Election season is really ramping up.
February 5th is Super Tuesday, when 22 states will vote in
presidential primaries. It’s a huge, historic day. It could decide the
presidential nominees. So MoveOn is getting people together for an exciting,
social, and fun event. We’ll watch live coverage of Super Tuesday, and we’ll get
revved up for our election work this year by getting a sneak peak at our big bad
plan to win the White House. MoveOn's efforts to put progressives in power this
fall is centered around their program called Operation
Democracy.
Operation Democracy is about
taking MoveOn's work beyond email and signing petitions into the community,
making it easy for busy, ordinary people like us to take powerful action on
national issues at the local level.
Our country is facing
huge challenges. The vast majority of
Americans want to end the war in Iraq, however, corporate special interests and
right-wing conservatives are exerting their influence to keep the war going
since companies like Halliburton, Blackwater, and other contractors operating
under no-bid contracts can continue to rake in huge profits.
We think the best
way to get our country back on track is to organize and strengthen the
progressive movement through powerful grassroots efforts. Operation Democracy is MoveOn’s
national network of committed volunteers and is built around hundreds of local
councils. Through the work of these
Councils, we can pressure elected officials to take a stand on issues that
matter to us and, if they don’t, we’ll work to replace them with people that
will.
We have
actions about once a month on a critical national issue. In December, a group of MoveOn volunteers
delivered petitions signed by members in Chapel Hill and Durham to David Price's
office protesting any aggressive action toward Iran. This fall, Councils
will form the backbone of MoveOn’s massive Get-Out-the-Vote campaigns to make
sure the new president and at least a 60-member veto-proof majority in the
Senate are elected!
The job of
the council is to build power in the community by recruiting new members and by
running great events (like the Super Duper Tuesday party). Councils have
coordinator and core members who do most of the planning and other folks who
mostly just come to events. They also get support
and guidance from volunteer regional coordinators and staff organizers and get
to use some great on-line tools to organize and run the events. MoveOn also provides a great set of materials
for each event so the core members know exactly what to do.
Through
MoveOn’s national network of Operation Democracy councils, we can fight hard on
national issues that we all care about, work to win elections so we can have
more progressives in power, and then hold them accountable. In Chapel Hill, we’re working to build a
strong council so if you are interested
in working toward taking back our country, please join our
council. If you are unable to
attend but are interested in stepping up to help, please email or call
me.
Elizabeth
Regional Coordinator for MoveOn
