Rules #1 – 200,000,000 For Effective Liberal Politics

by tristero

Following up on Digby’s recent post, I’d like to remind everyone how the system, like it or not, works. It’s quite simple.

If you’re mad at the Democrats who denounced MoveOn, do something about it. Give MoveOn money. If you plan to donate to individual political campaigns, give the money to those campaigns through MoveOn (or an equivalent group).

Money talks, people. And direct donations to Democrats won’t cut it, except to the best of the best. When a truly large portion of a Democratic candidate’s funding comes from MoveOn – more importantly, when a truly large portion of the Democratic Party’s war chest comes from MoveOn and similar groups… well, no guarantees. But I can guarantee that if liberals don’t seriously organize their funding of Democrats, we will repeat the awful spectacle of the last few weeks again and again. (Not to mention the kind of capitulations to the rightwing that, so far, has characterized the 21st century.)

Question: How much money we’re talking about here? Answer: heh, heh, heh. C’mon, you weren’t born yesterday!

For those of you who have been living under a rug, here’s a link to MoveOn. If you don’t like MoveOn, no biggie. Simply donate to a group you do like that endorses and funds political races. And if you donate directly to candidates, do so only to the absolute finest candidates and let the others come begging to MoveOn for endorsements and cash.

One final thing which you may not like to hear. Of course, you have to vote. But I’m sorry to say that if you can possibly afford it, you also have to pony up for decent congresscritters, governors, presidents, etc. No cash, no influence,

Does this sound like a shakedown? Well, yes. But remember, we’re the reality-based folks and like it or not, you’ll have to pay for good government. And if we don’t pay, there never will be even a hope of election reform that helps curb the shakedown. Ever.