#don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out

Today I stumbled on a new rightie organization called #dontgo. It’s supposed to be a pushback against Moveon, I think. The web site says it’s a movement! and a revolution!

America needs to come to its senses and start on the path that will bring it victory, not defeat – prosperity, not depression. #dontgo means exactly what it says, Don’t Go.

What does the “#” mean?

Introduction

#dontgo Movement is a collaborative effort being developed by a group of free-market, e-activists who wish to see Congress stay in Washington until a solution for our energy crisis is found. But #dontgo is more than a single issue.

I’ll come back to the e-activists in a minute.

Goals

Our goal is to achieve a tidal shift in American politics from the ground up, utilizing the great potential of the grassroots movement. On a multitude of issues, from energy independence to fiscal responsibility, we plan to return the country back onto the right path.

I think these people needed to think a little longer about what they are trying to accomplish before they launched this mess. On the one hand, they say they want to turn the nation in a new! direction! They want a tidal shift! Yet the title of the organizations says something else. Like, don’t change. Or maybe, please don’t leave me.

How Will We Do It?

We will use what is now described as the “new media” and the “grassroots” to link the people of America with their elected representatives from both sides of the aisle. We will provide the technology to send letters to members of Congress, make phone calls to them, and provide up to date news, and blogging content. In short, we will utilize technology to push the frontier of what constitutes modern politics.

What Does #dontgo Mean?

#dontgo is an expression of what America needs, but not where it’s heading. #dontgo is the warning bell to a nation that is hungry for change, but looking in the wrong direction. #dontgo is a message to all of America, Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

If this “grassroots” organization presents any ideas that are different from what the GOP has been serving up the past several years, I’m not seeing it anywhere on the web site. What I saw on their blog site was the same rhetoric, the same talking points, the same worn-out ideas and the same smoldering resentments we’ve been seeing from the Right lo these many years. The issue #dontgo is pushing more than any other is the Right’s solution to the energy crisis: drill drill drill.

Of which Matt Stoller writes,

In fact, the entire drill drill drill campaign originated with Newt Gingrich, hardly the kind of leadership you’d expect from a real grassroots uprising. His group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, got a large grant from Peabody Coal at about the same time this campaign started, and is backed by the same crew of billionaires helping Freedom’s Watch.

Matt had just been to competing rallies in Washington DC. On one side were volunteers from Moveon. On the other side were “paid staffers from groups like the National Taxpayers Union and Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks.”

Now, this is not to say that the Drill, Drill, Drill campaign isn’t popular. It is. But it is not some movement breakthrough on the right; new political movements are not populated entirely with paid staffers, funded by the extraordinarily wealthy winners of a society, and led by old over the hill political leaders. What is actually going on here is that the 1970s conservative movement is still around and still dominant. Right-wing billionaires are still funding Newt Gingrich, who is still dictating our agenda just as he did in the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. Conservative ‘populism’ in DC is still the same old Brooks Brothers Riot we saw in 2000, ie. paid staffers masquerading as grassroots.

My favorite part of the dontgo — ‘scuse me, I left out the # — #dontgo site is this blog post ranting about the bleeping liberal elite.

#Dontgo Threatens The Liberal Power Elite!

Why is this movement of vital importance to America right now?

For too long, the liberal elite, entrenched in both parties, and their friends in the media have managed to keep the truth from the People, to ignore the issues and concerns, and even the facts, that are relevant to the People, all in their effort to pursue an agenda that was born in the early 20th century (”progressivism”) and that has failed wherever it was tried.

The truth is, of course, is that going back many years real liberals have been shut out of power and mass media, and nothing of our “agenda” has come anywhere close to being “tried” since the 1960s.

Related: If you can get your hands on the August issue of Harper’s, there’s a great article in it by Thomas Frank called “The Wrecking Crew: How a Gang of Right-Wing Con Men Destroyed Washington and Made a Killing.” There’s only a PDF version available on the site.

9 thoughts on “#don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out

  1. Since they are using “new media” in their outreach, maybe they mean to define #dontgo in the web sense.

    The # character in a URL is the “fragment marker” and the text following the marker is called a “fragment.” So, maybe they think they are a fragment of the conservative movement? Sounds right.

    Also, anything following the # in a URL is a local page link. Meaning that it doesn’t go anywhere far – the link stays right on the current page. So, maybe they mean to tell us that they’re staying on the same old page? Also sounds right.

  2. I’m not willing to join any “movement” that can’t attract at least one English major to write their copy. That text is just godawful.

    When they are done explaining the # sign maybe they can explain why there is a comma between free-market and e-activists. Once I’ve recovered from trying to envision a tide moving from the ground up through grass roots, I’ll be ready to hear it.

  3. The web site says it’s a movement!

    A bowel movement?

    That’s the beauty of the internet. You can advance as far as your imagination will take you. You can be what you’re not, and will into existence your own greatness and power…Then parlay that greatness into a revolution that will change the world. WOW! It’s better than being a Mouseketeer.

    I #dontget the name though..Why not #intrepid?

  4. In fact, the entire drill drill drill campaign originated with Newt Gingrich…. His group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, got a large grant from Peabody Coal….

    And Gingrich is threatening to “shut down government” if the coal & oil companies he’s lobbying for don’t get (excuse me, #dontget) to drill drill drill. I think Newtie plumb #forgot he isn’t a member of Congress anymore.

    btw, I think “#dontgo” means “Waaah! Don’t leave us! Bring back our toys!”

    The response to which is, #growup.

  5. I am one of over 800,000 FreedomWorks grassroots volunteers, and I can assure that the conservative movement is not just “paid staffers.”

    You might also want to try removing the plank from your own eye – isn’t MoveOn funded by a billionaire by the name of George Soros, and don’t they have paid staff?

    Typical liberal hypocrisy. The facts aren’t on your side, so you resort to petty attacks and empty rhetoric.

  6. I am one of over 800,000 FreedomWorks grassroots volunteers

    I’m sure you are, but FreedomWorks is still the creation of Big Money Special Interests, which means it isn’t a “grassroots” organization, and all 800,000 of you volunteers are dupes.

    isn’t MoveOn funded by a billionaire by the name of George Soros

    No, it isn’t. That’s a rightie myth. MoveOn was built from the ground up by people who had no money and no connections.

    [Update: I should clarify; Soros donated money to the MoveOn Voter Fund in 2003 — five years ago — for the 2004 elections, but none since. At that time MoveOn was already a self-built powerhouse; it was not the creation of Wealthy Special Interests, as right-wing organizations are. ]

    don’t they have paid staff?

    Of course, a small one, but they don’t have to send the paid staff out to do protesting.

    The facts aren’t on your side, so you resort to petty attacks and empty rhetoric.

    I pity you. You poor fool. Or should that be, you poor tool?

  7. Why anyone would volunteer to work for the interests of Big Oil and the coal companies is beyond me. If I were that gullible, I certainly wouldn’t advertise it.

    Of course, nothing is scarier to such pawns than a billionaire who donates some of his money to– dear lord!– progressive causes. After all, to a rightie, a “class traitor” is at least as bad as a “race traitor.”

  8. Oil companies aren’t charging $120 a barrel. They’re paying $120 a barrel. Simple facts shouldn’t be beyond you guys.

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