I'm currently reading the book, The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy by Byron York, and he's talking about MoveOn.org in the first part of the book, and it makes me think- despite the recognition MoveOn has gotten over the past few years, it's really been an abysmal failure. The group has basically wasted tens of millons (maybe more?) dollars in their various campaigns, all of which have failed.
The group was started by 2 radical leftists from Berkley, Californa. They were angry that the House would actually impeach Bill Clinton. See, the founders were Clinton supporters, and he could do no wrong in their eyes...so, of course, anyone who would try to oust him from office was to be taken down, and they would lead the charge. They wrote a statement telling Congress to merely censure Clinton for his law breaking, his lies, etc. and "move on" to pressing issues. In the eyes of MoveOn founders, Clinton's perjury wasn't a pressing issue- that a sitting US president would be involved in so many scandals was no big deal, and we should simply censure him and leave it at that.
Of course, the democrats were somewhat sucessful in portraying the issue as "only about sex," tho it was never just about sex- it was about a lawsuit of the current president. Paula Jones, a woman Clinton sexually harassed was asking that Clinton affirm that they had been in a hotel room together, and that she had done nothing immoral. She wasn't even asking for an apology, nor was she asking for money, favors, or anything else. She just wanted her good name to stay intact. Clinton refused to affirm these facts, and it all snowballed from there.
Thru the Jones lawsuit, we learned about others Clinton had possibly harassed (he admitted to inappropriate relations with Lewinsky, and he paid over $800, 000 to settle the Jones' suit (money only came about after Clinton attacked Jones and smeared her good name.) The fact is, even supporters of Clinton were dismayed (to say the least), and some were downright pissed at being lied to about Lewinsky and so many other things. It was about breaking the law, harassment, possible rape, and more...which made absurd MoveOn's whole premise that we should just overlook all of this as no big deal and "move on."
With the Clinton impeachment and the move to take out Republicans who impeached the president, MoveOn failed miserably.
They have continued to fail years later, since the Republicans hold both the House and the Senate, and we have a Republican president. All the millions have been spent to no avail.
In 2001, they wanted the US NOT to have a military attack on Afghanistan, they naively called for "peace" by NOT attacking and removing the talbian (terrorist supporters) from power. These lifelong leftists confused peace with inaction. Anyone who knows anything peace has to be maintained, and that thuggish attacks on the nation cannot stand without a response. The arab world, as well as the islamic nations in general, look upon inaction like this as a sign of weakness. Bin Laden himself told reporters that he knew he could attack the US (with the plan of Sept 11) because of Clinton's removal of troops in Somalia after the disaterous black hawk down episode, which was caused by Clinton and then Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin...political moves got in the way of smart military action, and American soldiers died, and the United States was seen as the great paper tiger to Bin Laden. Poorly planned action then and a sudden withdrawal of troops emboldened Bin Laden, and inaction after the attacks would have been even worse.
More than 80% of Americans supported swift military action, even while MoveOn tried to pain their supporters as the silent majority. Thankfully, very few people agreed with the political group, and just action was undertaken to oust the Taliban and free millions of Afghans from oppressive rule.
In 2004, they made it their goal to take Bush down, but they failed in that as well. They also failed to end a Republican majority in 2004. If you look back, you see nothing but a long line of failures.
With financial backers like ultra leftist (and unstable) George Soros and the CEO of Progressive Insurance, MoveOn has failed to push thru any of their agenda really.
Not only has the group been a major failure, but their lame tactics have made the group unworthy of respect. MoveOn has spent millions supporting only Democratic candidates, yet they claim to be a nonpartisan group. When anti-American filmmaker, Michael Moore peddled his propaganda via Farenheit 911, MoveOn started a campaign to get the word out...telling its supporters to go see the movie in droves in the first week it opened, to give the impression that a most Americans were fed up with the Bush administration. Raw data shows that the film, despite being a successful documentary overall, didn't really do well in middle America as MoveOn and Moore would have you believe. The data maps that show how much the movie took in basically fit the same electoral maps of red and blue from the 2000 election. The film did good in liberal areas and poorly in conservative areas. The attempt by MoveOn to hide the truth about the film's success along with phony facade of being nonpartisan shows the group for what it is- completely amateurish.
MoveOn really tossed away any respectability when they told their supporters to mass mail newspapers across the country attacking those who pointed out the lies in Moore's film. They went so far as to post pre-written letters on their website, so supporters could come to MoveOn.org and not even have to really write a letter to the editor. They simply had to supply their personal information and the letter could be printed up as if they had written themselves. Scores of the same letters with different signatures were published in major newspapers across the country, as tho Americans, and not MoveOn's staff, had written them. This was shameful propaganda by the group, targeting those who had a problem with Moore's propaganda on film. Ironic, to say the least.
The group is currently attacking nearly every Republican idea out there...from social security reform to judicial nominees. The group is anti-right, and wholly liberal, even if they continue to claim they are in any way fair and balanced out.
MoveOn has been, since its inception, a failure. They've been defeated with every move they make, and they have gone so far out on the leftist fringe, that reasonable people don't take them at all seriously. I'd say it's time to toss MoveOn into the trash heap of history and move on to groups lead by thinking Americans without radical agendas. It's a shame the mainstream media will still portray MoveOn as an organization worthy of any respect, and millions of Americans will join in the group's goal of spreading propaganda to as many people as possible.