A Democrat Says MoveOn Members Need To Get A Move On About Immigration Reform
[Recently
by Don Collins:
Why Won`t California Opinion Leaders Face The Immigration Invasion?]
MoveOn, self described as a
“family of organizations
[that] brings
real Americans back into the political process”
was started by Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, two Silicon
Valley entrepreneurs, who had experience in politics and
shared deep frustration with the partisan warfare in
Washington D.C. and our nation`s focus on the
impeachment mess. On September 18th 1998, they launched
an online petition to
"Censure President Clinton and Move On to Pressing
Issues Facing the Nation."
MoveOn has had a significant effect since then in
motivating more political action at the grass roots—an
innovative, vitally-needed job for which I
as a Democrat applaud them vigorously.
I
get their constant emails and quite often respond, as
their basket of key issues is presented in a form which
allows their reported 3.3 million-plus “members”
to express views, hold meetings, and generally stay
informed on matters that interest them.
As MoveOn says on its web site, it offers “a way for
busy but concerned citizens to find their political
voice in a system dominated by big money and big media.”
MoveOn now consists of two principal organizations:
-
MoveOn.org Civic Action, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit
organization, formerly known just as MoveOn.org,
which primarily focuses on education and advocacy on
important national issues:
-
MoveOn.org Political Action, a federal PAC,
formerly known as MoveOn PAC, which “mobilizes
people across the country to fight important battles
in Congress and help elect candidates who reflect
our values.
Both organizations are entirely funded by individuals.
MoveOn.org Political Action is mostly funded by people
who give less than $100. Through 2004, MoveOn.org
Political Action raised approximately $11 million
dollars for 81 candidates from over 300,000 donors.
Good going. Now the hard part.
Every member has a voice in choosing the direction for
both MoveOn.org Political Action and MoveOn.org Civic
Action. But let`s look at some of their list of their
current priorities.
1.
Firing Karl Rove for outing undercover CIA agent,
Valerie Plame.
2. Urging
appointment of a moderate to the
O`Connor Supreme Court vacancy,
3. Calling for
Tom DeLay to be replaced, and
4. Protecting
Social Security.
MoveOn is proud to
claim credit for restoring some funding for
NPR and PBS.
While many would disagree with the above priorities,
they justifiably attract interest and action.
Again, I personally say “Bravo”.
Recently MoveOn again asked for ideas from its members.
So naturally I did. Here is what I said, slightly
augmented:
“Until you start
realizing that the present open border situation in
America is draining the respect of our citizens for our
precious Rule of Law, there isn`t much sense to my
reading your other materials.
“Failing to deal with
this issue head on is like being in a mid-ocean life
boat which has sprung a serious leak (immigration
invasion) with a killer storm on the horizon (coming
domestic terrorism) and you the coxswain (MoveOn) are
telling everyone to be sure to put on life jackets
(overspending on defense) so we can continue to
ignore the leak and the storm.”
I
might also have added that, until the population of the
planet can be stabilized, the huge growth of human
numbers in developing countries will continue to feed
the stream of immigrants.
Thus, I believe, the failure of the
present Administration to stress
family planning funding through its various entities
will breed larger, more
discontent populations, which in turn produce
terrorists in various forms, some of them
coming here.
This omission in turn gives an excuse for the
military-industrial complex to enact further
military build-ups—which are not nearly as effective in
the long run as funding development for these poor
countries.
As our entire culture is undermined by underinvestment
in education, public works, etc., this vast imbalance of
priorities presages our status as a
second class nation, riddled with a poor underclass,
bereft of the middle class that has made democracy
possible, hobbled with obligations we can no longer
properly address.
It`s a vicious circle we are well into—and
firing Karl Rove won`t fix things. And protecting
Social Security ultimately means facing the need for
population stability, not pretending that growth can go
on indefinitely, demanding new, young uneducated illegal
immigrant bodies to pay us oldsters, a virtual Ponzi
scheme.
Polls consistently show that 80% of
all Americans want less immigration and even more
are against illegal immigration which now occurs 3
millions times a year. These mostly poor, uneducated
workers
take jobs from our less fortunate citizens.
But both parties are now bought by the big money
interests.
In the last election cycle in California,
gerrymandering meant only one seat was contested out
of the 55 up for election to the
US Congress.
I
got no response from MoveOn.
So, MoveOn, let`s move on. The platform you have so
cleverly and effectively built has such great potential
to shake the present system. Neither party at the
national or local level has had the courage to face the
need to secure our open borders or make the users of
cheap illegal alien labor punishable with heavy fines.
I
urge my fellow MoveOn members to sign in on the site
where your views will be heard and express your views on
the need to fix our immigration problems.
If enough
Democrats take up that issue, there are sufficient
Republicans in Congress already enlisted to enact strong
laws that would secure our borders and stop illegal
hiring.
The time for action is now.
Contact MoveOn here (non
members) or here (members).
Membership is free.
Donald A. Collins [email
him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.


