[Dialogue] Grassroots action & the election

[Janice Ulangca]

Dear ICA Colleagues,

Twice in my life I've participated in a national effort to make a hopeful difference in the climate of the U.S.  The first was in the mid 1970's, and future-oriented  Bicentennial events called "Town Meeting '76".  The second wound up last Tuesday night, November 7.  

MoveOn.org was not the only progressive grassroots organization working hard on the election. For example, in this area the Working Families Party, allied with Citizen Action, has been working hard and strategically for 9 months to compile lists of likely Democratic voters, raise key issues in candidate events, and organize volunteers to phone daily from their simple offices. I've not participated in this phone work, but admire them and stay in touch.  

MoveOn I did work with. They were admirably strategic. They identified both key close races, and people in those areas who vote Democratic during presidential elections but usually don't vote in mid-term elections. Their whole approach was very motivating.  They constantly kept you in touch with your efforts and with the whole picture via awesome web support. Almost 53,000 across the country participated in MoveOn phoning.

Though I hate to make phone calls, I did make 150 in the few days before and through Nov. 7. I called people in 8 different states, and was glad to see that most of the candidates won who I urged people to support.  Lots of people hung up the first two days - but the last two days many thanked me for the call.  I got the feeling that some had felt alone in their concern about where the country was headed, and needed the hope that their votes could make a difference.  

With all the post-election analysis now going on, I haven't heard about the grassroots groups' role in the amazing result. But especially as we think hard about the role of the ICA, perhaps it's a good thing to remind ourselves of the part that ordinary people can play in creating very significant change - if they are given hope. I'll share most of a message that's just in from MoveOn.  As they say, the work is just beginning. We know that what we do in this country can also affect the rest of the world profoundly.

Janice Ulangca
 
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Dear MoveOn member, 
Thanks to you, we won. And as a fellow citizen—I don't have the words to thank you for bringing our country back.

MoveOn members worked so hard to make this happen. You made over 7 million calls to voters (and millions more to members)—getting people to the polls one by one. You gave over $27 million. And you raised the issues that powered the election—especially Iraq, which some pundits told Democrats to steer clear of.......

Sherrod Brown—who read MoveOn petitions on Iraq on the House floor—is the new Senator from the formerly red state of Ohio. Richard Pombo, who led a crusade to kill the Endangered Species Act and called the Environmental Protection Agency "jackbooted thugs," is out of a job. The abortion ban in South Dakota failed. Laws to raise the minimum wage passed. And with a historic sweep of 28 (and counting!) seats, Nancy Pelosi is now the first woman Speaker of a Democratic House.

It's hard to remember now, but there was a time not too long ago when all the pundits were saying that this kind of sweeping change was impossible. You didn't listen to them. Your eyes were focused on today's Washington Post headline: "A Voter Rebuke for Bush, the War, and the Right."

Together, we did it without lies. Without playing to fear. We did it by reaching out, person to person, to folks who wanted a change. This morning, we got an email from MoveOn member Chris N. that just about sums it up:

When I called, it was late in the evening and the woman I was talking to had less than an hour to get out and vote.

I told her who I was and why I was calling and asked if she had voted yet. Long pause. She told me that she knew this was an important election, and that she had criticized others for not voting, knowing how important it was that we find a new direction.

Then she told me about her work, and taking care of her young child after work. About how the polls close so early that working moms have a very hard time voting. "Can't they allow the polls to stay open later for us to vote," she asked me. I told her, why not go down there and show the poll workers what real life is like, what being a working mother is like, and bring your child with you.

She said she'd do it. I was happy for her and for the rest of us whose country's direction lies in the hands of voters, single mothers trying to make ends meet and still exercise their power to vote.

And then I got this phone call, later tonight. She had found my caller ID and called me back. "Hi," she said, "this is the lady you talked to wanting to go vote. I was the one who was talking about my baby and it being 6:21—40 minutes til closing. I just wanted to say that I did make it, and thanks for the encouragement."

That's how we won our democracy back.

It'd be easy to get too satisfied with the moment we're in. We've helped win a landslide election, but we haven't yet gotten one more person health care, powered one more car with clean energy—or brought one soldier back from Iraq (though Rumsfeld's resignation today is good news).

We've got a lot to do. We'll have to make sure Democrats truly fight for the voters who elected them. And the Republicans have left us with a big mess to clean up—here at home and around the world..... let's roll up our sleeves, and get to work making this country live up to the promise of America.

And thanks again, so much, for everything you've done.

–Aaron, Adam G., Adam R., Ben, Carrie, Catherine, Daniel, Dave, Eli, Erik, Ilyse, James, Jenn, Joan, Justin, Karin, Laura, Marika, Matt, Nita, Natalie, Noah, Patrick, Randall, Tanya, Tom, and Wes and the whole MoveOn.org Political Action Team
  November 8th, 2006

Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at: 

http://political.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=9471-2702203-tz4.LzwvCqPq41qm1AErIQ&t=4


PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. 


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Janice Ulangca
3413 Stratford Drive
Vestal, NY  13850
607-797-4595
aulangca at stny.rr.com
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