Community, Mothership, and How We Go On From Here

Leaning Into Our Values

“Living a moral life in an age of bullies demands collective action; it cannot be done alone. Each of us must organize and participate in a vast network of moral resistance.” Robert Reich

The sweat was dripping down my nose as I walked with my 13-year-old son back to our car. “This is what you do for your friends,” I remarked casually, taking off my sunhat. “When someone moves, you help.”

He nodded with purpose, almost solemnly, as he opened the car door.

“So, what did you think? Your first experience helping friends move, I mean.” I slid into the drivers seat and pulled the sun visor off the dash. To my surprise, he broke into a grin.

“It was … great. The best.”

He smiled the whole way home.

We had been helping some dear friends pack their moving truck; they’re relocating to a more favorable political and environmental climate. We were (and are) sad to see them go, but also happy to help their lives be just a bit less stressful and exhausting during their moving week. And with temperatures hovering in the high-90’s, and humidity being typical for a St. Louis summer day, moving wasn’t going to be comfortable.

So we rolled up our sleeves, literally. While we had already tried to shower them with love in the weeks before they were to go, helping them load their truck in the middle of a heat wave was the last true gift we could give them.

Besides my son and I, two other friends joined in – and together we made relatively short work of loading their truck. They gave us lemonade and stories and some delightful light saber chopsticks, and we laughed and joked and visited and worked all at the same time.

When one of us stumbled, the others steadied the hand truck. When one of us got too hot, the others encouraged a break. We held doors, and held space, for each other.

And before we knew it, we were done.

Driving away, with my teenager positively beaming about an afternoon spent in the blistering heat carrying moving boxes, I was reminded of the importance of being a helper. Of feeling like you’re making a difference – making a dent. Feeling useful, important, valued.

And the power of being part of a community.

We can’t do it all alone, by ourselves. We were never meant to. Humans are social creatures, and our societies are intended to be communal. But somehow we got caught up in this idea that we’re all supposed to be islands unto ourselves, women all too often being stuck catching the weight of it all and holding up individual households like titans holding up the sky.

Building and fostering community matters – perhaps now more than ever.

I was thinking about that yesterday when I received an email forwarding a Substack article about a fundraising juggernaut called Mothership Strategies. (The same piece was forwarded to me four more times during the day – which is perhaps a record.)

The article (a must-read) goes into the bowels of Democratic fundraising, and raises serious questions about the impact and cost of consultants and how much funding actually goes to nominees and party committees and people doing on-the-ground work.

But, perhaps because I had already been thinking about the importance of building and fostering community, I saw something different in the article and the reaction to it.

I saw a universe of Democratic activists and supporters that is absolutely, positively exhausted – fed up and done with a broken fundraising system that has been based on a toxic and competitive, rather than collaborative and community-based model. It’s a system and a model that directly contradicts Democratic values.

It’s a system that embodies the literal opposite of who we are.

Democrats believe that we all do better when we all do better, that a rising tide lifts all boats, that many hands make for light work. We believe in people power, and community, and collective action.

But it’s gloves-off, ends-justify-means, winner-take-all when it comes to fundraising. That feels off because it’s so disconnected from our values.

But we already know how to create communities that support and foster and reflect our values. Like this Small Deeds community of action-takers (so very proud to have you, friend!), that leans into collective action and spreads hope like dandelion seeds in the wind.

And like the crowdfunding communities that I’ve helped build at Every State Blue. That community-based fundraising model is unique, in part because building massive groups of people that pitch in and crowdfund for the most underfunded Democratic nominees running in the reddest places in the country is … hard. Very hard.

But it is so worth it.

Because – and as I’ve said often – we may be fundraising, but this isn’t about dollars and cents.

It’s about who we are, and who we want to be, and who we fight for, and how we go about doing it.

I believe in building communities that lift up the underdogs – that empower the people who are fighting on the front lines of fascism and spreading a Democratic message in Red America.

I believe in building communities of people who understand the long game, who know that losing is sometimes winning and showing up is way more than half the battle.

I believe in moving metaphorical moving boxes for the people who are willing to go toe-to-toe with some of the most extreme Republican legislators in their state; I believe the least I can do is make their lives easier, give them resources, show them the respect and appreciation they deserve for fighting such a difficult battle. Because they’re not just fighting for themselves. They’re fighting for all of us.

And darnit, I still think all of this matters.

Maybe that’s naive, but it’s what keeps me going.

And so yesterday, as I read the Mothership article and saw the reaction to it within progressive circles, I actually felt a little flutter of hope in my chest. Because folks are now seeing that the system, as it’s been built, is broken. But there is a better way. There’s better way to fundraise, to support candidates, to fight for democracy, and to be part of the Democratic infrastructure.

That better way is rooted in community, in lifting one another up, and in grounding ourselves in the very values that make us who we are.

Last week, as we drove away from the moving truck, my son told me that helping our friends move was one of the best parts of his summer. He felt good to be part of something that made a difference. He felt seen, appreciated, valued. Loved.

Too often in this world we feel invisible – anonymous. As though we’re a number, a cog in the wheel, an email on a spreadsheet.

It’s not true. At least, it doesn’t have to be. We have the power to change it.

We have the power to build the communities that lift all of us up, together.

Let’s make the world we want, friend.

Let’s get to work.

P.S. I don’t often talk about my role as Executive Director of Every State Blue, but it is truly my mission to directly fund down-ballot Democratic nominees who are running in some of the reddest places in the country.

I work with

Jess Piper

(Blue Missouri) and

David Pepper

(Blue Ohio) and we’ll be announcing a new ED for Blue Tennessee next week; our state-based projects create communities that support underfunded nominees for state legislature by providing them with direct funding. We’ve heard from nominees in some of the reddest and most rural districts that they would not have run if they didn’t know we were there to support them if they needed it.

Our Congressional project is called Forgotten Democrats, and it crowdfunds for underfunded nominees for Congress (there are more than you’d like to think).

I’d be delighted to welcome you as a member to any and all of our projects! (I get an email every time someone joins, and we do a little happy dance. We notice. We see you. What you’re doing matters.) You can join them here: Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Tennessee, Forgotten Democrats.

Or if you just want to support an upstart, revolutionary way of creating communities of big-hearted people that crowdfund for down-ballot candidates, you can do that here.

Actions for the Week of August 5, 2025

Friend, things may be heavy – but you can lighten that load by doing something small – a “small deed” – to bring about the world that you want to see. In doing so we tell the world, the universe, our leaders – and most importantly, ourselves – that we will not go quietly into that good night.

I call it Action Therapy.

That’s why in each Tuesday post I share a few “small things” – usually a Small Thing to Read, a Small Event to Attend, and a Small Call to Make or Action to Take. My intention here is to give you actions you can tuck into your week with ease – and know that you’re doing something today to make tomorrow better.

Join me in doing so. It matters.

Small Call to Make or Action to Take: Don’t Inflate Our Plates (H/T Jess Craven!) + Blue State Defiance

First, a new website called Don’t Inflate Our Plates does a great job showing how the price of groceries has increased in the last few months. (No, it’s not in your head!) I’m already seeing a lot of folks talking about the cost of beef/meat – but eggs and coffee are also included in their tracker. You can search by state.

Keep in mind that the federal minimum wage is $7.25. So using their national averages, someone working at minimum wage would need to work more than three hours just to buy one pound of beef, a bag of coffee, a dozen eggs, bread, and milk. (Those groceries total $23.81. Working three hours at $7.25 would bring in $21.75 before taxes).

I think that kind of framing is critical when looking at the cost of household items.

Go check out the website and share it with your networks!

https://dontinflateourplates.com/

Second, if Republicans move forward with their efforts to rig the 2026 maps (and all indications are that they will) Democrats must respond. I hate that we are where we are, but unilateral disarmament will not preserve democracy. The stakes are too high.

Indivisible has launched a new website and initiative helping folks in Democratic trifectas encourage their representatives to counter Republican rigging: https://www.bluestatedefiance.org/redistricting

The states with a Democratic trifecta (and at least one Republican congressmember) are: California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington.

There’s already an effort afoot in California to respond to any Republican efforts to redraw Congressional maps in their favor by redrawing California maps in Democrats’ favor.

If you live in one of the states with a Democratic trifecta (and at least one Republican congressmember) please reach out to your electeds with the tools that bluestatedefiance.org has provided.

Small Event to Attend: August 13, and The Protest List

First, One Million Rising is having its last strategic non-cooperation meeting on August 13 (next Wednesday). In the final session of our One Million Rising series, they’ll walk you through the process of designing and executing a non-cooperation campaign with friends, neighbors, colleagues, or other connections. Sign up for that here.

Second, there are a lot of protests going on around the country – but it’s often hard to find them in real time. The Protest List is a great resource to help you see what’s going on in and around your community in any given week. And it’s organized as a spreadsheet, which my GenX eyes find incredibly helpful. Check it out here.

Small Thing to Read: Mothership Vortex

Read Adam Bonica’s article about Mothership here:

The Mothership Vortex: An Investigation Into the Firm at the Heart of the Democratic Spam Machine

And then you can read Politico’s 2023 treatment of Mothership here: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/24/mothership-strategies-democratic-fundraising-00128548

Thanks for reading, friend – I’m glad to see you here! You’re making a difference, I promise.

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