Operation Democracy: A Grassroots Campaign to Fight the Right and Elect Progressives
George Bush and the Republican leadership were taking our country down a dangerous path. The culture of corruption and the war in Iraq are just a few of the problems our country is facing because of the Republican leadership's incompetence.
We've got a plan to turn the tide and begin building a more progressive nation. We're calling it Operation Democracy: a national network of committed members who organize powerful events and generate progressive, local media coverage in communities across the country. It's a deeper way for MoveOn members to get involved. Join Operation Democracy and start working with members in your community.
Our plan
Together we helped end Republican control of Congress.
But our work together is about more than electing Democrats to Congress this year—it's also about building a strong progressive movement that will hold elected officials of all parties accountable. MoveOn created Operation Democracy, a national network of grassroots leaders working together in communities across the country, to make that happen.
Tactics
The core of our strategy is grassroots organizing, with different approaches depending on the issue, for example: letters to the editor of your local newspaper on Iraq, news conferences demanding election reform, town meetings on Bush's “reverse Robin Hood” budget, bake sale fundraisers, or meetings between members of Congress and local citizens who can't afford a Social Security benefit cut.
But we'll use a variety of other strategies as well—everything from paid advertising, to big online petitions, to creative stuff like Bush in 30 Years, our flash contest to oppose Social Security privatization.
Get involved
Why join Operation Democracy? We asked other MoveOn members that very question:
"We are committed to doing everything we can to stop the downward spiral George Bush is causing in our nation. We must organize to awaken the people in this nation to the reality behind the deceptive rhetoric. MoveOn provides a structure and cohesion around which people can organize to make a difference. Power in numbers! Make a plan, work the plan!"
— Dar, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania"I don't want to have to explain to my kids why I stayed home watching TV, while their civil rights got eroded, their future auctioned off to corporate interests, and their chance of a life in peace sacrificed for oil & wargames."
— Uli, Miami, Florida"It's time to gather together and create a group of sanity in the midst of all this madness."
— Pam, Portland, Oregon
From the sidelines, politics can be pretty depressing these days. But our members consistently say that getting out into the community and making actual progress on key issues is both fun and rewarding. Joining Operation Democracy and taking action in your area is a great way to meet like-minded neighbors and feel good building a better future, one person at a time.
And if it doesn't seem like there is much MoveOn action near you, grab a friend or a neighbor and start hosting events! Operation Democracy will provide everything you need to host successful and fun events to hold our elected officials accountable.
Where it came from
Operation Democracy is rooted in the work and ideas of tens thousands of MoveOn members. It grows out of the Future of MoveOn houseparties we held after the 2004 election, where 15,000 MoveOn members voted to combine grassroots organizing with a bold, visionary progressive message, and to focus on issues like right-wing Supreme Court justices, election reform, the Iraq war and the environment.
It's also a huge step forward from Leave No Voter Behind, our massive 2004 neighbor-to-neighbor get-out-the-vote drive. Leave No Voter Behind didn't get John Kerry elected. But it did have a groundbreaking political impact in communities across the country and turned out more than half a million voters in key areas. We designed Operation Democracy based on the lessons we learned in 2004:
With teamwork, we can move mountains. In less than 6 weeks in the fall of 2004, we logged over 6 million door knocks and phone calls to potential Kerry voters. We heard again and again that one key to our success was the mutual support, accountability and just plain fun of working with other MoveOn members. So, learning from that experience, we are inviting MoveOn members to join Operation Democracy and work together to help take back Congress in 2006.
Getting out the vote is not enough—we also need to persuade people we're right. During Leave No Voter Behind, we turned out tons of voters, but in the end, key groups of married women, Latinos, and seniors shifted toward Bush in unprecedented ways. Winning a progressive majority in Congress will take more than voter turnout--we need to show millions of people the incompetence and corruption of the Republican leadership, while encouraging the Democrats to stand up and fight. Together we'll do this by organizing thousands of high profile grassroots events across the country that shine the spotlight of public attention on critical issues like Iraq, the budget and civil liberties.