© 2007, World Peace One          

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Three things make Proof Through the Night powerful and unique:

• It goes far beyond voter registration  to give a practical education in the whole political process—from how to gather and analyze information, to weighing the options, to how to do advocacy for issues that you care about.
  
  
• We are setting a new standard for political proficiency.  If we expect drivers to pass a test before they get on the road, perhaps we should expect each other to know some political basics! We are asking people to study our online course and then pass a voluntary proficiency test. Once they do, if they want, they can proudly wear t-shirts, display bumper stickers, or own coffee mugs that read, “I am Proof Through the Night!” 
  
  
• We ask for a small amount of ongoing political activity.  We can make a case for three essential activities: 1) Regular political news intake. Just an hour a week from a quality source of news can make a huge difference. 2)  Monthly advocacy, which means making your views be known to those in power.  
  3)  Pre-election study of candidates and issues. We envision a new American tradition. We are designating the weekend before the primary and general elections as "Proof Through the Night Saturday and Sunday." Sometime during the weekend before the election, we want people to take the time to analyze the issues and candidates. If they do this with one or two friends, it can become a pleasant social activity, and therefore much more likely to happen. -- Thus, people who gain proficiency will use the proficiency on a regular basis. 
  
  

1. Give people strong incentives to participate. Many political groups try to motivate people by urging them to do their civic duty. We emphasize additional incentives, for example: boosting your quality of life; making the best use of the investment you’ve already made through taxes; seeing politics as a high-leverage way to help others; avoiding economic hard times; and even helping to ensure our long-term survival.  

People may care, but still not want to get involved in politics if they believe that individual voters can't make a difference. So, on our "Why Care?" page, we offer our best arguments for why individual action still counts.

2. The way this will grow is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”  Let’s be honest: A small increase in the number of informed and active voters won't be enough. So we thought of two strategies that are likely to inspire a majority of Americans to gain political proficiency. (The first strategy immediately follows, and the second one is in #5)  We begin with some of the people who already understand the importance of political involvement. They take the course, pass the test, and then they invite and encourage at least two others to go through the process. If most people personally supports at least two or three others to participate, it becomes a chain reaction of political empowerment. This one-to-one support and encouragement is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Without the chain reaction strategy, when we asked people to do the 5-20 hours of study to achieve political proficiency  and to built new habits, they would be right to say, "Why should I make the effort?--Not enough people will join me, and so it won't make a difference."  But with the chain reaction strategy, having enough people to make a political difference becomes extremely likely because everyone has friends that they can persuade, encourage -- or ask a favor of.

This strategy is so central, that it's worth explaining in a different way. In politics, if most people believe that special interests will always dominate, then they won't vote or make the effort to vote intelligently, then the special interests will dominate, because most people gave up. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: If we believe we're beat, we don't act, and then we are beaten.  

But here is the reason to believe that things can dramatically turn around. For the sake of simplicity, let's imagine that there are 50,000 full-time lobbyists in Washington and in the state capitals. Let's imagine that they are getting their way, and the American public is being cheated.  If a majority of Americans suddenly re-learned the basics and spent 2-3 hours a month protecting their investment through political action, the 2-3 hours multiplied by even half of the 200 million possible voters would overwhelm the special interests. It would kick their butts. It would be the renewal of American democracy. And it would happen because individuals like you would be supported to make the effort, and then would support a few people they know to make the effort.

3. Make it as easy as possible to learn and be active. We bring all the essentials to one web site. We also build support strategies into the course. We streamline political action, so that it doesn’t take too much of your time and energy. And an  important part of our strategy is to have people figure out ways to make their ongoing actions easy and maybe even enjoyable. 



4. Ask people to do it right. No half measures. Many voter empowerment projects imply that voting at every election is enough. We don’t think that’s true. We ask for more, and we make a compelling case for each thing we ask you to do. It will involve some real effort, but you'll probably feel good that you're doing enough. (To learn what we think is enough, see "The Believable Deal" below.)   

How We Get Away With Having Lots of Content! Some people have criticized this site because of the great volume of content. They say that people will never read it all. But we have two responses. Our first response is that some of the will be put in the form of short upbeat videos. We will also break up the pages into shorter "bites." This will make it easier to learn.  But our second response is more to the point. We just wrote, "no half measures." This means, for instance, if we have eight strong strategies, we are not going to just give you three bullets of information. We want you to understand why Proof Through the Night is going to be powerful. Similarly, if it takes you 5, 10 or even 20 hours to learn and practice the basics, then we are going to ask you to do it right. We love our slogan, "There's more than one way to fight for your country" because it can give you perspective: Many people gave their lives to defend this democracy. The founders risked their lives. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others have said it: "Freedom is not free."  By putting together this website and its strategies, we are fighting for this country. If you take  the time to read and study these pages, you will be fighting for your country. Compared to fighting in a war, or even two years of military service, the sacrifice we ask is incredibly small. This is a democracy.  It costs something to maintain it.

5. Seek organizational participants. The heart of our growth is the person-to-person chain reaction, but working through organizations can accelerate our impact. We have two strategies that involve organizations. One happens when the chain reaction reaches a person who is an organizational leader; he or she can invite other leaders in his or her organization to participate. The leaders then lead by example, gaining proficiency themselves. Then the leadership creates a "climate of expectation" among the members of the organization.--They encourage and expect them to participate in PTTN. 

An organization officially becomes a participant when two-thirds of the members take and pass the proficiency test. This will first happen with smaller organizations, or chapters of larger organizations. It will also happen first to organizations that value political strength. Naturally, political parties will want their members to be proficient. But also a variety of civic, religious, environmental and social-change organizations will want their members to be politically proficient.

A second strategy is to create fun contests: 1) organizations challenge each other to a contest, a race to political proficiency. One group of college students could challenge another to a contest. One church could challenge another. One university could challenge another. One chapter of an environmental group could challenge another, and so on. 2)  We also plan to have short online games: Either one-to-one, or in small teams of 2-5 people, the teams are asked ten questions that are on the proficiency test. The game can be set for the fastest response, or for the highest number of correct responses from either side within 30 seconds.

Besides stimulating members, organizational contests will also be a good way for Proof Through the Night to get publicity.

6. Use other media beside the Internet (audio CD, podcasts, a book)  Of course, not all Americans are computer literate. And a significant number of Americans are only marginally literate. A successful movement requires that we have other means of educating Americans. Once we have enough funding, we expect to develop audio, video (Youtube), and book versions of these materials, to increase the accessibility to the needed political knowledge and skills.

7. Classy, cool stuff.  A minor add-on strategy is to publicize this movement through various well-designed promotional items, such as T-shirts, coffee mugs and bumper stickers that read, "There's more than one way to fight for your country" and “I am Proof Through the Night” will make people curious. These items will provide an easy opening for people who have gained proficiency to talk about the program and encourage others to participate.  

8. Let participants know their impact. The people who elect to receive emails will get monthly updates on this program's growth and number of participants. We think that it will motivate and encourage people to stay active if they learn how many people are participating, and how active other participants have become. This information will come from voluntary surveys. We think that most participants will realize the important of answering these brief surveys, to let us know the program's impact, and also how we can make Proof Through the Night better.

How is Voting Like Picking up Litter? 

A major reason for the lack of involvement in politics is similar to the reason many people don't pick up litter: Many people think, "No one else is picking it up, so I'm not going to waste my time, picking it up. The sidewalk would still be a mess, even if I did my share!" Thus, many decent people have given up on politics because they believe, not unreasonably, that their efforts won't change things.  

It's a vicious cycle: People see each other's lack of involvement, and it gives them a good reason not to become involved.

We've thought up a way out of this vicious cycle. We've created a "deal" that we believe a majority of Americans will accept. In other words, if we devised a political educational package and showed it to 100 Americans of voting age, and if two-thirds of them said, "Yes, I would do this if at least two-thirds of other Americans did this," then we could get a majority of Americans to live up to this new standard. It would be like the communities where people pick up litter because they knew that enough others would pick up litter, too. This doesn't make the sidewalk totally litter-free, but it does create a major day-and-night change. It also affects the people who litter: When they see others regularly picking up litter, many of them quit littering.

Why are we aiming for two-thirds and not 90%? Think of an average population of adults: Some are very elderly and chronically ill. Some have major depression. Some have addiction issues. Some are extremely self-centered. These people are unlikely to vote. Two-thirds seems a realistic percentage for a healthy and functional democracy.



The Believable Deal!


It will only take about five minutes to read this deal. We ask you to read it carefully. As you read it, please do two things:  First, imagine yourself doing these things; and second, judge if we are being reasonable in imagining that two-thirds of Americans would go along with this, if they could see that enough others were participating.



What We Are Asking

The following list of six actions may seem like a lot, but the time commitment is roughly equal to taking a one-time 10-week community college course for two hours a week (from your home!), spending about one hour a week taking in news, and spending two hours a month  letting your views be known.

Here 's what we're asking of you:

1. Make a one-time investment of about 5-25 hours to study for and pass a proficiency test. We think that most people will need 15-25 hours. Political hot-dogs will need only about 2-3 hours.

Why:  This will make you a smart voter; it will give you critical thinking skills, and it will increase your ability to influence your government officials.  

2. Examine and maybe change your sources of regular news. We are asking  voters to regularly monitor at least two news sources from two significantly different points on the political spectrum. (This may require as little as one extra hour a week—or no extra time, if you take in a lot of news.)

Why: Almost every organization slants the news according to their values. Having two or more sources of news will give you perspective, just as having two eyes gives you perspective and 3D vision.

3. Do advocacy on a regular basis for issues and causes that you care about. Even two hours a month could do a tremendous amount of good.  

Why:  In the face of many special interests with a lot of political clout and money, we believe that most voters will realize that voting twice a year and donating a small amount of money to someone's campaign is not nearly enough political action to counterbalance many special interests with a lot of money and access to politicians.

4. Before each election, spend about 2-4 hours to analyze the issues and candidates that you will be voting on. (Doing this with friends makes it doable!)

Why: It doesn't make sense to gain political proficiency if you don't regularly use it at the most critical times.

5. Encourage two people you know to participate in Proof Through the Night. (In the online course we will offer tips to make this easy!) Or encourage an organization or small group that you're a member of to participate in this program.  

Why: You have much more ability to influence the people you know personally, and the people in the groups you belong to. This action ensures that your effort will be joined by other people's efforts. By inviting two people who eventually each invite two others, you take part in a chain reaction.

6. Make a tax-deductible donation of $10 dollars to Proof Through the Night annually.  At this time, checks made payable to World Peace One are the only way we are accepting donations. 

Why: We have used the analogy that if drivers need to take a test to drive, then maybe voters should, too. Using the same analogy, drivers also pay a fee for their license. A small fee would allow us to maintain the web site, improve it, and publicize Proof Through the Night. In other words, this completes a viable, sustainable pattern: everyone gives a small amount of time and money, so we don't have to rely on big foundations, fundraising projects or major gifts. You may wonder why this amount is so small, since most organizations ask $25-$50 annually. It's because we are not the ones primarily responsible for spreading the word about Proof Through the Night. You are. Once you've gained proficiency, you are being asked to invite and encourage at least two people you know.   

These six actions may feel like a lot, but besides the one-time investment of time to gain proficiency, most people are only being asked for a few hours a month. That's not a lot to ask to help run your national, state, county and local governments!  If you think about it, realistically items one to five above are necessary for building and maintaining an informed, critically thinking and active electorate. And item six is necessary for maintaining a viable national organization and movement.  All together, we think we've developed a set of strategies that can lead to a renewal of American democracy.


If you think these Strategies make sense, then you're invited to start the program now by beginning our Recommended Steps.