MoveOn: We Won't Back Off Moderate Dems

[Top Cat]

MoveOn has a message for Harry Reid, DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen, and anyone else who may want the group to stop pressuring moderate Dems to support the President's agenda: Forget about it.

MoveOn officials privately told people close to Van Hollen that they will keep targeting moderate Dems with ads, calls, and emails when circumstances warrant, according to a source familiar with their discussions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/03/moveon-we-wont-back-off-m_n_182936.html

[annabanana]

1. Good.. . . . .(and they're not "moderate"). . . . . . n/t

[Top Cat]

2. I hope Move-On contiunes to put the heat on them

[Cha]

21. I was just coming on to say.."they're not moderate"..

moveon is just being polite..they're friggin dino obstructions thinking only of themselves not the betterment of our country.

[DrToast]

3. Have these moderate dems actually obstructed anything?

Isn't possible that their votes are for show so they can keep their seats? If they get in the way of something from passing, then I think it would be fair to go all out to have them replaced.

[cascadiance]

11. Well how about the track record of fillibustering for both Dems and Rethugs..

We had a lot larger minority in the Senate than the Rethugs do now and yet which party has been more successful at blocking legislation their base doesn't like in the last decade!

Sure, for starters, these CORPORATE Democrats have obstructed our fillibusters on many occasions. Do you think the Rethugs will "keep the power dry" when Obama nominates a supreme court justice? Far less apt to knuckle under than we were with Thomas and Alito!

[genna]

26. Why wait for something to be blocked before the pressure is applied?

These ConservaDems already fired the first shot in any case. No cap and trade. Environmental standards are all good platforms until they have to enact legislation to reduce carbon emissions. All of a sudden it is too expensive to do.

[mod mom]

4. Why buy into the "moderate" label. I prefer Corporate Dems

Here is a good example of what they should point out to the public:

Lincoln and Kyl Team Up to Offer Tax Cut for the Super-Rich


John Kyl (R-Arkansas), who has a lot of odd policy views, and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), who seems to really love the Walton family, have apparently introduced a bill to offer $249.5 billion worth of tax cuts to the inheritors of estates worth over $7 million. This is just abysmal public policy for reasons amply summarized by Ben Furnas and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. I’m actually a bit inclined to wonder if there are even any non-Waltons in Arkansas with estates this valuable. Note that $7 million is approximately 155 times the median household income of Arkansas.

I’m especially fake-surprised to see Senator Lincoln leading the charge for this, since she’s a charter member of Evan Bayh’s “practical caucus” which fake-believes that fiscal discipline is so important that it’s necessary to curtail progressive priorities. Apparently, deficit reduction is more important than affordable health insurance but less important than giveaways to multi-millionaires. Indeed, Lincoln’s alleged commitment to fiscal responsibility looks even more dubious in light of her support for the 2001 Bush tax cuts.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/04/lincoln_and_kyl_team_up_to_offer_tax_cut_for_the_super_rich.php



DID YOU GET THAT? offer $249.5 billion worth of tax cuts to the inheritors of estates worth over $7 million

[iamthebandfanman]

30. well, the politicians are corporate democrats

but the people who typically allign with those same politicians usually identify themselves as moderates, and usually dont except the premise that politicians take bribes... er, i mean take campaign contributions, in exchange for favors..

i would add theres nothing wrong with a moderate approach to things, but only if you arent blind to corporate interests and their effects on those who serve.

[DJ13]

5. Why are conservative Dems called moderates?

Stop using their obfuscating labels and call them what they are.

Dont play into their game.

[cascadiance]

6. I think that's the next threat that should be made to Reid and company...

That if Reid doesn't stop complaining the way he is, the gloves come off, and no longer do groups like moveon and others accede to the corporate media's framing of them as "moderate" Democrats, but that they/we will start framing them as "conservative" and/or "corporate" Democrats that they truly are, and seek to redefine the landscape with that framing instead.

[TheBigotBasher]

8. I think that this is essential

The Democratic Party is politically equivalent to most Centre Right Parties in Europe, that places the Republican supporting Democrats on the far right in Europe. The GOP has become the hard right with no serious political equivalent at all.

The Republican Democrats are prepared to let key planks of the Democratic PArty platform fail. Including Make Work Pay; a key election promise of the President. Despite this they are prepared to vote for tax cuts for the literally dead rich.

This goes beyond wrong as it will be the Democratic Party as a whole that fails if Rethugs are able to present Obama as not delivering on his promises.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8317409

So well done MoveOn.Org

[Top Cat]

12. I agree... The Repuke Democratic are not helping the administration

[Cha]

7. Go Moveon.org!

Democracy in Action!

[terisan]

9. Did Move On take a strong stand against the Trillion Dollar Bailouts for Wall Street ?

If not, their whining about the Budget doesn't impress.

[ellie]

10. Good

No quarter for them.

[bvar22]

13. I no longer send donations to the DCCC or DSCC.

My donations go to MoveOn.

Stand With Dr. Dean for Health Care for All

Today, we draw a line in the sand. A public health insurance option is the only way to guarantee health care for all Americans. And to show that we mean business, we all need to tell Congress we won't settle for less.

http://www.moveon.org/

You want Single Payer?
Don't donate to the Democratic Party.
Send your donations to MoveOn.

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/donate.html

[cascadiance]

19. Use their self addressed "donor" envelopes to INSTEAD send messages to them!

If enough of us do this, perhaps it will get noticed that they are FAR from getting PEOPLE's support that are supposed to be their constituency and that they need to work harder on the *people's* business, and less on corporate lobbyist business if they want the party constituents' support.

Make it COST for them to to reach us if they don't listen to us!

I think this has actually already worked before to some extent, when in these same mail trying to get donations, they've asked people to put postage stamps on these envelopes anyway to help them with their costs... That tells me two things:

1) the cost of postage IS an important factor in their costs.
2) that likely the numbers of envelopes returned with no donations in them is being measured (counted). If they get donations from others with postage, that reduces this count, which is why they are trying to get folks to put postage on their donations.

We need this sort of "letter campaign". And also it saves US costs to communicate to them too!

Maybe even include a receipt for your donation to moveon.org, to show the actual cost of what they are losing when they aren't listening to us!

[ShareTheWoods]

14. Who, exactly, has a problem with moderate Democrats?

And who gets to decide who is moderate and who is extreme? Not all Democrats are far left
and reaching for Marxism. Most moderate Democrats are realists.

[Solon]

15. Oh please, there is no such thing as a "far left democrat" even Dennis Kucinich...

is far from anything resembling a Marxist.

[stillcool]

16. There's the rabid-right..

then there's moderates..or some republicans/democrats that appear sane, but their concerns are with industry, not society...then there are Democrats..whose concerns lie with the American people, or at least attempt to find some kind of balance between industry and society. Obviously there have not been an abundance of Democrats in the United States Congress in many, many years. Which is why our country is falling apart, and there has been a huge shift of wealth via massive profits for Multi-National Corporations who have no allegiance to the United States.

[genna]

28. So you buy into that kind of language? Marxist, really?

What ideology is closest to who and what the Republican currently stands for?

[LooseWilly]

17. I remember voting on that...

There was a vote, to see if the membership wanted to target "moderate"Democrats... the ones who are obstructionists and/or not particularly progressive, in their primaries.
We voted yes. We give money, it gets pooled... and anyone who has better progressive "cred" gets our support in primary challenges of not-progressive Democrats.

If Reid and others don't like it, they can tell Democrats to be more progressive. If these Democrats don't feel comfortable being progressive, then I personally, and apparently a whole bunch of others, have no use for them. I don't care if they're Democrats, Republicans, or Space Aliens... if they won't vote progressive, I'll toss some money into the pot to take their jobs away from them.

It should be understood... MoveOn "leadership" puts these sorts of decisions up to a membership vote. If the membership votes yes on some course of action, then the leadership pursues it. If any given member decides that they want no part of it, they don't have to kick in money, time, or talent. There are no "taxes" or "dues", like a union or the government. There is no "conspiracy" about MoveOn... it's just a big internet funnel organization that allows progressives to "leverage" our resources and collectively be able to exert some clout that individually we wouldn't be able to.

[Top Cat]

22. I vote and sign petitions when Moveon send them...

[depakid]

18. First of all- neither the policies-

nor people advancing them in exchange for money are "moderate" -any more than the American corporate media is "liberal" -or any other such fool notion. The corporate media is exactly what it is in America- and, as an old Southerner might say- if you all had the guts- you'd have a look in the mirror and say enough is enough.

Maybe not today- but maybe sometime soon down the line.

Yet you ya know what's lauhgable? Persisting the memes- and reinforcing dysfunctional behavior

There's a new administration in town- and, no- it's not going to get done all at once. But of if it's going to get done, we might need more than cheerleaders and malcontents.

[butterfly77]

20. Good!

Me and my friends and family won't either..

[democracy1st]

23. great

[WHAT]

24. moove-on is good at squirting ketchup...

and pretending/claiming they drew blood...

personally, I don't trust them anymore than npr or pbs; they have the same gimmick going on, an agenda dressed-up as public support. What are the implications of their actions? Are they to be trusted?

a clot on the move...

[ShadowLiberal]

25. Personally I don't htink advertising for pressure is worth it, it's too easy for it to backfire

Much as I see I'm in the minority here from some of the replies here, I think that trying to put public pressure on a politician by putting up TV ads to 'buy' their votes is a bad idea.

Doing that has backfired before, for example democrats during 08 decided to stand against a bill that conservative defense hawks claimed was vital to protecting America, I can't remember what the bill was anymore, but republicans overplayed their hand when they started to talk about democrats putting American citizens in danger of terrorist attacks, because the democrats decided "you know what, we're always going to get bashed for being weak on terrorism, so screw this, we're voting on principles".

A similar situation could happen with the moderates who public ads try to pressure, they could decide "screw that, those people are always going to hate me since I'll never agree with them on this issue 100% of the time, so I'm voting with my heart".

[genna]

29. Which primary contenders were pissed at MoveOn because they were applying

that very same pressure that you speak of due to their stance on Iraq?

Did they get the nomination?

Pressure in and of itself is not a bad thing. It was understood that Democratic candidates can't just ignore their base because the politician has higher political ambitions.


The mere fact that MoveOn does not apply consistent pressure does not also mean that the pressure applied does not work.

[ShortnFiery]

27. I love it that they won't back down. Too bad that our Congressional dems fell in love

with General "Peaches" Betrayus. He's doing a number on everyone and it's not going to work. :(