Chapter 8c
Crunching the Numbers


By the rough estimate of some polls, approximately 7-9% of the population of the nation strongly identify themselves as ‘progressives’, (whatever that means). 19% strongly identify themselves as ‘liberals’. Assuming that there may very well be overlap between these groups, these are relatively small minorities of the total citizenry. Yet we can see a far different picture if we think in terms of gross numbers, and the power that can be had by organizing these large numbers of citizens.

There are approximately 200 million citizens of voting age in the nation. 9% of 200 million is 18 million people. 19% is 38 million people. Let’s quickly crunch some numbers. Let’s be optimistic from the outset, (let’s ‘think big’), and suppose that half of the 18 million people who strongly identify themselves as ‘progressives’ could be attracted to actively participate in the type of genuinely democratic organization that we envision, an organization that directly empowers them. Let’s assume that those 9 million people would be willing to support this organization through the payment of modest dues of $5 per month; $60 per year. (That is less than 17 cents per day, in a society in which a single aluminum can is redeemable for 5 cents). Plugging in these numbers, such an organization would have an operating budget of $45 million per month, or $540 million per year.

An organization could do a LOT of serious communicating with that kind of money.

If we imagine that the hunger for an effective means to ‘fight back’ for Democracy in this nation is as intense and widespread as some of us think it is, we can imagine such an organization growing much larger, and having considerably more funds to administer for whatever purposes it adopts through its democratic process. 15 million people willing to pay that modest level of dues would have resources of $75 million per month, or $900 million dollars per year. 20 million people, just 10% of the adult population, pooling their resources at just $5 per month, would have an operating budget of $100 million per month, or $1 Billion plus $200 million per year.

We would remind anyone who thinks that these numbers are unrealistic, that a currently existing dues supported organization, AARP, currently has 35 MILLION dues-paying members. It is no accident that this organization is one of the most powerful political lobbies in the nation.

If we scale our vision to the nearer term, and just imagine starting out by organizing people by the thousands, the picture is every bit as promising. Even 10,000 members will yield an operating budget of $50k per month. If we can use that money effectively to grow to 100,000 members, we can start to amass a meaningful presence in the nation’s political arena with a budget of $500k per month, $6 million per year. (Do the math, and think BIG).

Even thinking in terms of these modest ‘start-up’ levels, surely we can see as we strive to get this wheel rolling, (remembering the 80% of the citizenry that shares common ground with us in our lament for our loss of Democracy in our nation to special interests), that the ground favors us, sloping toward Democracy on the angry yearnings of the citizenry.


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