|
|
Share/Bookmark this Topic:
|
| Message |
Author |
by niwrad
on Sat Apr 15, 2006 12:16 pm |
|
Is there a PAC that we can donate to? Please let me know if there is. If there is not, one should DEFINATELY be started. Complaining and "comiserating" is not very useful nor beneficial to the cause of smokers rights. A powerful PAC is needed -- not a tobacco company PAC -- but a PAC made up of the people. although, donations from retailers and tobacco companies should be accepted. Donations can be made to politicians that are tobacco friendly (probably southern states), etc.... That is really the only way to turn the tide -- it HAS to start NOW..
http://www.fec.gov/ans/answers_pac.shtml#nonconnected
 |
|
|
niwrad
Newbie
Joined: Apr 14, 2006
Posts: 6
|
| |
Back to top |
|
|
| |
|
by Darkseid
on Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:58 am |
|
| Good Luck. I've said the EXACT same thing for years now. I posted it on another snokers rights board years ago, and guess what? I got ZERO response. Just like you did, until I joined the board and saw your comment. I honestly don't know if it's because smokers think they don't have the time and just want to be left alone, or if they're just plain too cheap to donate a few bucks a month. I've said for years, if just a THIRD of the smokers in this country would put in five dollars a month, we could buy any election in the entire U.S. Possibly even the presidency. |
|
|
Darkseid
Smoking Lobby Sponsor
Joined: Jun 13, 2006
Posts: 1389
Location: Peoples Republik of oHEILo
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by niwrad
on Mon Jun 19, 2006 1:54 pm |
|
I totally agree. It is unfortunate. The way to move society is via politics (for better or for worse). I was just in NYC this week - what a drag. No place allows smoking. I was MN at the Mall of America - same thing. It was just a bummer. Politicians use smoking as a tool - an easy whipping boy issue that gains them activist voters. I am all for "reasonable" legislation, but it is absolutely far from reason right now. It is just incredibly hipocitical since many lawmakers are smokers and heavy drinkers - but we know what happened when they tried to outlaw booze.. It is kinda crazy. If a pro-tobacco smoking lobby could work for reasonable change and come across that way to the public, I think it could be very effective. We need to find a smoking consitutional lawyer -- that is willing to help start a pro-tobacco PAC. He/she would not have to work pro-bono either.. That is where the donations come in - to pay for legal representation and political contributions... The squeeky wheel gets the greese, but that doesn't mean the other wheels are working just as hard... They (the anti-smoking nut jobs) have all the power and money right now - that is unfortunate.  |
|
|
niwrad
Newbie
Joined: Apr 14, 2006
Posts: 6
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by niwrad
on Mon Jun 19, 2006 1:59 pm |
|
An established website like this is exactly where the word could get out. If the folks that run this site are serious about advocating smokers rights, it would do more then host a whining message board. No one but pissed smokers come here. It is time to fight back!  |
|
|
niwrad
Newbie
Joined: Apr 14, 2006
Posts: 6
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by runamok
on Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:30 pm |
|
|
|
runamok
Smoking Lobby Sponsor
Joined: Dec 20, 2004
Posts: 1029
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by tnsmoker
on Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:13 pm |
|
niwrad wrote: No one but pissed smokers come here.
There are a few little antis who have nothing better to do than hang around and post their drivel.
What is a PAC, what does it do, and how does one get started? (Pointing me to a website that explains all this would be great.)
I admit I'm not a political person. Until now, politics bored me. It's a convoluted system meant to keep the average person in the dark. I just didn't realize how dangerous it had become! When insignificant people like the little antis who frequent this board are part of a minority trying to run the country, it's time to get involved and fight back! |
|
|
tnsmoker
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Mar 22, 2006
Posts: 237
Location: The (former) VOLUNTEER state of Tennessee!
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by tnsmoker
on Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:20 pm |
|
Oops, sorry. I overlooked the link at the top.  |
|
|
tnsmoker
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Mar 22, 2006
Posts: 237
Location: The (former) VOLUNTEER state of Tennessee!
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by niwrad
on Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:56 pm |
|
|
|
niwrad
Newbie
Joined: Apr 14, 2006
Posts: 6
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by DC
on Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:12 pm |
|
Hi Guys:
Sorry I haven't responded sooner but have been sidetracked with other things.
However, I have some bad news for you. No pro-smokers' rights PAC exists that I know of. The problem is that we have been blind-sided by a well organized group of antis. And they have been well funded. RWJF, alone, has spent hundreds of millions of dollars funding such “non-profit”groups as ASH, The Center for Science in the Public Interest (which has provided a huge amount of junk science propaganda for this movement), the American Cancer Society and hundreds of other groups, especially local groups, which have contributed to the steamrollering over our rights of choice and protestations against needless government intrusion in our private lives.
Meanwhile, we have had no one speaking out for our rights since the major tobacco companies abandoned us with the advent of the MSA. So if you want to blame someone, point the finger at Phillip Morris as well as ASH.
So what do we do?
At this point, I'm not sure there is much we can do effectively except support your local smoke-easys. The problem is that for a political action committee or any other activist group to be effective, it must have large funding and a group of hard-core volunteer activists who are willing to dedicate hours of their time to make it work. Further, it requires experienced political professionals (who don't come cheap) who know who to schmooze and who to ignore. They have to know how to form political alliances with groups by promising support for someone else's cause in exchange for support of our cause.
An example: if you want to overthrow Michael Bloomberg, you have to form an alliance with a group with the money and membership (a couple of million) such as the National Rifle Association who is after Bloomberg for his recent stance against gun ownership. But the problem is that you don't win the support of a group such as the NRA unless you have a group of several hundred (or thousands) of people who are willing to support the NRA's position. It comes down to numbers and numbers of registered voters. Those are the bargaining chips.
So what do we do?
As I have posted before, our best chance is working with local restaurant associations. They have the greatest stake in this and they have organizations in place who know the local players and how best to deal with them. But if you are to have any effect, you have to have local activists in large numbers who are willing to contribute TIME as well as money to fight bans.
Why did I capitalize “TIME”? Because you as well as your sympathetic friends are going to have to become activists. You can't just throw a few dollars at this effort and expect it to be successful. YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BECOME AN ACTIVIST just like the mental robots on the other side. YOU are going to have to spend time enlisting others to the cause, raising money to fund the cause and doing such things as collecting signatures for petitions to fight bans. YOU are going to have to spend as much time and effort fighting these bans as the anti activists are fighting for them.
If you aren't willing to do that, then take the money, buy a patch, put it on and let the bastards suck the soul out of you. |
|
|
DC
Smokers Rights Activist
Joined: Apr 04, 2005
Posts: 820
Location: MD
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
|
by niwrad
on Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:15 pm |
|
I appreciate your obvious insight - very informative. It really is a government intrusion issue. It is frustrating. I was pissed in NYC - I couldn't believe NYC outlawed smoking in public. I'm still scratching my head in disbelief... Anyway, enough whining.
Isn't there a way we can leverage the web to begin a grassroots campaign via the web? For example, to find out where bans are debated and somehow help to defeat those bans?
I understand that it does require boots on the ground. I just think there needs to be some type of overall body to unite the hundreds of thousands of smokers. |
|
|
niwrad
Newbie
Joined: Apr 14, 2006
Posts: 6
|
| |
Back to top |
| |
