Drones for the left

Someone remind me again why it is that homes get hotter at night. I understand intellectually the reasons why but it feels so wrong!

Yesterday someone used the phrase "toxic coworker" in conversation and I think that it perfectly describes my situation.

That said, I wanted to focus on a critique of the PIRG/Grassroots Solutions, Inc. canvassing model that greggish posted on dailykos. The model is that you have eager young high schoolers or college students (the cuter and perkier the better) go around asking for money either door to door or in a prominent public location. Frequently these were girls who did the asking. In 2004 this pissed me off so badly because they were using my area as an ATM without addressing any real issues, without voter registration, and without really engaging anyone in a dialogue about what the hell was going on in our theoretical democracy:

But there are two more unstated principles that need to be known about this model.

First of all, it's operated entirely from the top-down. The canvassers and directors who actually do the work have no influence upon their work conditions, the distribution of the funds they raise, or even the choice of causes for which they campaign. An employee who's hired for one campaign can be switched over to another campaign; the 'raps' are created without input from those delivering them; all decisions are made without any accountability to those below.

Second of all: the model is, in a way, curiously apolitical. I don't mean that it's not 'liberal' -- but rather, that it does not engage in deliberative processes. It is not rooted within any particular community. There is no defined agenda beyond the broad banner of 'progressive values.' It has a mild disinterest in 'the news.' Its participants (both the canvassers and those who are canvassed) do not participate in open-ended, discursive relationships with the organization or each other.

This gets at the heart of why I always thought the DNC's fundraising canvassing operations were useless and trite. The PIRGs' organizing style, not just their canvassing, I always resented. It was very twist your arm, over the top, and even though I am a bleeding heart liberal, I could not stand the personality or style of many of their organizers. Let's not even start on how little they are paid to do the grunt work.

These people are essentially drones for the left, with as little say or voice in decision-making as the standard rank-and-file Republican. No backtalk, no conversation, no buy-in or investment. Just wham, bam, and thank you ma'am for your cash.

I'm not sure who to feel worse for - the john or the whore, or the left for sinking to such degrading tactics. Degrading in terms of level of conversation and input the drone or average solicated person gets, and degrading in terms of this ain't real organizing baby. It has decreased the net level of dialogue, and increased the transactionary nature of politics without even providing much for the rank-and-file canvasser. It's time-stealing, pain-staking, thankless work and people get paid shit to do it, but they went door-to-door regardless.

If anything I am more inclined to give money to someone who is trying to register new voters because at least that brings someone into the political process. It's not just some "liberal" fundraising machine sucking up my money and time.

Perhaps one day there will be a Big Blue IBM commercial that demonstrates the futility of such styles and the lack of dissent or discourse it creates. In the meantime, I choose to give to organizations that treat their workers better and that have more invested in the community.