Anyone, look online and start posting local contact info for anyone who looks like they could be a..

[DuaneBidoux]

local or any, website trying to organize local protests (are they there?). Listen, I plead, and I do that rarely if you have seen my posts before, that progressives get off their asses. We are, in fact, about ready to get those asses kicked. I didn't think I would ever say this, but whatever Obama supports we can not take the chance of losing in '10 with the kind of people who are making themselves apparent on the "other side." We just have to support him now...we are close to losing this fight, and I fear that such a loss would cause a big right wing resurgance.

I think the problem with progressives is that they take several steps forward and they believe they have made "progress." We'd better now be realizing this is bs. I am older, I grew up in the 1960s and I'm beginning to think these younger progressives may just be not have had the experiences that made them really "feel" a good fight. (Like my neighbors dad who had a cross burned in his yard when I was 9.)

Think of it thisway, if we do not support anything where we are not getting everything we want we may be actually giving the kind of loonies we saw in Washington today a chance to come back to power MUCH TOO FUCKING SOON.

[DuaneBidoux]

1. Please kick this--I want to see if this post could evolve into an online asset for all of us.

[DuaneBidoux]

2. Just thinkin', if this post doesn't do something I will start to feel sad for DU folks.

[texastoast]

3. K&R

I'm certainly not getting the single-payer that we all know is the right thing to be done, but hell if I will enable the other side by going against Obama. He's a centrist, we can all agree, but he is damned sure not a right-wing nutter. To not support him is a vote for the other side. I've been been around long enough to see that progress is made in inches.

[gateley]

6. Inches -- I heard someone opine that we should have been hammering at this

all through the Bush administration so people got "used" to it. Oh, I wish we would have. Now we're trying for a big leap and being met with SO much resistance!

[mdmc]

4. hang in there

[gateley]

5. K&R -- I was thinking, when I was reading about and listening to today's

coverage of the anti-Obama group, what would happen we WE tried to converge on DC? Yes, they were expecting MILLIONS, but it sounds as though they actually got between 25,000 and 50,000 (if I recall correctly), and that's nothing to sneeze at. We seem to lack their balls-to-the-wall passion. I attended a health care reform rally here in Seattle, and have no idea how many showed up because I couldn't find coverage on it anywhere! The Freeps were across the street with a bullhorn, though. They are energized. Maybe because we're not driven by fear and hate? :shrug:

[Control-Z]

7. I've only been involved in one

protest/rally. And it was huge. The March for Women's Lives in 2004

About.com: "The 2004 March for Women's Lives was, and remains, the largest DC protest event in U.S. history. With 1.4 million participants, its size was nearly double that of its predecessor, the 1992 March for Women's Lives (which drew approximately 750,000 participants)."

Sponsoring organizations included:

NARAL Pro-Choice America
Choice USA
the Feminist Majority Foundation
Planned Parenthood
the American Civil Liberties Union
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
the National Organization for Women
the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
Code Pink
Black Women's Health Imperative

I believe the sponsoring organizations were key to the success of this march. Why can't we do this again? With a longer list of sponsors - AARP, AMA, moveon...?

There were celebrities involved that really helped to bring the crowds in. Some that participated were:

Peter, Paul and Mary
Indigo Girls
Moby
Ani DiFranco
Susan Sarandon
Whoopi Goldberg
Ashley Judd
Kathleen Turner
Ana Gasteyer
Janeane Garofalo

There are a lot of democratic celebrities who are passionate about Obama and healthcare. Oprah, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, The Dixie Chicks (I would presume). Many, many more. So why not?

All it takes is a great organizer. Someone who can get sponsors - excited and advertising. The woman who organized this march was amazing. I wonder where she is today??



Edit for pic

[Hekate]

8. I was there. I also went to the anti-war march right after Katrina. They were both...

... extremely well organized, weren't they?

It could be done again -- we'd have to find the energy, though, and the organizers. The March for Women's Lives had an incredible network of sponsors -- all interested in women's health care, which connects them to the current crisis.

However all of those sponsors are also connected with legal abortion, one way or another. This is a problem. The entire reason for the Capps Amendment, put forth by a pro-choice Representative, was to keep Health Care Reform from becoming a victim of the culture wars over abortion. Naturally the anti-reform and anti-choice fanatics are doing their best to insert that issue into the fight anyway.

A major health care march could still occur, just not on short notice. And time for planning is now short, due to the projected calendar for getting a bill out of Congress.

If you find a group or coalition who are actually planning such a thing, please keep us posted here.

Hekate

[Control-Z]

12. You're right.

With abortion being used as a wedge (as it always is), it's a problem for the women's organizations. And the time factor is problematic too. With no actual bill to rally for, I'm not sure that a large and worthwhile event could have been organized before now. I still don't know when a bill is expected.

It would take serious work to put something together at this point, but would be well worth it. Do we have any people at DU with the connections to at least make an inquiry to some of the larger organizations? I wish I could remember the names of the people who were involved in the women's march. They knew what they were doing.

[donheld]

9. k & R

[tabbycat31]

10. we had a local rally here for healthcare reform

and I spread the word using DU.

[andym]

11. Nice to see DU used in a potentially productive way. Good luck!

I'll keep my eyes open.