Science fiction fans will recall the Borg, cybernetic mechanical/organic beings seeking the transformation, if not destruction, of the human race in "Star Trek, the New Generation." The immensely powerful Borgs were collectively connected; with shared experiences and information gathered by other Borgs, they saw all and acted in concert.
Jump into the transporter to the modern Borg, a political collective called Catalist, started with seed money from billionaire leftist George Soros and whose president is Harold Ickes, former Clinton deputy chief of staff who was known as the "garbage man" for handling Clinton's fundraising scandals.
Catalist specializes in micro-targeting of potential Democratic voters. Public data, such as voting patterns, employment, racial, civic, activists and political group affiliations, income, etc., are gathered, collated and shared. The Catalist website boasts of providing "progressive organizations with the data and services needed to better identify, understand and communicate with the people they need to persuade and mobilize."
You will find more than 270 clients listed, a who's who of the left. Among them, the ACLU, the NEA, the National Council of La Raza, NARAL-Pro-Choice America Foundation, the Sierra Club, Rock the Vote, numerous labor organizations, and scores of various Democratic concerns. You will also find on the list the Tennessee Democratic Party and 68 Democratic representatives.
One Republican sounding the alarm is J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice attorney under President George H.W. Bush, now the legal editor for the conservative news and opinion website PJ Media and author of the New York Times bestseller "Injustice: Exposing the Racial Agenda of the Obama Justice Department."
The coordinated assimilation of information of hundreds of millions of Americans gives an advantage to the left and creates a disadvantage for the millions of Americans in the middle of political debate, Adams asserts. Democrats can ignore moderates and dig deeply into the hard-core left. In the process, Democrats not only win elections but are able to claim wide support in their pursuit of continued radical change in the body politic, without moderate input.
Analyzing the data in a Harvard dissertation on the workings of Catalist by Eitan Hersh, now a political science professor at Yale, Adams contends it is cheaper to convince the base (of either side) to turn out to the polls. His research shows it might take $10 to get a thoughtful moderate to vote, versus pennies for a committed ideologue.
He argues Romney lost in 2012 due to the use of Catalist - even though Romney won independents and moderates. Also, if you remember, four million of the Republican base did not turn out - many pundits claim Romney was too moderate to attract the base - while, thanks to Catalist, hard-core lefties turned out in droves.
Republicans have no such tool, but rather three or four poor competing data services. Conservative pollsters and organizations want money and clients, while liberal pollsters and collection services like Catalist want victory. As such, says Adams, it's like "horse-mounted soldiers facing tanks."
Republicans: Find a computer nerd to put together a comparable system and reach out to those concerned with religion, immigration, federal taxes and spending, less regulation, privacy rights, and national security.
It is your base that can save the day; remember the tea party in 2010?
If you forget, the right may well continue to lose - and America will continue to be beamed to a place many, including moderates, do not want to be.
Mike Chambers is a resident of Lookout Mountain.