| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
01 Dec 2003 09:50:34 PM |
| Object: |
Seems ta me like MoveOn's got the right wing shakin' and rattlin' |
From Salon, 12/1/03:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/12/01/moveon/
MoveOn moves up
O'Reilly, DeLay and the GOP have declared war on it.
But the online citizen movement grows richer and stronger by the day.
By Michelle Goldberg
Bill O'Reilly wants its nonprofit status revoked.
Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie sees it as part of
the "Democrat plan to subvert campaign finance laws."
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's office plays phone pranks on its
staffers.
A piece in David Horowitz's FrontPage Magazine worries:
"It could bypass the mainstream media, sneak around campaign spending
limits, and become its own powerful channel for Leftist communication,
indoctrination and mobilization."
Clearly, MoveOn.org has arrived.
Founded in 1998 by married Silicon Valley millionaires Joan Blades and
Wes Boyd, MoveOn has become the most important political advocacy
group in Democratic circles -- and arguably the most important in
American politics.
Working with Hollywood and political superstars, and with legions of
frustrated people at the grassroots, it has raised more than $10
million from its 1.7 million members, many of whom can be quickly
mobilized for demonstrations and other political projects.
And in the last half of 2003, it seems to have hit critical mass.
Lauded as the Christian Coalition of the left, it's lately been the
object of a slew of admiring profiles in Time, Details and elsewhere.
It has been a significant influence on the presidential campaign of
former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
Now, with pro-democracy billionaire George Soros pledging financial
aid to the organization, MoveOn appears to be at the hub of a new
political synergy that may give the Democrats their best hope for
defeating incumbent Republican George W. Bush in 2004.
All this has the right worried.
MoveOn, they know, is part of a massive campaign gearing up to try to
beat Bush in 2004.
Soros, along with philanthropist Peter Lewis, pledged earlier this
month to match every $2 donation to the MoveOn voter fund with a
dollar of their own, up to $5 million.
MoveOn will use the potential $15 million pot to buy airtime for
anti-Bush campaign commercials during the presidential campaign.
Soros has also pledged $10 million to America Coming Together, a group
that, as its Web site says, plans to "conduct a massive voter contact
program, mobilizing voters to defeat George W. Bush and elect
progressive candidates all across America."
The Republican National Committee Web site features letters from
Gillespie fretting that "third-party special interest groups will
spend between 360- to- 420 million dollars [sic] for the expressed
purpose of defeating the President in 2004."
Progressives say those numbers are exaggerated to scare up
contributions from the conservative base, but there's no question
that, between MoveOn, Soros and Howard Dean, a new breed of aggressive
progressives are changing American politics.
And while conservatives have complained, they haven't been able to
hamper these groups' efforts.
Indeed, MoveOn has mastered a kind of ideological jujitsu.
Republican attacks just add to its strength.
_______________________________________________________
One can certainly understand the right wing's dread of an organization
like MoveOn.
Harry
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| User: "Roedy Green" |
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| Title: Re: Seems ta me like MoveOn's got the right wing shakin' and rattlin' |
02 Dec 2003 01:48:05 AM |
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On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 03:50:34 GMT, Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com>
wrote or quoted :
"It could bypass the mainstream media, sneak around campaign spending
limits, and become its own powerful channel for Leftist communication,
indoctrination and mobilization."
Poor, poor Republicans. It never occurred to them the loop holes they
put in the campaign contributions laws could be used by the other side
too.
--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
Coaching, problem solving, economical contract programming.
See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html for The Java Glossary.
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| User: "PagCal" |
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| Title: Re: Seems ta me like MoveOn's got the right wing shakin' and rattlin' |
02 Dec 2003 05:17:42 AM |
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The 'Left' slept for quite a while; while the Republicans
were building their message machine.
Consider these facts:
MoveOn's coming up fast, along with a zillion other
outlets on the internet.
'Left Radio' is about to be launched, with 5 radio stations
coming online.
Bill Moyers has never had such a wide audience.
The ACLU has gained millions of members.
It's fun to talk with the kids in their 20's. If you ask
them where to get the truth, they'll say it's not from
mainstream media.
---
Bush's fascist 'Vision for America' will come to an end.
The only question is how much damage he will end up doing
to the Republican party.
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