Dear MoveOn member,
The Saturday morning the networks finally called the election and announced Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would be the next president and vice president, I burst into tears. We defeated an incumbent president and a wannabe authoritarian, even though the deck was stacked against us with an anti-democratic Electoral College and more. We navigated massive voter suppression and a global pandemic, and despite it all, an overwhelming 81 million of us showed up at the polls to boot Donald Trump out of office and lay the foundation for a better future.
This was the culmination of a rough four years. Our communities have been under attack. Our democracy has taken body blows, and our nation's social fabric is hanging by threads. To be honest, I wasn't always sure we'd make it.
It's not just the work we did over the last four months that made it possible. Our election win reflected the work we did together to turn the tide against Trump over the last four years. Millions experienced a political awakening after Trump's election, with unprecedented levels of activism and civic engagement, and it showed in the record-breaking voter turnout numbers in November.
Together over the past four years, we consistently and valiantly showed up, pushed back and spoke out against the hate, greed, corruption, and dishonesty of the now outgoing administration. And we aligned a durable majority of the country alongside us.
- We joined together at airports all over the country to speak out against the racist and xenophobic Muslim Ban.
- We protested together for months to stop Trump and Republicans in Congress from ripping up the Affordable Care Act.
- We showed up with tens of thousands of others for Sunday night Resist & Win organizing calls, building a strong community ready to act.
- We volunteered in record numbers in 2018, and together we elected the most diverse U.S. House of Representatives in the history of this country and put an important check on Trump.
- We demanded that Trump be impeached for his abuse of power and then organized for months to build the support to make it happen.
- We came together to make the anti-war majority visible and push back against Trump's reckless escalation of tensions with Iran.
- We took care of one another through a pandemic, offered each other resources, and raised millions for emergency services.
- We joined in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives to demand racial justice and an end to the indiscriminate killing of Black people at the hands of law enforcement, and we flanked demands for shifting money from police budgets to investing in community services and mental health. MoveOn members raised millions of dollars for the Movement for Black Lives and the National Bailout Network.
- This fall, we created one of the country's largest virtual voter turnout operations. Our America for All election campaign engaged more than 900,000 volunteers and included ads and content viewed more than half a billion times.
- Last but not least, we did all of this while preparing to take action if Trump's flagrant attempts to overturn the election ever materialized as a serious threat. Thank goodness, his attempts have failed, our institutions have held strong, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in on January 20.
If we don't step back every now and then to look at the big picture, it's easy to minimize the significance of what we accomplish when we come together. But the truth is that all of us played an essential role at this treacherous time in American history, and MoveOn members were critical to making this country a better place.
The election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris bought us time, but we are not in the clear. We should celebrate our victory, rest, and restore (and keep fighting in the Georgia runoffs!). But then we need to get back to work. This is no time to get complacent. The election gave us the opportunity to build a country that works for all of us, but it did not guarantee it. The far right and Republicans in Congress who empower extremism remain a threat, and if we don't continue to act and organize and build and protest and demand and call for what we know is possible, we could end up in the same place we were four years ago.
So get some rest, and then let's suit up and come back together to continue the work. Here's what to expect in 2021:
We will organize and push the Biden administration and incoming Congress to fight for all of us and pass bold policies that deliver directly for people. No fake solutions, no bipartisan committees to replace real action, no tinkering around the edges. We need bold and aggressive policies that meet the gravity of the crises at hand. They need us to push them. Without us pushing for green jobs, education debt relief, affordable quality health care for everyone, equitable distribution of the COVID vaccines, and more, they won't feel the pressure to go big.
We must hold Trump and the worst of his entourage accountable, and we must undercut the power of the emboldened far right. The flagrant abuses, the blatant stoking of white nationalism, the personal enrichment at the expense of our country, and the constant attacks on our democracy demand that they not get away scot-free. We must send a message that you can't treat governance as a self-serving capitalistic joy ride and get away with it.
We must continue to win elections and increase our power in the House and Senate. In 2022, the MoveOn community will be essential to electing progressive champions in primaries, keeping and expanding the majority in the House, and securing a durable majority in the Senate.
Just think about it: Everything we fought to protect over the last four years would have been so much harder without the millions of us working together as MoveOn members. The elections we won in 2018 and now in 2020 would have been much less likely. The wins we need in the years ahead won't happen without you, without us, leveraging our collective power for good and for one another.
I am closing out 2020 incredibly grateful for all of you and for what we can accomplish when we act together, and I wish you a Happy New Year and a fresh new start in 2021!
I am honored to make change with this vibrant, beautiful, diverse community called MoveOn.
Thanks for all you do.
–Rahna and the rest of the MoveOn team
P.S. MoveOn members did a ton of great work to power wins in the 2020 elections—learn more at https://act.moveon.org/go/149222?t=14&akid=286883%2E10220574%2Emb8hqn.
P.P.S. If you want to support our important work in 2021, chip in here.
This email reflects four years' worth of organizing and campaigning that MoveOn members did through two different entities: MoveOn Civic Action, a 501(c)(4) advocacy nonprofit, and MoveOn Political Action, a federal political action committee.
Want to support MoveOn's work? Together, our diverse and vibrant coalition elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We have an opportunity to make progress, but only if we give it our all to call for bold progressive legislation to expand health care, solve the climate crisis, address systemic racism, and more. Will you chip in now to power our work?
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