A few weeks ago, I read an article about MyBO, my.barackobama.com and how it was basically abandoned after Obama won the presidency. A lot of the grass roots organizing that collected emails, and campaigned for Obama was absorbed into the DNC as he won. It basically took a grass roots movement and turned it into something purely top down.

Unfortunately, I’m too young to really understand if my barack Obama was actually a useful tool. But I do remember that around that time Democrats were using the internet much more effectively than Republicans. Most famously, I remember when Rick Santorums political career was ended by SEO, the top result for his name was a website with a poop smeared defining a santorum as a poop smear, or something like that.

I was permanently banned from reddit because I said that online platforms didn’t give users the ability to punch Nazis, like they have the ability in a park, and that’s problematic.

I unfortunately can’t find the article I read about Obama in. I’ve found traces that hint at the same thing, but not much about MyBO.

I guess I’m wondering if Lemmy could be used to build a truly independent and bottom up campaign social media site that props up a specific presidential candidate (like AOC) while giving the local organizers the freedom to campaign how it fits, and campaigning for other progressives.

I see Lemmy as a potential answer, the same way that PBS and NPR were to their mediums. Obviously, not a perfect answer, but NPR came to be 50 years after the radio became widespread, PBS came to be 25 years after TV, and we’re a bit overdue for a similar publicly funded, not ad-reliant social media source. Lemmy seems to have the structure. It seems to me like it could be built for a candidate, while also just providing a good space for people/communities to talk mostly freely, just void of people that don’t belong in society (such as Nazis).

Sorry, this maybe was long winded, and without much point. Feel free to comment, criticize above, etc. But also, are you a fan of AOC? Is there another candidate that would be better belief wise and logistically to create a platform on on Lemmy? I’ve noticed a lot of people in the fediverse seem to be full blown communists, it’s not where I’m at right now. I like AOC, I think she has good messaging that appeals to a large range of people, and an AOC presidency could usher in a greater period of progressivism, leftism, etc. Even if she herself could be further left. I don’t think trying to start a Lemmy ground up campaign for AOC makes sense if most users aren’t going to support her. It’ll create a barrier too great of trying to get people to a decidedly less active social media site, to then an even less active sub-community. However, if there seems to be a lot of support it would make more sense. I just haven’t seen much about any specific potential candidates.

To me Lemmy feels like what social media should be: more community oriented, fewer rules, but just an understanding of common decency that dictates social behavior. Prior to social media, extremist beliefs were less open because there was more risk of social ostracizing. Lemmy seems like the platform to restore common decency. But it also feels like the platform that you could truly build a political movement free of oligarch influence.