This is Your One-Stop Shop for Progressive Action
Let me explain what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to win an election this week. But I’m also trying to build a progressive movement.
Isn’t it time that someone did? If that sounds good to you, then you can click here to join us, and contribute to our progressive action “building fund.”
Is anyone else doing this? Simple answer: no.
The Democratic Party? Give me a break. The Democratic Party machinery that I know treats progressive principles as if they were Ebola. They want all of our candidates to natter on and on about how they are “problem-solvers,” as long as they studious avoid any actual problems to solve. Which is good, because most of those candidates wouldn’t know a real solution if one sat on their faces.
The labor unions, God bless them, have been trying to unite us for a century. But as effective as they may have been in the Thirties and in the Fifties, they haven’t been able to coalesce a broad progressive movement.
President Obama? I wish it were true. In 2008, I hoped that it was true. I respect President Obama’s calm, his intelligence, and the fact that he always appeals to our better natures. But I haven’t seen him building a progressive movement. And on some issues, such as privacy, freedom of the press, environmentalism and foreign affairs, it’s hard for me to discern any progressive impulse.
Senator Warren? We all adore her, and maybe at some point she will. But until now, she has focused, quite effectively, on a narrow set of issues like financial regulation and student loans. Which is wonderful, and entirely worthwhile, but it’s not the same as building a progressive movement.
We need someone to build a progressive movement. And since I see no other volunteers, that’s what I’m trying to do.
And I’m asking you to be part of it. Click here to show your support for this concept, this ideal, that people of good intentions can join forces to make the world a better place.
We have shown the capacity for mass mobilization and mass action. Last year, I wrote a petition against Social Security and Medicare cuts. Guess how many people signed my petition? Almost 3,000,000.
We have shown the capacity to help shape public opinion, and channel that opinion to direct public policy. Last year, I did 40+ media interviews in three days regarding going to war against Syria. I implored people to call, write and e-mail their Members of Congress, and make themselves heard. “When it’s our money, and it’s our blood, it’s our decision,” I said. The result: a 25% shift in public opinion in three weeks, public comments to Members of Congress that ran as much as 100-to-1 in favor of peace, and . . . peace.
We have shown the capacity to engage mass involvement in political campaigns. For instance, on one Sunday in 2012, progressive volunteers from around the country made 62,000 calls into our district, urging Democrats to vote. So we reached almost half of all of the Democratic households in our district – in a single day, all with volunteers.
If we win on Nov. 4, then next year, we will introduce exciting progressive initiatives like these:
● a bill to eliminate tax breaks for corporations and equalize tax rates for corporations and human beings – if corporations have our rights, then shouldn’t they also have our responsibilities?
● a bill to equalize tax rates for the millionaires and billionaires who call their income “capital gains” and the poor, unfortunate souls who actually work for a living – because a dollar is a dollar.
● a bill to extend Medicare coverage to vision exams, glasses, hearing aids and dental needs – because seniors have eyes, ears and teeth.
● a bill to rescind the ridiculous “free trade” giveaways and concessions to multinational corporations that have sucked $500,000,000,000.00 out of our economy every year for the past 14 years.
● a bill to provide for paid sick leave for every employee – because no one asks to be sick.
But I’ll do a lot more than just write these bills. (And, by the way, I wrote more bills last year than any other Member of Congress.) Our bills won’t gather dust. We will push-push-push them, nonstop, both inside and outside Congress, until they pass.
And over time, we will create something that this country hasn’t seen in 102 years: a true, comprehensive progressive platform. (History buffs, I’m referring to the historic Progressive Party platform of 1912.) A platform of justice, equality and peace.
Is that something that you want to see happen? Then help make it happen. Become a part of it, now.
And part of our effort will be electing not only more Democrats, but better Democrats. I’m the head of the House Progressive Caucus PAC. In 2012, even though I was out of office and hoping for a comeback, I raised over $400,000 for other progressive candidates, and for the party.
Here’s something sad: I didn’t see anyone else doing that. The entire party machinery is devoted to taking progressive money from progressive donors, and then recruiting “Blue Dog” conservative Democrats to lavish it on, and waste it on. Example: 2010. The party raised and spent almost $100 million to aid 40+ Democratic House candidates, giving them over $1 million apiece. How many of those 40+ were members of the House Progressive Caucus? One. Just one.
The Koch Brothers alone spent $4 million to attack me that year. The party spent nothing – absolutely nothing – to defend me.
When you contribute to our campaign, you are not only contributing to Alan Grayson’s reelection. You also are contributing to the reelection of Rick Nolan, Carol Shea-Porter, Mike Honda, and countless other good, solid progressives that you’ve never heard of. I know these people. I see them every day. I know who is real and who is fake. I know who deserves your support, so I give them my support. When you support me, you are supporting them.
This is your one-stop shop for progressive action.
Look: Rick Nolan, Carol Shea-Porter, Mike Honda and I – we’re all on the ballot this week. We may win or we may lose. But the things that we are fighting for – them, me and you – they are timeless. For 3000 years, we have known that a just society is one that shelters the homeless, feeds the hungry, and heals the sick. So it has always been, and so it shall ever be. That’s what we’re fighting for. And we need your help to do it.
More than 100,000 people have contributed to our campaign. That’s the largest number of any Democratic Member of the House. Over 3000 of them – we call them “sustainers” – have gone a step further. They are signed up to contribute each month. Why? Because they understand that elections come and go, but the need for a progressive movement – the need for progress – is always there.
I’m asking you to help that way. Become a part of something big. Even $20 a month can make a huge difference – your $20 will shift $20,000 or more away from the war profiteers, the Wall Street profiteers, and the carbon profiteers, and toward the sick, the working poor, helpless children and needy seniors. Ain’t that America?
Right now, America is #1 in the world in persons incarcerated, in foreign countries occupied, in “defense” expenditures, and in guns owned. Let’s be #1 in full employment, in life expectancy, in income equality, in college graduates and in happiness. Let’s make America great.
Let’s make a movement, and then -- let’s move.
Courage,
Rep. Alan Grayson
“What do we do now?”
- Robert Redford, “The Candidate” (1972) (the last line of the movie, after he is informed of his victory)
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