|
Over the next week and a half, we're going to be holding a fundraiser and asking for contributions to help us expand with the general election. We're looking specifically for 400 donors, whcih is aggressive, but we think we can get there. If you see value in what we do, you can give here. Otherwise, read on.
 Our costs are going up, but our product quality will go up as well. We will be traveling this summer to several conventions, including a Media Reform Convention in Minneapolis, Netroots Nation, and the Democratic National Convention. To make the site run smoother, we are hiring an administrator. And to make our commentary more effective, we are hiring a researcher (hopefully soon, several) to look more deeply into some of the themes Chris has come up with and hold influentials - Democrats, pundits, conservatives, surrogates - accountable for what they say. The total of these costs is around $14,000.
Here's why it's worth it to chip in your $35. Very few groups self-identify as 'left', and there are many reasons for that, including a residual fear of ideology and partisanship. What we on this blog believe, though, is that in reorganizing the country around progressive principles we can't pretend we don't have left-wing values. We can't pretend we aren't liberal. At the same time, this is not a game for 'lefty purists'. It isn't solely about winning every election, but winning elections is important. And we are working, smartly and without litmus tests, to promote liberal values in the political system.
The Bush Dog campaign, the No Residual Troop campaign, and the Responsible Plan concepts have all borne real fruit. Earlier this year, I embedded myself in the campaign of Donna Edwards in Maryland's fourth, the first movement candidate who beat an incumbent in a primary and who will be seated in Congress. So far, 60 Democratic candidates have signed on to the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, whose signature messaging of 'no residual troops' came from Chris's series of posts comparing the different Presidential Iraq plans. What Chris did, and it sounds so simple, but no one else had done it, was to read each plan and compare them. And now there are 60 candidates running on that principle, several of whom are going to be in Congress next year (or even this year). That's a real shift in conversation around foreign policy.
Many progressive ideas come from the conversations started in the blogs or in activist circles. And all of us on this site - commenters and bloggers alike - have worked to start our fair share. Ultimately, if we want progressive media to work we have to pay for it. Traditional corporate media works by selling you - the audience - to the soap makers and defense contractors who pay to propagandize. We don't follow this model, either within the Democratic Party or within the culture at large. We have a different model, in which we work both with political institutions and for you. We make no bones about our affiliations and our agenda, and we work on campaigns that are directly in line with them.
We think we've done good work, work that is worth expanding, work that will get this country out of Iraq a bit faster and set us onto a more sustainable course as a country. Throw a few bucks if you can, even if it's not much. Obviously, please don't give if it's a choice between this and gas money or rent money, but do recognize that there are lots of places to get media for free. But ultimately, as we've seen, if you are the product being sold to Honeywell and Monsanto so they can lie about our country, free is actually quite expensive.
Support OpenLeft here.
|
STATE BLOGS
