#swing left

David Smith at The Guardian:

Pope Leo came top with 42%. Donald Trump was just behind with 41%. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) scored 38% and TV host Stephen Colbert 35%. Trailing behind all of them was the Democratic party, viewed positively by just 30% of voters in a recent NBC News poll. About 52% view the Democrats negatively. Among the reasons for the distrust, argues Swing Left, a national grassroots organisation, is a broken voter contact model in which Democrats are too transactional, too last minute and too dependent on outdated technology. It is aiming to fix the problem ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Last weekend Swing Left ran a voter-listening canvass in Kingston, New York, with congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and congressman Pat Ryan joining more than a hundred volunteers. Part of Swing Left’s Ground Truth campaign, these initiatives aim to overhaul the Democrats’ ground game with “deep canvassing”. Rather than parachuting into neighbourhoods just weeks before an election to chase reliable supporters, volunteers are hitting the streets well ahead of the midterms and knocking on every door. Volunteers are encouraged to speak to anyone they encounter instead of rigidly sticking to a targeted list and specific communities. And rather than forcing voters’ opinions into rigid categories, canvassers hold old-fashioned, open-ended conversations that are then analysed with the help of AI.

On one side, people do not respond well to being told that they were wrong to vote for a candidate that wasn’t left wing enough because they didn’t have any better candidate options and don’t have the time, energy, resources, or courage to risk getting arrested or killed for doing direct action. It causes feelings of guilt, shame, and resentment.

2018 in Review

Darren with Benmont Tench, Judd Apatow & Tig Notaro at the benefit for Swing Left, at @LargoLosAngeles, Oct 20.

So! Since my laptop is busted and I can’t draw, and @spitandvinegar had the fantastic idea of writing stuff in exchange for donations to Swing Left, I am jumping on this bandwagon. I’m opening up 4 slots for ficlets at 3 cents per word - so for $30 donated that’s 1k words, $15 that’s 500 words, so on so forth. 

- 1 of these slots is gonna be for Selkie Bucky fic content. How that works: everybody who donates and wants Fat Seal Bucky, then whatever amount you donated, the corresponding word count will be added to the story. Feel free to add specific requests and I will do my best to incorporate them - possibly this may turn into a series of vignettes if I can’t finagle a way to stick all the requests into one fic. 

- Other 3 slots are for other content. 

- What I’ll Write: my strengths are comedy fic and shenanigans. I’ll write outtakes or vignettes or codas of any of my published fics (tho keep in mind ITHLYN is not finished and I might not be able to write your request due to story plan!). I pretty much write only in Captain America movie universe, though I can also write Discworld fic. I’ll write AUs - Shrunkyclunks, modern AU, one or more chars are mythological creatures, etc. I can do you a great Steve, Bucky, Sam and Natasha, with whatever pairings thereof, up to and including Barbershop Quartet. NatSharon, SteveSamBucky and however u wanna stick Clint in there will come out good too. Tony, Pepper, Maria, Fury, Peggy and the Howlies I can do you a great genfic, though I’m on more uncertain footing on pairings in that set. I don’t know shit about comics canon or Agent Carter or any other Marvel shows, so unfortunately I can’t really write anything there. 

What I Won’t Write: no noncon, no children at all (yes even in genfic, I straight up do not write children). No high school AUs. No angst - guys, I’m just shit at it. No torture or HTP stuff. No Stony this time - I don’t think I’d be able to write it properly. Please message me beforehand for NSFW and/or kink stuff! I might not be able to write what you want to read. 

Disclaimer: I write pretty much comedy only, and it creeps into basically everything I do. If you ask for 800 words of NatSharon pussy eating, what you’ll probably get is 100 words of pussy eating and 700 words of Natasha kicking her heels off in passionate undress and accidentally kicking a shoe through Sharon’s bedroom window. If you want ABO, you’ll get some incredibly weird biology and worldbuilding and most likely zero self-lubing buttholes. Please keep this in mind when requesting! I’ll take you on a fun ride, but it probably won’t be what you were expecting. 

- This is gonna be first come first served (except for Selkie Bucky). Since this is not an auction situation, there’s no outbidding, but the first 3 people to show me proof will get the slots. However: for Selkie Bucky fic it’ll just add to the wordcount (see above). 

Orgs To Donate To: 

ConPRMetidos

Indivisible 

Swing Left

How This Works: you give me a screenshot of proof of your donation to one (or more) of the above charities (last name/personal details blacked out etc) and I start writin’. When I’m done, I send it over to you. I expect to post all the ficlets to AO3/tumblr, though I do reserve the right not to post it to my accounts for whatever potential reason may crop up. 

This opens up on Saturday Feb 3rd at 9AM EST.  

(That gives everybody time to ask questions/check if I’ll write the thing they want written.)