I often have a hard time describing what I do, but I never have a hard time describing my boss. As odd as it sounds, I think of myself as working for you: the readers of this site, the commenters, and the larger progressive movement in general. I usually have lots of meetings in DC I don't blog about, and what I write about on OpenLeft is not standard journalistic work. I try to stay focused on ways to make an impact. Mostly that means keeping up with the conversation around progressive politics, but sometimes that means pushing a race, like Donna Edwards or Joe Lieberman, or an issue, like net neutrality or FISA, that is singularly important, or an organization, like Common Cause, the ACLU, or EMILY's List.
We believe that is how change happens. We try to give you ways to make an impact that is meaningful. You won't see an ask to give to the Red Cross here, not because that's a bad thing to do but because it's not where there's a lot of leverage. You will however see asks for riskier stuff, donations to people like Mark Pera and Donna Edwards. And when we asked for people to email CNN to change their coverage of superdelegates, a small number of emails had a big impact. That's what we're after, change. And since we're smaller and lighter, we go for smaller and lighter but high impact changes.
One of the highest leverage changes a few of us can to make is on the Congressional level, by putting progressive leaders in there. And when I write 'leader' I mean someone who is not satisfied with the status quo but someone who will fight and risk a lot to move the ball down the field, at least a little bit.
Darcy Burner is one such person. She has been aggressive and outspoken on the campaign trail, against both the Republicans and Congress in general when it passed the original Protect America Act in the summer of 2007. And it's worked, as so far, the House has not passed retroactive immunity. I'm actually surprised that the House hasn't caved, but there we go. So we see that, along with Jane Hamsher, Glenn Greenwald, the EFF, and the ACLU, Darcy has already been leading, from outside of Congress. Imagine what she'll do in there.
Now, why am I asking you to give now? Well, because Laura Bush is in town for a fundraiser for her opponent, Dave Reichert. In August, George Bush did a fundraiser for Reichert. Indeed, Reichert is getting more support from the Republicans than any other Congressional challenger in the country, and it's to keep Darcy from coming into Congress.
We have got to back our own, not just Democrats, but progressive Democrats who are part of internet culture. So far, the campaign across the local Washington blogs and on Dailykos has brought in 197 donors. We're looking to get to 250 total, so it won't take that many to reach our goal. The only way the conservatives are going to maintain power in 2009 is if they can keep our Congressional leaders out of Congress. And they are trying to do it, having both Bush's fundraise to attack one of the best progressive candidates in the country. No other Democrat has gotten that kind of treatment from Mr and Mrs Bush.
So anyway, if you can throw in $50, I guarantee you that it's going to be used really well to promote our values. This is money that matters.
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