Move On MoveOn

Today I received an e-mail from MoveOn. Well, actually, I received an e-mail from MoveOn yesterday, too, and the day before that, and the day before that. Indeed, MoveOn, like some unusually persistent Jehovah’s Witness, has been knocking on my door every day for about three years now, and no matter how often I shut the door on it; or plead that I have my own church, thank you very much, it's back the next day, ringing my chimes with renewed ardor. 

I still occasionally agree to donate to one of their campaigns, or sign one of their petitions. (I even circulated one recently urging the President to cut our losses in Afghanistan, which, now that I think about it, is a little like singing folk songs to protest a gypsy moth infestation.) But more and more I sign primarily in hopes that by signing I might satisfy them for a while and buy myself some time. 

MoveOn had a great deal to do with getting Obama elected, and for that I am grateful. It proved remarkably effective in marshalling progressives and amassing the obscene resources a presidential campaign now requires. So this is not to criticize MoveOn for its successes, only its excesses, of which today’s e-mail is symptomatic. 

After quoting Margaret Mead’s assertion that real change only comes from small groups of thoughtful and committed people, MoveOn goes on to boast a membership of five million. This suggests to me that perhaps it should consider breaking up into small groups. 

But that's not what MoveOn is proposing. As if the daily imprecations to sign petitions circulated by MoveOn and its allies were not enough, it has just inaugurated a website on which all five million of its members are encouraged to compose and circulate petitions of their own.

“We'll send the most popular petitions to other MoveOn members to help build support for your cause,” say Anna, Julia, Michael, Wes, and the rest of MoveOn team, as they sign themselves. "It's easy to get started -- just click here." (A link follows that I do not intend to share.)

Considering all the petitions MoveOn has circulated, I can hardly blame it for running out of ideas of its own. But if that's the case, isn’t the better part of discretion to simply shut up and shut down for a while? Aren’t MoveOn and its imitators running the risk of wearing out us progressives as it is? Might it not be fatal to MoveOn’s efficacy in the next presidential campaign if not just Anna, Julia, Michael, Wes, and the rest of the MoveOn team send us petitions, but we start sending petitions to ourselves?

So I’ve got a petition for you: 


“We the undersigned ask that MoveOn stop with the petitions already so we can steel our loins for the battle to come.”

Where do I sign?