MoveOn Muscles Up

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted April 26, 2005.

This is excerpted from "Start Making Sense: Turning the Lessons of Election 2004 into Winning Progressive Politics" (Chelsea Green), edited by Don Hazen and Lakshmi Chaudhry. To learn more about the book and to purchase it, visit the Start Making Sense website.

On January 20, 2005, Inaugural Day, MoveOn proposed a strikingly ambitious plan: to organize "networks of neighbors and friends" in every Congressional district that would together create a "national message," and to use the networks to take back the House of Representatives in 2006. In the missive sent to its 3-million-member list, the MoveOn leaders said the plan came directly from the members in terms of their comments about MoveOn's future. For many members, this was a signal that the organization had dramatically shifted gears after the Democrats' defeat in November. For Wes Boyd, cofounder, with Joan Blades, of MoveOn, the declaration represented a transition from working in support of John Kerry's presidential bid and the Democratic Party to building a true grassroots movement.

Indeed, after a short period of quiet after the election, MoveOn has started to gun its formidable engines. Boyd and company have sent emails entreating their member base to petition Congress to speak up on defining an exit strategy and timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, and urging opposition to the administration's plans to gut social security. Most recently, MoveOn has stepped into the fray over the threats to destroy the filibuster, asking its members to pass out flyers in their neighborhoods protesting the "nuclear option" at the same time that Bill Frist was speaking at the "Justice Sunday" rally, maligning Democrats as "against people of faith."

Boyd was interviewed in January, 2005 by Don Hazen.

Don Hazen: Does this ambitious new plan represent a big shift for MoveOn? How is the membership responding?

Wes Boyd: The reaction has been fantastic. I think that's because this plan is a natural extension of the tremendous energy of last year, but focused on a broader goal. Millions of progressives who had never before been involved in politics got busy last year working for campaigns and getting out the vote. And they liked it. They liked meeting neighbors and talking together about the future. They liked the sense of joint mission and purpose. And they want to keep moving forward. Progressive populism is a real movement now, and MoveOn is just a small part of this wave. As our contribution to this wave, we're working to help find good ways for individuals to act at the local level as part of something big and national. The most important part of this plan is the identification of an audacious but achievable goal: organizing to sweep away the right-wing majority in Congress in 2006. It's utterly predictable that the radical right will overreach in the coming political season. Their claims of a mandate, in the face of a deeply divided electorate, make that clear. If we're ready, we can take Americans' natural aversion to extremists and take Congress in the 2006 election on a progressive reform agenda.

You describe hiring organizers, building infrastructure, and recruiting grassroots leaders. Who will make it happen on the ground--can you explain how this might work?

We're starting with the model of our Leave No Voter Behind program from last year. Tens of thousands of volunteers worked at the local level with help from hundreds of paid organizers. Most political campaigns use only paid staff, including even [for] phone banking and canvassing efforts. They don't really trust volunteers. Leave No Voter Behind was a true neighbor-to-neighbor program, and the results show how powerful volunteer-driven efforts can be. The key, though, is how to set national goals together, so that everyone's efforts add up to something bigger.

What does it mean to develop a national message from the ground up?

That's probably the biggest, most exciting challenge we face. It's never really been done before, but the internet gives us new opportunities to broadly engage in these discussions and draw in the huge talent and expertise of Americans outside of Washington, D.C. Right after the election, MoveOn members held 1,600 house parties across the nation to talk about next steps. That was a start. Everyone agreed on one key goal: progressives need to hone a clear agenda to counter the think-tank-developed programs of the radical right. We have to get off defense and move to offense. That will take new ideas and a common embrace of key initiatives. With some innovation, a progressive agenda with broad appeal can and will emerge.

Don Hazen is the Executive Editor of AlterNet.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »