David All is a Republican 2.0 (and emerging 3.0, as he notes in this episode) consultant who has long been advocating for an Internet conservative grassroots movement. Further, he is the brainchild behind Slatecard, a conservative competitor to ActBlue. He came to my attention last year when a summer issue of Mother Jones highlighted a conversation with key players in the politics 2.0 movement included him as an authority on the subject. Composed and articulate, All outlined his efforts to bring the Republican Party to a Netroots style movement.

We reached out to All because his efforts are inspiring from several perspectives that many collective organizers can learn from:

1. He saw where the movement was going and, two steps ahead of it, he got there before everyone else did. All realized that the nature of right wing participatory politics would emerge, and while his constituency did not, he got there and built himself as a key player.
2. He is unafraid of taking on a (large) majority. Despite the well-recorded, much-reported on upper-hand that the left has with regard to netroots involvement, All rallied around his point of view and has, as a result, rallied his base accordingly.
3. While I didn’t mention this in the episode, All is a spectacular self-promoter. He has admirally branded his name, as when I think of the Internet-based grassroots organizing for the right, I automatically think of David All. This sort of credibility is obviously important when further perpetuating press coverage of your particular cause as well as when it comes to finding support various means of support.

Please enjoy our MSHcast with David All:

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[And a special thanks to Connecticut-based Waiting For Sully for providing the opening song.]

-Filed in People