MoveOn to Democratic Party: 'We Own It' - Guardian

[rndmprsn]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4663855,00.html

-edit-

right fucking on! fellow progressives unite! Dean for DNC chair!

WASHINGTON (AP) - Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the ``professional election losers'' who run the Democratic Party: ``We bought it, we own it, we're going to take it back.''

A scathing e-mail from the head of MoveOn's political action committee to the group's supporters on Thursday targets outgoing Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe as a tool of corporate donors who alienated both traditional and progressive Democrats.

``For years, the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base,'' said the e-mail from MoveOn PAC's Eli Pariser. ``But we can't afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers.''

Under McAuliffe's leadership, the message said, the party coddled the same corporate donors that fund Republicans to bring in money at the expense of vision and integrity.

``In the last year, grass-roots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive,'' the message continued. ``Now it's our party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back.''

[neuvocat]

1. Whoa.

I dig it.

[ibegurpard]

2. Ouch!

I like the sound of that!

[Us vs Them]

3. Amen.

And if the DNC is not for us, they are against us.

[Old and In the Way]

Good news. Memo to the DNC - it's not "business as usual" anymore.

Lead or get out of the way.

[NMDemDist2]

4. Yeah! I"m a MoveOn party member

who wants us to return to our roots, the left wing of the democratic party

[Liberty Belle]

5. Way to go!

Now if Moveon would just join efforts with Dean's Democracy for America, we'd have a huge force with an enormous mailing list at its disposal.

I'm feeling much better!

[annabanana]

6. a million people with a dollar each

are far more valuable than one man with a million dollars...

(if we straighten out the damn machines)

[RubyDuby in GA]

7. I hope they ended that scathing email

with an appropriate "SO THERE!"

It's all true though. I know for me that this was the first time ever that I gave money to campaign and to Moveon and other groups like them. We do own this party and it's high time those fatcat Washington insiders remembered it!

[Liberty Belle]

8. I think my e-mail is being censored

It just dawned on me that I didn't get this mailing, and I'm a Moveon member. Yesterday I e-mailed myself articles from the ACLU site on Patriot II, and they never arrived. Today I discovered that an e-mail announcing protest rallies that I sent to a forum I moderate took FOUR DAYS to arrive--too late for most people to attend the rallies.

This is spooky. Anyone else having this problem?

[YIMA]

9. I'm a little confused.

Wasn't moveon.org created during the Clinton impeachment and don't they have strong ties to Clinton himself? Why would they be going after the very person Clinton hand-picked to run the DNC? Has there been a falling out between Clinton and moveon.org?

[Shakespeare]

18. MoveOn has no ties to Clinton.

It is a grassroots organization started by a couple of people in the San Francisco bay area (I know at least one of them lives in the bay area). They were, like the rest of us, simply fed up with the republican's Penis Obsession. That's as far as the ties to Clinton go.

[YIMA]

20. Really.

I guess I'm just surprised they'd slam a guy picked by Mr. Clinton himself, and I'm wondering what the fall-out of doing that will be, that is, if there is any at all. I guess we'll find out, won't we?

[Hamlette]

10. it's a great letter. Sign the petition. n/t

I've been a Move On member since the Clinton days.

[rndmprsn]

11. sign...

http://www.moveonpac.org/dncchair/index.html

sign the petition please

[cal04]

12. I guess that explains this

No More Special Interest Politics at the DNC
This weekend, state Democratic Party leaders will gather to debate who should chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for the next four years. If they vote as a bloc within the DNC, they could well determine who becomes the next national Party leader.

The election for chair is rarely competitive. But this year, with the race wide open, we have the chance to elect a leader who can reconnect the Party with its constituents -- us.

In 2004, something incredible happened: The Kerry campaign and the DNC raised over $300 million in grassroots contributions between them, and proved that the Party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive. Now we have an historic opportunity to birth a new Democratic Party -- a Party of the people that's funded by the people and that fights for the people. Democrats: tell your state Party leaders:
"Please support a DNC chair who will declare independence from special interest politics and reconnect the Democratic Party with all of us outside of Washington, DC."

NO MORE INSIDERS. We can't afford four more years of Democratic leadership by elite Washington insiders with little vision and losing records. Contact your state Democratic Party leaders and ask them support a Democratic National Committee chair who will reconnect the party with the grassroots and lead us to victory. We'll deliver your comments on Saturday.

[President Jesus]

13. could there be any group more irrelevant than MoveOn?

Everything they back loses. First the anti-IWR, then Dean, then Kerry.

I'm not saying they are on the wrong side of any issue, but it seems to me they should be the last ones lecturing anyone on how to win.

Hella good at self-promotion and hubris, though.

[Sterling]

23. That is too funny.

Hell you should ad that the entire world tried and failed to prevent that shit from happening. lol. You really expect too much from a group of individuals not connected to the military industrial elite.

I have beef with Move On but I don't for one second pretend they are responsible for the failure of our system. We all share a bit of that, especially if we backed wishy washy corporate candidates that ran from our values.

As far as being irrelevant, maybe so but no more than the DLC or the opposition to the Neo Fascists in general. Without people working through groups like Move On would would not do as well as we did as sad as that sounds.

[President Jesus]

26. if by "wishy washy corporate candidates" you mean Kerry...

...you couldn't be further from the truth.

Kerry had less than 10% backing of the nation's CEOs and Chairmen.

I find it disgusting when Howard Dean and company call Kerry republican-lite. Not only is it inane, but he's got absolutely no ground to stand on. Even McGovern won the Democratic nomination. Dean only won one state, one of the smallest in the nation.

What's even more insulting is the arrogance of Dean supporters, who purport to know exactly what the 'base' wants, and are the only one who can deliver.

[kohodog]

31. Yeah, the Kerry who never really took a stand on much of anything

and allowed the Republicans to define him. Wouldn't it be great if he ran again?

[Junkdrawer]

14. "professional election losers'' ...as in Terry Malloy from ...

"On the Waterfront"???

We could have been contenders....

[patricia92243]

15. I hate to be a wet blanket - but - doesn't the majority of the money

for Move On come from Soros? If this is correct, then, he is an old guy; and if they don't have his money, will they be that viable?

Just a thought/question.

[knight_of_the_star]

29. Not quite

MoveOn and Soros entered an agreement that Soros would match every dollar that MoveOn raised and donate it to them. Essentially, MoveOn raised half the money they gathered anyway, which is still a hefty sum.

[BurtWorm]

16. Nice!

And true. Zing! :evilgrin:

[bvar22]

17. This quote SAYS IT ALL!!!

<snip>
"DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera declined to engage in a tit-for-tat with MoveOn, but praised McAuliffe's efforts.

``Call me crazy, but I think the fact that for the first time in party history we outraised the Republicans, and did so primarily through grass-roots fund raising is something to be proud of,'' Cabrera said.

<end>

The DNC isn't in the business of getting Democrats elected. The DNC is in the business of making money.

The DNC/DLC was overwhelmingly successful in 2004!

We lost alot of elections, but we made more money than the Republicans!!!!
WooHoo! Let the Victory Party begin!!!

[JAbuchan08]

19. Hey, Cabrera "you" didn't raise the funds

you took advantage of a grassroots movement that was already there. You didn't create it - you were just lucky to come along for the ride.

[Sterling]

24. That much is true and my funds have suddenly dried up for the party.

Until they can eat some humble pie and get their shit together.

[durutti]

21. Oh, please...

MoveOn is part and parcel of the Democratic Party. Its purpose it to say "thus far and no further".

How many people behind MoveOn are non-white? How many are from a poor or working class background? How much do they make? Nothing initiated by rich people can be truly described as "grassroots", IMHO.

We don't need to move the Democratic Party toward liberalism. We (meaning those of us who don't live in a fantasy world) need to move the liberals toward democratic socialism.

[roguevalley]

22. BWHAHAHA! GO MOVEON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JohnOneillsMemory]

25. YES. A Malcolm X moment: "Time to stop singing and start swinging..."

In 1964 Malcolm X preached economic self-sufficiancy (starving the beast) and realizing that white liberals weren't succeeding in helping blacks in apartheid Amerika.

He said that the passiveness of sit-ins and the church and singing 'We Shall Overcome' was getting blacks nowhere so it was time to wake up and change tactics and allies or keep dying.

Fascism has progressed to the point that now even white people are realizing the same thing a mere...40 years later.

But we are here at last!

[rndmprsn]

32. great analogy n/t

[DFLforever]

27. Theirs is a great approach.

Pay attention state Chairs, the grassroots has redeemed and bought back the Democratic party from its corporate masters and the DLC.

[proudbluestater]

28. That Absolutely ROCKS!!!

And I'm thinking I will need to subscribe to The Guardian soon to make sure I keep up with the events in the US via the UK!

I signed the petition. Those MFers better give this job to Dean.

Liked the targeting of Terry McLoser, too. Couldn't have happened to a better guy. :puke: I really hate that smilie, but the shoe fits.

[knight_of_the_star]

30. Nice!

That is a war that, if the DNC chooses to stand on principle for ONCE in the past four years, MoveOn will win.