A Message from People for the American Way:
The results of the recent midterm elections have given us a small window to tackle several key priorities on Capitol Hill. Congress will reconvene for two to three weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday to complete its "lame duck" session, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made promises to bring up the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the DREAM Act, a vote on middle-class tax cuts and several judicial nominees who have long been blocked by Republican obstruction. PFAW just yesterday released anedit memo explaining the urgency and critical importance of confirming both President Obama's judicial nominees and executive branch appointments.
Senator Reid's commitment to move these measures is commendable. There however remains one absolutely crucial piece of legislation for which we need to fight tooth-and-nail just so it can be considered for a vote: the DISCLOSE Act. We've just released "Citizens Blindsided: Secret Corporate Money in the 2010 Elections and America's New Shadow Democracy," the final version of our comprehensive report on the shadowy corporate front groups that dominated the airwaves this election with attack ads funded largely by undisclosed donors. The DISLCOSE Act, through stringent disclosure requirements, would help voters make more informed choices, slow the flow of money into these front groups and make some donors think twice about funding ads and tactics that cross the lines of decency. If you have not yet signed our emergency petition to pass the DISCLOSE Act, please do so now. We'll use this petition in our lobbying efforts pressing Senate Leadership and a few key Republicans to support passage of the bill immediately.
After the New Year, we will be up against what is perhaps the most radically right-wing Congress in history. A House majority dominated by Tea Party extremists, the Religious Right and unabashed anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate-mongers, which has signaled the intention of crippling the government with endless obstruction and baseless McCarthyite witch hunts into the Obama administration... A Senate that, although maintaining a bare Democratic majority, has a new power broker in Radical Right Senator Jim DeMint, several new Tea Party-backed far-right Senators and a powerful Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who has stated that his number-one priority over the next two years is to take down the President.
People For the American Way has spent decades exposing and countering the Radical Right. No other organization has our expertise and no other organization is better equipped to deal with the challenges of this new Congress and the growing right-wing movement. But there certainly will be challenges.
Americans, still suffering the effects of the economic crisis, will now have a House majority and more powerful Senate minority that will be doing all they can to make sure that the government works for large corporate special interests and not ordinary Americans. For their own political gain, Republicans will block policy measures that would offer Americans much-needed assistance, boost economic growth or create jobs... and they'll be fighting to roll back many of the protections for people which have been passed over the last century, while working to grow the deficit by extending massive tax cuts to corporations and the richest 2% of the country.
This is the reality of our situation, but it does not have to be so bleak. There are opportunities in the challenges ahead... a chance to draw a clear distinction between our values and view of government's role in society and theirs... a chance to expose the extremism which has taken full control of the Republican party... a chance to educate Americans about the importance of elections, the Supreme Court, defending the truth, fighting hate and defending the American Way. And we have the chance to start working now to make sure the progressive movement is strong, efficient, hungry and ready for 2012.
I'm so glad you'll be in it with us, and I thank you for it.
Sincerely,
Senator Reid's commitment to move these measures is commendable. There however remains one absolutely crucial piece of legislation for which we need to fight tooth-and-nail just so it can be considered for a vote: the DISCLOSE Act. We've just released "Citizens Blindsided: Secret Corporate Money in the 2010 Elections and America's New Shadow Democracy," the final version of our comprehensive report on the shadowy corporate front groups that dominated the airwaves this election with attack ads funded largely by undisclosed donors. The DISLCOSE Act, through stringent disclosure requirements, would help voters make more informed choices, slow the flow of money into these front groups and make some donors think twice about funding ads and tactics that cross the lines of decency. If you have not yet signed our emergency petition to pass the DISCLOSE Act, please do so now. We'll use this petition in our lobbying efforts pressing Senate Leadership and a few key Republicans to support passage of the bill immediately.
After the New Year, we will be up against what is perhaps the most radically right-wing Congress in history. A House majority dominated by Tea Party extremists, the Religious Right and unabashed anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate-mongers, which has signaled the intention of crippling the government with endless obstruction and baseless McCarthyite witch hunts into the Obama administration... A Senate that, although maintaining a bare Democratic majority, has a new power broker in Radical Right Senator Jim DeMint, several new Tea Party-backed far-right Senators and a powerful Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who has stated that his number-one priority over the next two years is to take down the President.
People For the American Way has spent decades exposing and countering the Radical Right. No other organization has our expertise and no other organization is better equipped to deal with the challenges of this new Congress and the growing right-wing movement. But there certainly will be challenges.
Americans, still suffering the effects of the economic crisis, will now have a House majority and more powerful Senate minority that will be doing all they can to make sure that the government works for large corporate special interests and not ordinary Americans. For their own political gain, Republicans will block policy measures that would offer Americans much-needed assistance, boost economic growth or create jobs... and they'll be fighting to roll back many of the protections for people which have been passed over the last century, while working to grow the deficit by extending massive tax cuts to corporations and the richest 2% of the country.
This is the reality of our situation, but it does not have to be so bleak. There are opportunities in the challenges ahead... a chance to draw a clear distinction between our values and view of government's role in society and theirs... a chance to expose the extremism which has taken full control of the Republican party... a chance to educate Americans about the importance of elections, the Supreme Court, defending the truth, fighting hate and defending the American Way. And we have the chance to start working now to make sure the progressive movement is strong, efficient, hungry and ready for 2012.
I'm so glad you'll be in it with us, and I thank you for it.
Sincerely,
Michael B. Keegan, President
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.