There are a variety of reasons that having people who are both aligned with our goals, and ALSO willing to listen to pitches on specific policy suggestions, is far more impactful than having people who we are just aligned with in general—but if you look at the list of candidates that Guarding Against Pandemics is supporting, it’s definitely inclusive of many people who are aligned with our goals and not aware or not particularly engaged with EA, but have more background in politics. And while we’re focused on longtermist policy, rather than EA more generally1, we are doing much of what you suggest in terms of finding and vetting candidates—and doing more to actually engage and develop relationships.
I think that among the majority of EAs, we haven’t been as clear as we should be that Carrick’s campaign was part of a larger set of things that GAP is doing, and there are lots of specific political campaigns we still encourage donations towards—in addition to being happy for people to donate directly to the “hard money” PAC, which is capped at $5,000 per donor.
We’re supportive of other EA policy ideas and goals, but we both have limited capacity, and are not currently supporting or opposing anyone on that basis.
There are a variety of reasons that having people who are both aligned with our goals, and ALSO willing to listen to pitches on specific policy suggestions, is far more impactful than having people who we are just aligned with in general—but if you look at the list of candidates that Guarding Against Pandemics is supporting, it’s definitely inclusive of many people who are aligned with our goals and not aware or not particularly engaged with EA, but have more background in politics. And while we’re focused on longtermist policy, rather than EA more generally1, we are doing much of what you suggest in terms of finding and vetting candidates—and doing more to actually engage and develop relationships.
I think that among the majority of EAs, we haven’t been as clear as we should be that Carrick’s campaign was part of a larger set of things that GAP is doing, and there are lots of specific political campaigns we still encourage donations towards—in addition to being happy for people to donate directly to the “hard money” PAC, which is capped at $5,000 per donor.
We’re supportive of other EA policy ideas and goals, but we both have limited capacity, and are not currently supporting or opposing anyone on that basis.