The Loud Talker

The following email was sent out to MoveOn’s vast email network. The message is below, my comments are in italics:

From: Adam Ruben, MoveOn.org Political Action <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Subject: MoveOn’s biggest campaign ever
To: “xxxxxxxx” <xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 7:55 AM

Dear MoveOn member,

When FDR became president, a group of progressive activists asked him to push for some really big changes. His response? “I agree with you. I want to do it. Now make me do it.” President Obama gets that we need to transform our economy. He’s passionate about creating millions of green jobs and investing billions in renewable energy. And he’s appointed great leaders like Energy Secretary Chu to help him.

But unless we create a massive green-economy movement across America, Obama won’t have the mandate he needs to overcome the oil companies and make fundamental change. (overcome the oil companies? Those horrible 4-5% profit margins and an end-product that the entire world depend on. Not only petroleum, but plastics, etc.) As president, Obama’s extraordinary power comes from the people outside Washington. And that’s us. (it’s also US, the 55 million that voted Republican, plus the many millions more that did not vote.)

So we’ve worked up a big plan to build a green-economy groundswell. It’ll mean tripling our field organizing team, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members to take local action, and running ads targeting powerful interests that stand in the way. It’ll be MoveOn’s biggest long-term campaign ever. (Therefore our action/response needs to be even larger and more long-term.)

If President Obama is going to transform our economy, he needs all of us standing behind him giving him strength. Are you in?

This will be our biggest long-term organizing program ever. We’ll build on the lessons of the Obama campaign and our own work over the years to create a new approach to organizing—empowering MoveOn members to run powerful campaigns in their own communities. We’ll combine traditional community organizing (like ACORN?) with cutting-edge technology to make sure our voices are heard. We’re talking about ramping up our current organizing capacity—sending talented organizers to train and mobilize MoveOn members from Maine to California to build a massive green economy movement. (Is this only about being green? For me it is NOT. It is about personal and financial responsibility. Recycling is good. Ruining an economy to try and effect global climate change is a waste of time, energy and money.)

Together, we’ll:

• Build diverse coalitions of small-business owners, green-collar workers, faith communities (did they really say faith?), and many more to show widespread support for a clean-energy economy.
• Organize creatively to make sure members of Congress hear our message everywhere they go. (in other words, continue wearing pink, being disruptive, yelling and generally acting like a spoiled child to get attention. I guess we need to consider adopting the same tactics since they were so effective for liberals last year? I shudder the thought.)
  
• Combine innovative grassroots and paid advertising campaigns to grab the attention of local and national media. (this means reaching into the deep pockets of liberal supporters in Hollywood and elsewhere. We need to find conservatives with deep pockets that are serious about effecting change.)
  
• Hold a massive wave of house parties where MoveOn members will reach out to neighbors to involve them in the campaign. (House parties? Then again, the 18-29 demographic helped Obama win the White House. We need to make politics cool and intereting. Nominating old, white-haired men is NOT the way to do this.)
  

As a country, we face a choice: Either we take dramatic steps and put this country on a new path—a clean-energy economy that shifts us from oil and coal to renewable energy while creating millions of green jobs and fighting the climate crisis. Or we take baby steps that could leave us right where we started. (Where exactly is this? Perhaps it was a vibrant economy that rewards hard work instead of sloth-like behavior? This is a paraphrase of the “last eight years” mindset that has been proven false.)

This is the moment to go big and seize this opportunity—but it’ll take everyone’s help.

Yes. This is a big opportunity. Right now the Left has control. The Right needs to be bigger, louder and more passionate about the issues. Let’s get to Loud Talking!