Mission Accomplished: Time for Party Parties - MoveOn.Org - sign up!

[helderheid]

Dear MoveOn member,

Thanks to you, we won. And as a fellow citizen—I don't have the words to thank you for bringing our country back.

MoveOn members worked so hard to make this happen. You made over 7 million calls to voters (and millions more to members)—getting people to the polls one by one. You gave over $27 million. And you raised the issues that powered the election—especially Iraq, which some pundits told Democrats to steer clear of.

We've held a lot of parties this year. Movie parties. Calling parties. Positive agenda parties. We thought this weekend, it'd be a good idea to just hold party parties. It's time to celebrate together. Want to host one at a local bar, restaurant, or in your home this Saturday? Just sign up here:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/create.html?action_id=65

To host, you'll just need to find a space. If you host at home, folks will bring food and drink. If you host somewhere public, you just need to get the space and greet the folks.

Sherrod Brown—who read MoveOn petitions on Iraq on the House floor—is the new Senator from the formerly red state of Ohio. Richard Pombo, who led a crusade to kill the Endangered Species Act and called the Environmental Protection Agency "jackbooted thugs," is out of a job. The abortion ban in South Dakota failed. Laws to raise the minimum wage passed. And with a historic sweep of 28 (and counting!) seats, Nancy Pelosi is now the first woman Speaker of a Democratic House.

It's hard to remember now, but there was a time not too long ago when all the pundits were saying that this kind of sweeping change was impossible. You didn't listen to them. Your eyes were focused on today's Washington Post headline: "A Voter Rebuke for Bush, the War, and the Right."

Together, we did it without lies. Without playing to fear. We did it by reaching out, person to person, to folks who wanted a change. This morning, we got an email from MoveOn member Chris N. that just about sums it up:

When I called, it was late in the evening and the woman I was talking to had less than an hour to get out and vote.

I told her who I was and why I was calling and asked if she had voted yet. Long pause. She told me that she knew this was an important election, and that she had criticized others for not voting, knowing how important it was that we find a new direction.

Then she told me about her work, and taking care of her young child after work. About how the polls close so early that working moms have a very hard time voting. "Can't they allow the polls to stay open later for us to vote," she asked me. I told her, why not go down there and show the poll workers what real life is like, what being a working mother is like, and bring your child with you.

She said she'd do it. I was happy for her and for the rest of us whose country's direction lies in the hands of voters, single mothers trying to make ends meet and still exercise their power to vote.

And then I got this phone call, later tonight. She had found my caller ID and called me back. "Hi," she said, "this is the lady you talked to wanting to go vote. I was the one who was talking about my baby and it being 6:21—40 minutes til closing. I just wanted to say that I did make it, and thanks for the encouragement."

That's how we won our democracy back.

It'd be easy to get too satisfied with the moment we're in. We've helped win a landslide election, but we haven't yet gotten one more person health care, powered one more car with clean energy—or brought one soldier back from Iraq (though Rumsfeld's resignation today is good news).

We've got a lot to do. We'll have to make sure Democrats truly fight for the voters who elected them. And the Republicans have left us with a big mess to clean up—here at home and around the world.

For today—and at the parties this weekend—let's celebrate. Again, you can host a party—which really just means finding a space for it to happen in—here:

http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/create.html?action_id=65

Then, let's roll up our sleeves, and get to work making this country live up to the promise of America.

And thanks again, so much, for everything you've done.

–Aaron, Adam G., Adam R., Ben, Carrie, Catherine, Daniel, Dave, Eli, Erik, Ilyse, James, Jenn, Joan, Justin, Karin, Laura, Marika, Matt, Nita, Natalie, Noah, Patrick, Randall, Tanya, Tom, and Wes and the whole MoveOn.org Political Action Team
November 8th, 2006

P.S. Have other stories like Chris's to share? Or thanks that you want to send to other MoveOn members? Just reply to this message, and we'll read and highlight your responses.

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