A country created by slaveholders, that denied women the right to vote until 1920, and that needed a “second Reconstruction” in the 1960’s to guarantee the right to vote for Black Americans, elected the former community organizer and quintessentially American mixed-heritage Barack Hussein Obama to its Presidency.
Wow.
We made history despite the ugly campaign of fear and lies run by John McCain, a central tactic of which was to demonize ACORN and, in classic guilt-by-association innuendo, raise questions about President-Elect Obama’s fitness for office. We know that not only did that tactic fail, but that voters responded to a campaign that challenged us to be our better selves, to believe in the promise of America, and our resilience as Americans of countless backgrounds and strengths.
The thank you's and ACORN's policy priorities in the new political climate on the flip
We know that this campaign went beyond the impressive organization built by Obama and his chief strategists to a vast array of organizations, affinity groups, and ordinary citizens who, together, made this day possible. Our collective accomplishments on Election Day serve to remind the country both that working families are ready to vote – and organize – for change, and that we have yet to solve the real crises facing ACORN members and the American public.
In 2008, ACORN set out to change America – by helping end the foreclosure crisis, by winning affordable, quality healthcare for all Americans, and by mobilizing low- and moderate-income voters in record numbers to push for these and other issues. Tuesday’s results provided a resounding affirmation for this agenda.
Our own contributions towards mobilizing low- and moderate-income voters included the largest non-partisan voter registration drive in U.S. history. We collected over 1.3 million voter registration applications from populations that are underrepresented in the electorate: people of color, low-income people, and young people. Approximately 900,000 people had a chance to vote in this election due to that effort. And when you add in the work that ACORN did over the previous two election cycles, we calculate that there were approximately 1.5 million more voters in the electorate from those constituencies than there were in 2002, simply due to our registration drives.
ACORN also engaged in a voter mobilization program that made 640,500 face-to-face voter contact attempts to new and infrequent voters in 10 states. This was augmented by a phone program that made approximately 311,000 live contact attempts.
But the election of 2008 ended up being deeply personal for the staff and members of ACORN. While we expected to weather assaults on the legitimacy of our work, based on our past experiences from 2004 and 2006, we were unprepared for the attack to be a nationally-coordinated assault that included the entire machinery of the Republican Party, from the RNC to the McCain Campaign to state and local GOP elected officials and the entire capacity of the conservative bamboozlement chorus.
Still reorganizing after a major staff leadership and Board transition that started over the summer, these attacks came at a time when our own internal capacity was still being rebuilt. So it was a profound and humbling experience to see an immense array of people and organizations step up and sacrifice their own priorities, time, and effort, to stand with us and fight back.
The list of organizations and individuals who need to be thanked by us is long and it is with trepidation that I even attempt to launch into it for fear of leaving someone out. But the plain fact is that the response was so generous that people deserved to be recognized by name. So here goes. If I left you out, feel free to let me know in the comments below.
Netroots and Progressive On-Line Media AfroNetizen AmericaBlog Alternet Black Agenda Report Booman Tribune The Brad Blog Center for Independent Media network Colorado Independent Michigan Independent Minnesota Independent New Mexico Independent Washington Independent Crooks and Liars The DailyKos community Feministing FireDogLake Hullabaloo Huffington Post Jack and Jill Politics Media Matters for America My Left Nutmeg Newshounds OpenLeft Pam’s House Blend Progress Illinois Progress Ohio The Public Record Talking Points Media The Uptake
Organizations AFL-CIO AFSCME American Federation of Teachers Center for American Progress Common Cause Communications Workers of America DEMOS Leadership Conference on Civil Rights League of Women Voters MoveOn.org NAACP National Council of La Raza National Education Association People for the American Way Progressive Accountability SEIU United Steelworkers of America Watershed Working Families Party
Individuals Julian Bond Donna Brazile Hon. John Conyers Hon. Keith Ellison Mark Winston Griffith Juan Gonzalez Bob Herbert Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr. Tom Joyner Errol Lewis Hon. Jerold Nadler Rev. Al Sharpton Hon. Maxine Waters
If I could hug everyone at once, I would. Without everyone who stood with us it would have been impossible to fight back the way we did.
And that’s critical because we have a progressive agenda to pursue and our members’ interests to defend. We are going to be fighting for:
An end to the foreclosure and credit crises facing ordinary Americans;
Quality affordable health insurance as part of HCAN;
Strengthening the public education system;
Closing the wage and wealth gap as part of Half in Ten;
Quality affordable housing;
Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act;
Achieving comprehensive immigration reform; and
Creating a Federal budget that reflects the priorities of working families.
Finally, having been the target of a vicious, multi-layered, nationally coordinated attack by the Right on ACORN’s voter registration work, we lay down the gauntlet: put us out of the voter registration business and help us ensure that the government registers every eligible American to vote. We’d much rather organize to keep winning on the issues.
To steal and paraphrase from our friends at MoveOn, thank you for all you did and all you do.
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