Hello DailyKos community! Now that the government is open again, adebt default has been avoided, and the Affordable Care Act remains intact -- I wanted to take a chance to reflect on some pretty great campaigning by progressives over the past few weeks -- and also solicit your input re next steps.
Yesterday’s deal to end the shutdown was a victory for progressive activists--one that came at an enormous cost to the country, unfortunately--but a victory nonetheless.
For the past two weeks (well, really, three and a half years) Tea Partiers have made our government look dysfunctional to the rest of the world. This time, they almost wreaked havoc on the entire global economy, in addition to the pain they put federal workers and contractors through.
But progressives across the country worked tirelessly to get our government working again--and we should claim this victory. There’s certainly still more to do—the deal that emerged makes it clear that we’ll have to go on offense soon to protect Social Security and Medicare—but if you’ve ever questioned whether progressives have the power to make change, you should look no further.
As a Campaign Director for MoveOn.org--now at more than 8 million members--I got to see firsthand how progressives and allies had a huge impact. Here are a few of the ways MoveOn members took action and kept up the pressure on lawmakers during the shutdown:
1. MoveOn's campaign started when more than 1,000 MoveOn members dropped by congressional offices the very day the government shut down, leaving bags of tea and signs that read, “We’ve had enough tea, thanks.”
2. The next day we began encouraging millions of MoveOn members to enroll in the new health care exchanges available through Obamacare—the prime target of the GOP shutdown. Was this ever going to end the shutdown? No. But was it a slap in the face to Republicans intent on seeing the Affordable Care Act fail? Absolutely.
3. Around the same time, we began quantifying the real cost of the shutdown with this live counter at
www.costoftheshutdown.com. To date, tens of thousands of people have shared our counter with their friends online—spreading awareness that the GOP’s stubbornness has cost the American people more than $4.5 billion.
4. Days later, after partnering with Public Policy Polling, we really changed the conversation by releasing a new poll—funded with small dollar donations from MoveOn members—showing that Republicans have made themselves vulnerable in the 2014 elections thanks to the shutdown. Democrats need 17 seats to take back the House—and our results have shown Republicans trailing in at least 25 districts. Here’s what fellow Kossack
David Nir had to say about the polling and below is how MSNBC mapped out the results:
5. And none of this would have been possible if MoveOn members hadn’t launched more petitions and local campaigns than any time in the past six months—with a broad range of smart, strategic goals. More than 600,000 members signed petitions asking lawmakers to forgo their salaries until the end of the shutdown. Others pressured their representatives to support smart legislative moves that could end the shutdown.
And hundreds started petitions that included stories about how they’ve been personally affected by the shutdown—and asked that the GOP simply stop the madness. Many of these petitions were delivered at rallies around the country on Tuesday.
That’s just a glimpse of what MoveOn members and other organizations and individuals have done together over the last two weeks, but it speaks volumes about the impact progressives have had during the GOP shutdown.
Making sure that Tea Party Republicans are held to blame for the shutdown by the public and the mainstream media—and that Democrats in Congress don’t buckle under the pressure for a bad deal—wasn’t easy. But it was worth it. We blew open an opportunity to actually take back the House next year--an unspeakable thought just three weeks ago.
MoveOn members aren’t waiting another second to take advantage of this opportunity, they are pledging time and money to defeat incumbent Republicans and are recruiting new exciting candidates to run for office--a move which should have the GOP very worried.
We’re encouraging every progressive in the country to let their friends and families know that without the grassroots support we all provided, Democrats might have caved at any minute. And to let them know that we have the next 13 months to capitalize on the GOP’s recklessness--and we intend to.
I’m curious to hear from other progressives: What opportunities do you see over the next 13 months? What are your take-aways from the last few weeks?