know what you’re doing matters. So let me know what I can do to help.