Once Upon a Time

I seem to remember hearing something about an act of war on our Consulate in Benghazi. Wasn’t there a rumor about one of our (former Marine) Border Guards being killed with Fast and Furious guns found near the murder site? Didn’t our Secretary of State just testify before Congress? Why was the Ambassador in Benghazi? Could the CIA have been running guns into Syria? Nothing to see here, move along.

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What is it that “we can do to get these issue dealt with?” My assumption is that you mean within the Ricochet community, and there most certainly is a ton of energy, brainpower, and frustration here but there is no true organizing mechanism. Nothing wrong with that in general, in fact that is one of the pleasant wonders of this site, all kinds of discussions, on all kinds of topics all of the time. 

That being said, I translate your question to: How, from time to time, to herd the Ricochet cats? 

Answer: 1. Develop a plan. 2. Put structure/hierarchy in place. 3. Build a brand. 4. Who/what organization are we trying to reach? 5. What do we want him/it to do? 6. What message do we need to send? 7. Best way to get out that message? 8. Have feedback loop.

Object would be to make Ricochetti participation as painless as possible. One or two people banging out letters to the editor or talking points but used by all. I’ve only been with Ricochet for a month and am still trying to figure out what is going on, what is allowed, and what is possible.

Continued from #2:

First of all I don’t even know whether or not something like what I am contemplating is allowed here. If not, recommend join the NRA & Tea Party; but if so, would try to set up a text box similar to the one where you see the Most Popular on the Member Feed over there just to the right of this. The idea behind that is to make it easy, not 20 clicks away for people to know what are the crises du jour. I suppose that otherwise, the keeper of the flame would have to keep track of this somehow on a conversation thread. Guess that either/both would work. My thought would be to post the “Ricochet plan to take back our country” that would spell out what people are encouraged to do, e.g., letters to the editor, call in CSPAN, liberal radio talk shows, Congressman, the usual. But the multiplying effect would be that they would write or say, “Was discussing this topic with the Ricochettti and would like for you to know that we…” This is where the branding comes into play and can be a force multiplier if used effectively.

My thought is that since only you [DCMcA] have shown interest in this issue; and because you’re a better writer and your posts generate more interest than mine, recommend you take the lead and I’ll support. If allowed by Ricochet protocol, think the text box is critical to success so that all are constantly reminded of the top three (?) issues that they are requested to support. Each of the “Top Three” will have links to “off the shelf” letters and talking points (drafted by volunteers like me). 

By doing something like this the Ricochetti are seen by those we are trying to influence as more powerful than we actually are due to the volume, quality, and consistency of our message. Finally, recommend limit the number topic (to 3?) so that we don’t get spread so thin that we have little to no impact.

Request serious consideration of the text box idea. Goal of that is to have a highly visible, permanent location to ID issues that the Ricochetti are encouraged to get involved in. Without that, the issues may get lost in the daily shiny object stories which was the reason for my post in the first place.