I have been a watcher of TTO for almost a year now and the one thing I noticed is how few participants there are on the site. That's disturbing because I believe better representation through smaller districts will bring some profound changes to our political process. Decreasing the size of congressional districts is more than a nice concept to be discussed, it needs to be the tool for taking control of the federal government.
As a former county party chairman I have seen first hand the apathy and the disgruntlement with political parties. I have heard that less than 20% of voters are affiliated with a political party, and I believe that is true, yet political parties dominate our views on issues. Better representation would end the party stranglehold and rejuvenate a more positive view of our government and its representatives.
So, how do we widen the base? I'm sure there are many ways to start. Here are three ideas that I feel are ideally suited to where TTO is presently.
Develop a series of short You-Tube videos for email circulation. Keep them at 2 minutes each on just a single point of TTO. For instance: “Why doesn’t your Congressman listen? How can he, when the average Congressman represents nearly ¾ a million people! Smaller district sizes would….”
Or, “Are you sick and tired of choosing your congressman from the better of two evils? Then consider what it would be like if..”
These may be simplistic examples but I think you get the point. If they were short and interesting they could/would be circulated from person to person through emails. Hundreds of thousands would begin to hear the message.
Build Power Point Presentations. Each would be on a particular idea of TTO. Put them on a DVD with printable pamphlets and an outline. Make them available for distribution through your website sales page for a small cost. That way, those interested in giving talks to their local party or service club, or organizing a Thirty-thousand Meet-up could have some ready made material for presentation. Service clubs and political parties are always looking for speakers. Since TTO is non-partisan it would be an attractive opportunity for grassroots presentations.
Build a monthly electronic newsletter. Each issue could contain information on current activities associated around better representation. Or possibly containing posted blogs from the website or using current events to show how better legislation could be produced as a result of better representation. Topics are limitless. The point being an electronic newsletter keeps TTO in the spotlight of its subscribers and would attract new subscribers as they visit the website.
I am sure there are many ideas out there, but the point is to keep the current group engaged and interested while growing the base. The blog site is a great source of information for those of us not so astute.