[Recently by Don Collins: Why Won't California Opinion Leaders Face The Immigration Invasion?]
MoveOn, self described as a "family of organizations [that] brings real Americans back into the political process" was started by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who had experience in politics and shared deep frustration with the partisan warfare in Washington D.C. and our nation's focus on the impeachment mess. On September 18th 1998, they launched an online petition to "Censure President Clinton and Move On to Pressing Issues Facing the Nation."
MoveOn has had a significant effect since then in motivating more political action at the grass roots—an innovative, vitally-needed job for which I as a Democrat applaud them vigorously.
I get their constant emails and quite often respond, as their basket of key issues is presented in a form which allows their reported 3.3 million-plus "members" to express views, hold meetings, and generally stay informed on matters that interest them.
As MoveOn says on its web site, it offers "a way for busy but concerned citizens to find their political voice in a system dominated by big money and big media."
MoveOn now consists of two principal organizations:
Both organizations are entirely funded by individuals. MoveOn.org Political Action is mostly funded by people who give less than $100. Through 2004, MoveOn.org Political Action raised approximately $11 million dollars for 81 candidates from over 300,000 donors.
Good going. Now the hard part.
Every member has a voice in choosing the direction for both MoveOn.org Political Action and MoveOn.org Civic Action. But let's look at some of their list of their current priorities.
1. Firing Karl Rove for outing undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame.
2. Urging appointment of a moderate to the O'Connor Supreme Court vacancy,
3. Calling for Tom DeLay to be replaced, and
4. Protecting Social Security.
MoveOn is proud to claim credit for restoring some funding for NPR and PBS.
While many would disagree with the above priorities, they justifiably attract interest and action.
Again, I personally say "Bravo".
Recently MoveOn again asked for ideas from its members.
So naturally I did. Here is what I said, slightly augmented:
"Until you start realizing that the present open border situation in America is draining the respect of our citizens for our precious Rule of Law, there isn't much sense to my reading your other materials.
"Failing to deal with this issue head on is like being in a mid-ocean life boat which has sprung a serious leak (immigration invasion) with a killer storm on the horizon (coming domestic terrorism) and you the coxswain (MoveOn) are telling everyone to be sure to put on life jackets (overspending on defense) so we can continue to ignore the leak and the storm."
I might also have added that, until the population of the planet can be stabilized, the huge growth of human numbers in developing countries will continue to feed the stream of immigrants.
Thus, I believe, the failure of the present Administration to stress family planning funding through its various entities will breed larger, more discontent populations, which in turn produce terrorists in various forms, some of them coming here.
This omission in turn gives an excuse for the military-industrial complex to enact further military build-ups—which are not nearly as effective in the long run as funding development for these poor countries.
As our entire culture is undermined by underinvestment in education, public works, etc., this vast imbalance of priorities presages our status as a second class nation, riddled with a poor underclass, bereft of the middle class that has made democracy possible, hobbled with obligations we can no longer properly address.
It's a vicious circle we are well into—and firing Karl Rove won't fix things. And protecting Social Security ultimately means facing the need for population stability, not pretending that growth can go on indefinitely, demanding new, young uneducated illegal immigrant bodies to pay us oldsters, a virtual Ponzi scheme.
Polls consistently show that 80% of all Americans want less immigration and even more are against illegal immigration which now occurs 3 millions times a year. These mostly poor, uneducated workers take jobs from our less fortunate citizens.
But both parties are now bought by the big money interests.
In the last election cycle in California, gerrymandering meant only one seat was contested out of the 55 up for election to the US Congress.
I got no response from MoveOn.
So, MoveOn, let's move on. The platform you have so cleverly and effectively built has such great potential to shake the present system. Neither party at the national or local level has had the courage to face the need to secure our open borders or make the users of cheap illegal alien labor punishable with heavy fines.
I urge my fellow MoveOn members to sign in on the site where your views will be heard and express your views on the need to fix our immigration problems.
If enough Democrats take up that issue, there are sufficient Republicans in Congress already enlisted to enact strong laws that would secure our borders and stop illegal hiring.
The time for action is now.
Contact MoveOn here (non members) or here (members). Membership is free.
Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.
