I have been beating the drum on DKos and elsewhere this past week to get a grassroots campaign going. This campaign's objective is simple but potentially devastatingly effective: to get 20,000,000 ordinary, everyday Democrats to contribute $20 a month to either a specific Democratic Party organization or a non-party organization that supports liberal/progressive causes. There has been a good response so far. About $58,000 has been promised just by this site's members, and that's awesome. But issues have arisen, and I need to discuss these with you now.
Some of you have said that you will not contribute money to the national Democratic committees because you don't like their support for Blue Dogs. But cutting the committees off also cuts off the money we need to defend liberal seats in 2012. I presume those of you who raise this objection also objected to the national committees pouring money into the campaigns of Boxer, Murray, and Sestak. I suppose you were content to let Angle and Buck walk into the Senate. We don't need ideological purity right now. We need to fight back against what promises to be a tidal wave of right-wing money in 2012. You think the Right spent money in 2010? That will be pocket change compared to the corporate money they're going to hit us with next time. The criminal Karl Rove financed, directly or indirectly, 100,000 commercial spots against us this year. What do you think he can do with five or six times more money next time? The anti-American head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who regards the average American worker as something to be scraped off his shoes, has bragged that his war to destroy President Obama is just in the "second inning".
Am I getting through to you, folks? Am I getting my point across? THESE BASTARDS ARE DETERMINED TO WIN, AND THEY WILL TELL ANY LIE, AND UNLEASH ANY SMEAR THEY NEED TO IN ORDER TO DO SO. Period.
And guess what?
THEY ARE WINNING.
You say you don't like corporate Democrats? Neither do I, But they're not always--or usually--the ones in electoral trouble. It's people like us who are often vulnerable. Yes, the Blue Dogs took it on the chin on 2 November. But half of our House losses weren't Blue Dogs. We need to remember that as well.
Money can be used for more than just campaigns. It can be used for issues ads, to get our side of the story--you know, the truth--out to the voters. We'll need money to defend health care. We'll need money to defend Social Security. We'll need money to defend labor unions. The money you pledge isn't mainly going to "Blue Dogs". It's going to defend the causes and candidates we need. And that's a fact.
You know what will happen if the right-wing unseats President Obama and elects a radical right-wing Congress in 2012. It means that the conservatives will finish the job of killing America off that they carried out so effectively under George W. Bush. It means Plutocracy at the top and Theocracy for everyone else. How do we stop them?
THE MESSAGE
THE CANDIDATES
THE CAMPAIGNS
And folks, those things cost money. Lots of it. That's just real. Think of what the army of 20 million committed Democrats can accomplish. It can raise over $9.5 BILLION between now and 2012. It will give dispirited liberals and progressives a TANGIBLE, EFFECTIVE thing to do every month, our own small way of fighting back. A national army of 20 million Democrats donating for victory changes the national narrative. It's not the Tea Party idiots that are the grassroots--WE ARE. It's the fired up Democrats that are sick of being called traitor, pro-terrorist, Nazi, and Communist. Want to politically kick Rove, Donohue, Fox "News", right-wing hate radio, and Sean Hannity in the teeth? HURT THEM WITH MONEY.
Here's where you can join the counter-revolution against Rupert Murdoch, Tom Donohue, Sarah Palin, and all the rest of the sociopaths that are killing our nation:
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.
I was reminded that the individual state Democratic Parties need help, especially after our losses of seats in state legislatures. Here is a directory:
The 50 State Democratic Parties.
And please, don't use this diary to grind your individual axes or complain about some specific sin someone has committed against the True Faith. I'm trying to DO something. I have two beautiful granddaughters. I just can't leave them to the mercy of right-wing radicals who regard them as disposable objects. Please HELP. If you're strapped for money right now, I sympathize. I've been there. But at the very least, can you PLEASE pass this appeal along to others? This campaign is a way of telling Glenn Beck something he needs to hear.
YOU DON'T SURROUND US, PAL--WE SURROUND YOU.
Thanks in advance for anything you can do.