Ramping Up In March

Feb. 23, 2009

Your VOID board of directors have taken a much needed rest from their intense efforts during the period leading up to 2008's election. We are preparing to get back in the saddle in March. Early in the month, we will conduct a meeting, the large part of which will establish what we learned from the last election cycle, and what we want to do in this cycle.

That March meeting will be followed by a suggestion and brainstorming period in which we will ask all our supporters and members for their ideas and willingness to volunteer a few hours per month, making those ideas reality. Like Edison said, success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

The Board will meet again in April to primarily focus on calendaring our activities, and laying down the strategies, tactics, and resource allocations to achieve those calendar bench marks. We will need, and look forward to, your feedback and ideas the latter part of March to work with. So, please give some thought to how VOID can improve its reach and megaphone its message, and jot them down somewhere where they won't be forgotten when called for. Don't forget slogans and catchy phrases. We are always looking for that turn of phrase that will capture attention and get people thinking along the lines of voting out bad or ineffective Congress persons.

We enormously respect you and your intelligent support for dramatically improving government performance by assisting as many voters as possible to understand the necessity of holding their own representatives accountable and responsible on election day for what comes out of our United States Congress. Voting for a candidate merely because they are affiliated with this party or that, has proved poor insurance against electing some really awful representatives. We encourage all voters to vote based on the results of the government we get.

Poor government results from poor decisions made by our representatives. We will insure that our members and supporters have link access to how their representatives voted on key legislation over the next 2 years. And we ask that you all encourage others you know to check on the record of their representative periodically over the next 2 years. By checking on their representative's votes periodically, they will be much better prepared to make an intelligent decision as to whether their representative was a part of the solution or part of the problem that came out of our Congress and we have to live with.

We don't ask voters to vote for a party they don't believe in. But, we do ask them to vote for a challenger of their choice in their party primary when voting for Congress persons, if the voting record of their representative does not meet the voter's expectations.

As more voters engage in this intelligent voting behavior, more incumbents responsible for bad government will be removed. And the new politicians who replace them will get the message: they won because the incumbent disappointed the voters, and that is not a mistake they will want to repeat. Better government can be the only outcome of more and more voters casting their ballots in this most rational and responsible way.