Oh boy, look what’s cluttering up my inbox.

 

Yes indeed, it’s yet another grassroots “movement” consisting of a few dedicated people with enough money to set up a website.

The Vermont Political Revolution’s bugbear is money in politics, which is defined as “campaign contributions from special interests.” Their strategy…

… garnering voter pledges to only vote for candidates who pledge to not seek or accept campaign contributions from special interests; likewise, candidate active learning and commitment are reinforced by garnering candidate pledges to not seek or accept campaign contributions from special interests.

Which is nice but kinda misses the point. The biggest flood of money in politics is not going to candidates, but to closely-held SuperPACs and “nonprofits” with loose to nonexistent accountability standards.

If you focus solely on campaign contributions, you get the false equivalency of left and right: Republicans have corporations and the mega-rich, Democrats have unions and George Soros. Indeed, conservatives claim that Democrats outdrew Republicans in campaign contributions in the 2014 cycle, and they may be right. But that’s because the Karl Roves of the world operate outside the bounds of parties and candidates, and rich people like the Kochs largely do the same. Their money doesn’t count as “campaign contributions.” And with all that money being spent “independently” for conservative causes, a Democrat refusing special interest contributions is basically going into a gunfight with a butter knife.

The VPR (not to be confused with, um, VPR, or theVPO for that matter) is Vermont-based, but aims to become a national organization wielding vast influence by attracting voters and candidates to its banner. Which, ha. This never works.

Especially when the organizers are virtual unknowns.

The president of The VPR is Dr. Daniel Freilich, last seen in these parts in 2010, staging a massively unsuccessful primary challenge to Sen. Patrick Leahy. He lost 89-11. The most memorable aspect of his campaign was a Web-only commercial (“I’m on a cow. HYAAA!”) spoofing the then-popular Old Spice Guy ads. (I miss that guy.)

For liberals, it’s hard to find fault with Freilich’s 2010 platform; he called for, among other things, universal health insurance, a more progressive tax system, and improvements in the environment and public health. And he also, as it happens, used the phrase “A Vermont Political Revolution” in his campaign, so he obviously believes in recycling.

So Dr. Dan seems to be a well-intentioned guy with a thing for lost political causes. First, challenging St. Patrick, and now launching a nationwide “grassroots movement.” The VPR’s homepage features a large national map, promising a 50-state reach; but so far, they’ve received a total of five “voter pledges,” four from Vermont and one from New Hampshire, and no “candidate pledges.”

It’s also launched a very limited database — grandly dubbed “an analysis and report” — seemingly designed to shame candidates into complying with its “no special interests” pledge. Each candidate in the 2014 Vermont campaign is listed, and two questions are answered for each: Did they accept special interest contributions (according to their campaign finance filings), and did they pledge not to?

Any candidate who accepted such contributions is highlighted in bright red. Subtle. (Also hard to read.)

That’s the extent of the “analysis.”

The VPR seems to be a noble, if somewhat mis-targeted, effort. But I have two fundamental problems with it:

— It claims to be a “grassroots movement” when it consists of a bare handful of people with a preset agenda.

— The track record of such efforts is dismal to say the least.

I’m sure we’ll continue to get emails from The VPR, and I’m sure that the audible “ping” of an arriving email is about all we’ll ever hear from them.