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FWD.us: GOP Voters To Be Targeted By Data Scientists

Posted by Soulskill on from the also-every-other-type-of-voter dept.

theodp writes: "We are excited to announce that FWD.us and Hackers/Founders are joining forces to host the 'DEBUG DC' Growthathon on June 21st & June 22nd," reads the blog over at FWD.us, the PAC whose Founders and Major Contributors include current and former CEOs from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn. "This is a unique opportunity to push the envelope in online advocacy for immigration reform." The blog entry explains, "The machine of government is wedged, and is in desperate need of debugging. How do we DEBUG DC? Step One: Target critical legislative districts. Step Two: Data mine these districts to find registered voters who are registered Republicans who we think are likely to support immigration reform. Step Three: Growth hack ways to motivate these people to effectively engage their legislators to tell them they want them to call for a vote on immigration reform. Step Four: Measure results. Step Five: Iterate." The Eventbrite invitation for the event includes a call for Data Scientists who are "pissed off about immigration and want to fix it," are "well versed in statistics and data analysis," and can "infer voter sentiment from sparse data." So, how does this jibe with the outrage expressed by the FWD.us supporters' companies over unauthorized government surveillance?

7 of 422 comments (clear)

  1. This will hugely backfire... by sinij · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You average GOP voter strongly values privacy and will not look kindly at this kind of targeted approach.

    1. Re: This will hugely backfire... by TemporalBeing · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Is it possible that the average GOP voter doesn't like illegal immigration from a fairness perspective?

      No, that seems quite impossible.

      Fairness would mean that everyone get to go to the same schools and have the same healthcare, no matter how rich your parents are or where they were born. I cannot see how a republican would embrace that.

      There's a difference between Egalitarianism and simple fairness.

      Having the same schools, healthcare, etc is a egalitarianism.

      Simple Fairness, however, dictates that things provided by the state be equal for all groups; but everything else is available if you want it and can afford it because you (in fairness) worked hard enough to earn it.

      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
  2. the truth by brennz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is really an effort by big multinationals to suppress tech job wages in the US by keeping up the H1B visa racket, and all the associated visa rackets.

    http://cis.org/no-stem-shortag...

  3. Secure Border Before Amnesty by NaCh0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While Republican voters might appear to be for immigration reform by the polls, their idea of reform is vastly different than what these people are proposing.

    They first want a secure border... meaning no flood of new illegals, drugs, gangs, etc.

    They clearly feel lied to by democrats saying the border is the most secure ever. Just look at the 50,000 children who have just crossed since January. If you can't stop children, how do you plan on stopping the "bad guys"?

    Republicans would also support more work visas -- both skilled and unskilled. They don't care about having more immigrants here. They want an orderly process which no administration has been able to provide.

    Obama's blanket amnesty isn't too popular but most Republicans would be up for the debate if they were confident the problem wouldn't keep compounding itself with new illegals.

    1. Re:Secure Border Before Amnesty by rahvin112 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can't secure the border. It's a mythical concept that the party is selling you so you don't pay attention to the real way to shut down illegal immigration. The entire system is driven by the employment they can gain if they can get into this country. Without that employment opportunity very few would come and those that did would leave shortly after they couldn't find a job.

      The only way to stop illegal immigration is to go after the employment. And that means targeting the businesses that hire them. Most of the these businesses are very well connected politically. I know several, they are all die hard republicans that support stopping illegal immigration as long as you don't go after THEM. We could stop immigration tomorrow by actually implementing, checking and enforcing some sort of national ID or cracking down heavily on fraudulent use of SSN's. But that would mean shutting down the cheap labor and there are entrenched interests that don't want the immigration to stop and don't want it to be legal. These entrenched interests have run a very successful campaign of convincing people like you that the solution is to build the Berlin wall on the Mexican border. Well here's a wake up call for you, people routinely crossed the Berlin wall and they shot people that tried.

      The only way to stop illegal immigration is to take away the jobs. If you want to end illegal immigration and not maintain the status quo support real employer penalties and force the SSA to actually validate every SSN used for employment is being used by it's owner (this is damn near trivial).

  4. I find this insulting by sideslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a habitually Republican leaning voter and a geek myself, I find this insulting. Of course being treated as an optimization problem for data analysts is something that happens all the time in commerce and advertising. But I am turned off by multiple disingenuous elements here. Let's name a few:

    1. It isn't about "immigration reform", it's about amnesty. The Democrat agenda will do nothing to reduce illegal immigration, but rather increase it.
    2. Bringing in lots of new workers is a direct cause of lower wages and more job competition and unemployment in the USA.
    3. Really rich, corporate Republicans want more labor because it benefits them fiscally.
    4. Lots of Democrats in general want more immigrants because it strengthens the power of the government and the welfare state, and shifts voting demographics favorably for them (e.g. when they turn Texas blue, they win the presidency for the foreseeable future).
    5. So the bottom line is that when they approach a presumably low information Republican voter, they will have to lie their little tails off about their agenda to get him/her to go along with their so-called "immigration reform".

    (Do I sound a little mad?)

  5. Re:republican voters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The hostility towards immigration is"

    There is NO HOSTILITY TOWARDS IMMIGRATION. There is however hostility towards lawbreakers and those who ignore our constitution and borders.

    Why is this simple fact apprently impossible for you people to understand?

    How about this. I am coming over to your apartment this evening to eat your food, fuck your wife and children and then shit all over your floor and if you don't like it you can go fuck yourself. FUCK YOU if you are hostile to having GUESTS IN YOUR HOUSE.

    Get it?