i think i may have donated $50 or $20 or something to move on, back in those heady days of presidential election 2004 when all seemed not only possible, but likely.
i’m not sure.
i’m pretty sure now that if i did, i’m really sorry that i did.
not that i’m not mostly a card-carrying liberal, which i mostly am. flaming variety. but i’m also kind of conservative fiscally. we need taxes and we need arts programs and welfare and all that, but we also need sound financial management and no deficit spending and balanced budgets. clinton had the right idea on that, really.
i’ve always said (and have said it on here many times) that if the republicans were a lot less jerry falwell and a lot more barry goldwater, i’d seriously think about switching parties.
anyway, move on, jamie. get it? ah, ha, ha.
i have a friend who forwards me various liberal/left-wing emails. i like it, because it keeps me informed on what up on that side of the fence. i go through phases of dinking around on political sites and blogs, but mostly i don’t because it gets me all het up, to no apparent benefit. these days, i’m much more interested in making an impact on my community.
that’s one of the reasons why i’m investing time at holy trinity. they feed the hungry in the local neighboorhood, they sponsor aa meetings, they have a community arts program, their building hosts local events and other churches. all of which contributes to a better inwood. it’s a good way to have a positive effect on my surroundings, and get some benefits myself.
and i think that organizations like move on saps resources from that effort. do we really need to have people donating money so that move on can run television commercials comparing george w. to nixon? please. don’t insult nixon that way. i hate george w. as much as the next guy, but frankly he’s not intelligent enough to be as duplicitous as nixon was. maybe the people around him are, like cheney or whoever, but that’s not who the commercial is targeting.
i think that if everyone took care of their little corner of the world, we’d all be better off. don’t make it a habit to donate to move on. or jerry falwell. or whoever else nationally. find a local charity that has an impact on your neighborhood, and give it your time and money.
of course, if there’s a tsumani or katrina or whatever, then that’s different. send the red cross some money, or doctors without borders, or something like that. they have a nice local impact, too.
you can argue that move on is a collection of local people, and that they are organized at a local level, and all that. and you’d be right. but i guarantee you that the lion’s share of their overall pot of money is not going to grassroots organizing, but to big-splash national media campaigns, contrary to how they started out. and regardless of how they make their fundraising appear to be targeted toward individual projects.
i could be wrong, of course. but their site and their emails have the odor of the fundraising tactics pioneered by the religious right, and that bugs me quite a bit.