Small-ish Projects Someone Cool Should Do
Tell news media sites to link to volunteering sites
(This is one of PuntTrump.org’s most peevy of pet peeves. Let’s fix it!)
The problem: many news media websites openly discuss what a menace Trump is. But they tend to stop there, and almost never even mention groups that can help the reader take actual action by volunteering etc..
Why? Well, the drama of the Trump years have greatly increased advertising revenue to many news sites. Our un-generous PuntTrump hunch is this: news sites don’t want to lose page views, and hence lose ad-view dough, by linking to other sites.
(Granted, they’ll link to the Red Cross etc. after a major disaster, or to the CDC etc. during the worst of COVID. But it shouldn’t take hundreds of actual of deaths for them to give up a little ad revenue, says grouchy Uncle Punt. An impending dictatorship should be enough…)
Our fix: encourage news sites to start linking to anti-Trump sites, as below. If you have a paid subscription that helps, but contact them even if you don’t. It’s best to use their contact-us form, customer service number, if nothing else try their comment pages.
The perfect message would include:
- The grouchy advertising-revenue accusation, as above.
- Sample sites to link to, like our list of recommended sites (MoveOn.org, SwingLeft.org, etc.)
- Mention that it’s not enough to just mention a few volunteer groups now and again– that they need to add a small permanent page to their site, and link to it in most stories about Trump and his 2024 campaign.
- If you really want to get their attention, threaten to stop your subscription if they don’t get on board.
- (Finally, if you’re feelin’ the love, ask them to link to humble PuntTrump.org too…)
Big Projects Someone REALLY Cool Should Do
Create a website to connect with undecided voters
We looked fairly hard for websites that were oriented towards convincing undecided independents / swing states etc. to not vote for Trump. We didn’t find much. We’d love to see someone create one.
The main use of such a site is this:
- Suppose someone created the site – for this example let’s call it QuestionsAboutTrump.com.
- Fred is an undecided swing voter. Fred has doubts about Trump but still plans to vote for him.
- Janice is Fred’s friend, and she’d lie to convince Fred to not vote for Trump. Janice could just suggest that Fred take a look at QuestionsAboutTrump.com and leave it at that.
In our thinking, QuestionsAboutTrump.com would look like this:
- It could be honestly anti-Trump but it wouldn’t use progressive or liberal language.
- The site would list major issues of concern to most undecided voters, for example “securing the border”, “countering the rise of China” etc..
- For each issue, the site would meet the undecided voter where they’re at – for example if they’re still undecided they probably like a lot of Trump’s message and positions. The site would use common conservative / populist concerns and assumptions as a starting point, and then respectfully make the case that Trump doesn’t really support them very well.
See, in our experience it can be pretty darn hard to face-to-face talk / debate / argue someone out of supporting Trump. For some people, a well-written website might be more effective.
Create websites / other resources oriented towards the Christian community
We looked fairly hard for existing Christian-oriented websites and didn’t find very much. We think this is a very important opportunity. We know there are many very decent Christians of all denominations who see that Trump is a monster.
People could create, for example:
- Websites (maybe a little like PuntTrump.org) that point to existing resources
- Lists of talking points that concerned Christians could use, for example, when approaching their congregation to take action
- Whole new organizations, like coalitions of congregations that are making a stand against Trump etc.
- Initiatives to encourage existing Christian magazines, websites, opinion leaders etc. to take an anti-Trump stand, or to go further if they have started down that road.
If you create or find these things please tell us!
We’ll fit them into existing lists, or create new pages, link to them, etc. And also buy you coffee.