MoveOn's Poll Misleads Congress and Misrepresents Its Membership
On Sunday, March 18, MoveOn.org sent a poll to its membership asking whether their members would support or oppose the $124.1billion Iraq war supplemental. The poll asked the question in a way that led their members to support the supplemental plan proposed by Nancy Pelosi. The poll offered no details about the plan, its compromises or the exceptions it gives to the timeline for withdrawal.
MoveOn soon released the poll results, claiming that 84.6% of its members voted to support the supplemental. These results have been circulated on Capitol Hill and are convincing members who were once stalwarts against the supplemental to vote "yes" on the House floor. This poll is a misrepresentation of its membership, which in face only represents 4% of its membership, and now it is misleading Congress by making them think there is more support for the supplemental than what really exists.
The day after MoveOn sent its poll, VotersForPeace (and many other peace organizations) sent out an email alerting our members to the poll, asking anyone who is a MoveOn member to vote NO on the supplemental and NO to their poll. The response to our email was overwhelming, generating more email responses than any other email alert we have sent out. Hundreds of emails came in expressing frustration about MoveOn's sell-out to the Democratic leadership. Even distinguished author and historian Howard Zinn sent a frustrated response to VotersForPeace Co-Founder Kevin Zeese. Many peace voters also said that they were mislead by the poll and mistakenly voted "yes" when they meant to vote "no".
Peace Voters across the country have unfortunately come to expect spin and back-room politics from their government. They do not, however, expect this same thing from the people who are advocating for them on Capitol Hill. Our job is not to compromise the mandate that Peace Voters delivered to Congress in November 2006. VotersForPeace advocates for nothing short of an immediate and fully funded withdrawal, and we are happy to continue to bring together Peace Voters to take that message to Congress
On Sunday, March 18, MoveOn.org sent a poll to its membership asking whether their members would support or oppose the $124.1billion Iraq war supplemental. The poll asked the question in a way that led their members to support the supplemental plan proposed by Nancy Pelosi. The poll offered no details about the plan, its compromises or the exceptions it gives to the timeline for withdrawal.
MoveOn soon released the poll results, claiming that 84.6% of its members voted to support the supplemental. These results have been circulated on Capitol Hill and are convincing members who were once stalwarts against the supplemental to vote "yes" on the House floor. This poll is a misrepresentation of its membership, which in face only represents 4% of its membership, and now it is misleading Congress by making them think there is more support for the supplemental than what really exists.
The day after MoveOn sent its poll, VotersForPeace (and many other peace organizations) sent out an email alerting our members to the poll, asking anyone who is a MoveOn member to vote NO on the supplemental and NO to their poll. The response to our email was overwhelming, generating more email responses than any other email alert we have sent out. Hundreds of emails came in expressing frustration about MoveOn's sell-out to the Democratic leadership. Even distinguished author and historian Howard Zinn sent a frustrated response to VotersForPeace Co-Founder Kevin Zeese. Many peace voters also said that they were mislead by the poll and mistakenly voted "yes" when they meant to vote "no".
Peace Voters across the country have unfortunately come to expect spin and back-room politics from their government. They do not, however, expect this same thing from the people who are advocating for them on Capitol Hill. Our job is not to compromise the mandate that Peace Voters delivered to Congress in November 2006. VotersForPeace advocates for nothing short of an immediate and fully funded withdrawal, and we are happy to continue to bring together Peace Voters to take that message to Congress
For further analysis, please see
www.counterpunch.org/walsh06032006.html
and
www.counterpunch.org/walsh03182005.html
SIGN THE VOTERS' PLEDGE!
