In defeat, defiance!--Winston Churchill
We had a very, very tough day on 2 November. We had some successes--the very worst of the Tea Baggers (Angle, O'Donnell) were defeated, and we gained the governorship of the most populous state, but in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan we were massacred. We suffered our heaviest loss of Democratic house seats since 1938, when we dropped 75. We lost one of the greatest U.S. Senators in America, Russ Feingold. We came achingly close to victory in race after race, only to fall short. We failed to defeat an outright criminal, Rick Scott, in Florida. A man who hinted at secession, outright treason, was re-elected in Texas. And why?
There are many reasons, but among the top ones: MONEY. LOTS OF IT. Let's talk about it after the break.
In the wake of the catastrophic Citizens United decision, in many races we were simply bombarded with a flood of lying TV and radio ads. Karl Rove--perhaps the most viciously unprincipled man in America--managed to inflict, either directly or indirectly, ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND TV ads on our candidates, most of them financed by a handful of rich, right-wing fanatics, many anonymous. The fact that every one of these commercials was a G-d damned lie was irrelevant. Any advertising exec knows that repetition defeats truth any day of the week. We also failed, catastrophically--and much of the blame must rest on the President and his advisors--to trumpet our achievements and defend ourselves. The vast majority of Americans actually think taxes for average Americans have GONE UP under Obama. We failed to counter this. We failed to emphasize our support for small businesses, and we allowed the screeching Right Wing Noise Machine to get away with an unbelievable trail of utter lies about both the stimulus and the health care law. There are many reasons for our defeat, but when we lose races like Sestak's, Feingold's, and Sink's, we just have to recognize the truth:
A lie shouted over and over again defeats a truth which is merely spoken.
And having bought the House of Representatives, the ultra-Right, emboldened, will now embark on a campaign to defeat President Obama and capture the Senate. Make no mistake about it. If the conservatives capture both the presidency AND the Congress in 2012, they will complete the process of destroying this nation that they advanced so much between 2001 and 2009.
The social safety net will be destroyed.
Hatred of gays, immigrants, and anyone else the right-wingers don't like will be enshrined.
An unfettered Wall Street will once again drive the economy to the brink of the cliffside--and this time, the economy will crash through the barriers and head into the abyss.
It will mean the triumph of the Religious Right, which is making a dark alliance with the "free market" [Read: Rigged Market] advocates.
It will be the triumph of fanatacism over true faith, Christianism--religion used as a political weapon--over true Christianity.
It will be the victory of plutocracy, aided and abetted by a stacking of the courts with right-wing ideologues, especially at the Supreme Court level.
It will be the triumph of superstition and phony, oil-industry backed "research" over science.
It will be an all-out assault on public education, and an acceleration of union busting.
It will mean Neocon lunatics plunging this nation into one war after another, quite possibly a catastrophic wear with Iran.
Most of you know this already. But it never hurts to be reminded.
So what do I propose?
Last night, in the midst of our devastating House defeat, I sent $20 to the DCCC. I will do so every month for the next two years, because I realize that Rove and his criminal allies MUST be defeated if America is to have any chance of survival.
So what do I propose?
A national, grass-roots campaign to harness 20 million Democrats into a commitment to give $20 a month to the Democratic Party in some way, shape, or form. That means if we do this, we can raise $400,000,000 a month to fight Rove. It means we can raise $9,600,000,000 in 24 months to crush the anti-American fanatics that are killing our nation.
I will devote myself to helping this fight to get going. I want a GRASS ROOTS REVOLUTION against the Republican Big Money Boys. I choose to FIGHT. I choose to COME OUT SWINGING. I choose to take the Republican victory this year and RAM IT RIGHT BACK DOWN THEIR THROATS. But by God, we need money. I know a lot of you are faithful monetary contributors already, and I bless you for it, but we need more than you.
We need your friends.
We need your family.
We need your email contacts.
We need your Facebook friends.
We need your coworkers.
We need your neighbors.
The national effort to raise $400 million a month for the Democrats will GALVANIZE our dispirited ranks, give them a real goal around which to rally, a tangible, ACHIEVABLE thing that they can do RIGHT NOW. I have been beating this drum for years. Now I will beat it louder and more incessantly.
Twenty bucks a month is all I ask of the Democratic activists. I am also asking for $20 a month from gays who are the targets of right-wing hate groups. I am asking $20 from Latinos who are sick of being scapegoated (and who helped defeat Sharron Angle). I am asking for $20 a month from African Americans who are horrified by the ugly racism that still drives so much (not all, admittedly) of the Radical Right's hatred for Barack Obama. I am asking for $20 a month from blue collars workers who are sick of right-wing Wall Street boys destroying their unions and outsourcing their jobs. I am asking for $20 a month from women who've had it up to HERE with being told they have no reproductive rights. I want $20 a month from the retired who are seeing a massive push by the right to destroy Social Security and Medicare. And I am asking $20 a month from anyone who simply cares about our nation's future, and is damned well determined that it will NOT be shaped by John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Jim DeMint, Haley Barbour, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, FOX "News", right-wing hate radio, and people like Ann Coulter. We need to struggle for our beloved nation.
We need your money, Democrats. Twenty million of you giving $20 a month will help us win the ultimate battle.
I ask you, my dear friends and fellow community members, to join me in this endeavor. I will devote myself to it unswervingly. And by the way, let me pledge the following:
I WILL DONATE $1000 (ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS) TO PRESIDENT OBAMA'S RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN, AND WILL WORK TO RAISE $10,000 MORE FROM OTHERS
.
I know a lot of you are down today. I know a lot of you are angry, and in despair. So let's DO SOMETHING POSITIVE.
Today.
This minute.
RIGHT NOW.
Here are places where you can contribute to the revolution against the Tea Party fanatics:
THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
THE DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION
And if you prefer to go outside the Democratic Party's structure, go here:
ACT BLUE. (By the way, Act Blue has raised $172 million in six years. I am pushing to get more than that EVERY MONTH.)
MOVE ON.ORG.
THE AFL-CIO.
Think anyone's going to keep this old guy on the floor? LIKE HELL. I'm ready to fight back and do my part to recruit 20,000,000 patriots to come to the aid of our country.
Won't you please join me in this?
The America you save may be your own.
NOTE: By the way, the viciously anti-American U.S. Chamber of Commerce head, Tom Donohue, is bragging that his war to destroy President Obama is merely in "the second inning". The Chamber will step up its spending on anti-Democratic lies and smears in 2012.
NOTE #2: If we get the money I'm hoping for, I'm talking about targeting ONE HUNDRED Republican House seats in 2012. We can get 40 out of that number, and cut Johnny Boy Boehner back down to size. I'm talking about holding ALL of President Obama's states from 2008, and maybe adding a couple more. I'm talking about defending the 22 Senate seats we have up in 2012 and maybe kicking a couple of Republicans out, to boot. In short, I want to financially BURY these bastards. I want to see the ashen faces of Rove, Tom Donohue, and all the other anti-American idiots that are trying to turn America into a plutocracy on Wednesday, 7 November 2012, after we've smacked the Republican Party back into its minority status.
DON'T TELL ME WE CAN'T--TELL ME HOW WE CAN!