Saturday, March 28, 2020

This is a long email, but we hope you'll read it

Where are the coronavirus tests? Where are the masks? Where are the ventilators? Where is the direct support to Americans who can't go to work and whose rent and bills are due in days?

Dear MoveOn member,

Where are the coronavirus tests? Where are the masks? Where are the ventilators? Where is the direct support to Americans who can't go to work and whose rent and bills are due in days?

They are tied up in the severe dysfunctions of an administration that has ineptly confronted this crisis, and lost in the Republican leadership's obsession with prioritizing corporate bailouts over investment in and relief for the rest of us.

We are facing an unprecedented moment. Health care providers are asked to make miracles happen while being denied basic equipment. Parents are being asked to school their children at home while they don't know if they'll have money for rent that's due. Grocery store workers are being told that they are essential—and truly, they are heroes—while being denied the basic ability to stay safe at work, the time to care for themselves or their families in case of infection, or the confidence that there will be hospital beds left for them.

So forgive us for a moment if bailing out Boeing or reopening Mar-a-Lago isn't our top priority.

MoveOn members are campaigning for masks and protective equipment for health care providers, for immediate and significant financial support for all Americans, and for community safety measures to stop the spread of the virus—and we're doing this while campaigning in ways we never have before ... at home and physically separated from each other and from our members of Congress.

It's a huge problem requiring huge campaigns—and huge innovation to meet the moment. MoveOn was built to lead in this moment, but we need your help: Can you pitch in $5 a month to help us sustain the fight—for as long as it takes—for masks, ventilators, and cash subsidies, and against the spread of the coronavirus and trillion-dollar corporate power grabs?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly to help keep the pressure on our government to rise to the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

We're in a critical moment to push our government to use its extraordinary power to put people first, focus on our individual and public health and our financial security, and help all of our communities weather this pandemic and emerge resilient.

Here's some of what we need right now:

1. We need to care for the folks who are infected and the heroes who are caring for them. That means tests that are fast, accessible, and free; protective equipment, including masks, for all health care staff; more ventilators and hospital beds than we currently have; and assurances that this pandemic won't bankrupt a generation with medical bills.

What we don't need are excuses, attempts to downplay the crisis, delays in providing equipment, or deference to companies that don't want to produce and distribute masks quickly and affordably.

2. We need to stop the spread—with solid public health recommendations based on science, not wishful thinking, with language that connects to people all across the country, and with measures that can actually work for working people. We need folks to stay home if they are able, and we need to care for and support those whose jobs and financial situations don't allow them to stay home. We also need to be responsive to the people for whom staying home is a danger, including those living with domestic violence.

What we don't need is to be urged to pack pews by Easter, or the idea that sacrificing only the older generation would be a good idea (which isn't even how the pandemic is playing out).

3. We need to care for Americans whose lives have been turned upside down. We need freezes on rent, mortgage payments, and other bills, and we also need to move money directly to people who are impacted, so they can care for themselves, their families, and their communities. Support needs to be immediate, significant, and ongoing.

What we don't need is a one-time $1,200 check, or GOP senators worrying that unemployment insurance will incentivize people to stay home.

Those are big needs. And that's just the starting place, as we'll also need to secure and strengthen our elections, build a broader safety net, stand with the communities that are most under attack in this moment—such as Asian Americans, who are facing a surge of hate speech and attacks—and imagine and invest in the society that comes after this pandemic is over.

That's why we're running a big program to meet this moment—but we can only do it with your sustained help. Will you chip in $5 a month to help MoveOn keep up the fight on all fronts during this crisis?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

Can't make a monthly donation? Click here, because MoveOn still needs your help.

Here's some of what we're doing:

  • To produce masks and ventilators, we're pushing the Trump administration to overcome the objections of corporate moguls and actually use the federal power known as the Defense Production Act to direct industries to produce masks, ventilators, and other critical supplies as soon as possible. We're also working to support innovative groups that are not only matching folks who have masks with those who need them but are even empowering individuals to produce masks to support our health care workers.
  • To confront the spread of the virus, we're moving public education and advocacy campaigns to urge all who can to stay home, to push local and state governments to listen to public health officials—and not Donald Trump's Twitter feed—about when to reopen businesses and schools, and to support those who can't stay home with measures that help their health and financial well-being.
  • To provide immediate relief, we're pushing for a stimulus that puts people first—with direct payments, rent freezes, expanded housing, paid sick and family leave, access to health care, and more. And since the federal government seems unwilling to do all that's needed, we're running campaigns with partners to push state governments and corporations to do what must be done.

Over the past few weeks, this work resulted in tens of thousands of phone calls, millions of petition signatures, digital homepage takeovers of key newspapers, hard-hitting videos that focus on stories of folks impacted by the pandemic, and more. And we need to keep all of that going—and do even more.

At the same time, it has not included rallies, office visits, or other tactics that MoveOn is known for—meaning we're now campaigning on new ground.

And so we'll do what MoveOn always does: We'll innovate. Virtual rallies, Facebook Lives, crowdsourced social media campaigns, peer-to peer outreach, relational organizing through friends and family. We're investing in all of these possibilities in order to channel the power of millions of MoveOn members in new and impactful ways.

That takes work, experimentation, analysis, data, tech, and, of course, staff time—while our staff are also all juggling caring for family members that are home from school, or missing paychecks, or concerned about their health. But we're giving our all, even while we're in uncertain times.

And we have to continue. The stakes are too high to do anything else. So we will campaign on multiple fronts, raise many voices, put all that we can out there.

As Rahna Epting, MoveOn's executive director, said to us today, "Now is not the time to tighten our belts. Now is not the time to cut off our nose to spite our face. This is the time to put it all out there, to meet this unprecedented, high-stakes moment with everything we can. Let's do everything our members are ready to do."

Are you ready to support this work across many fronts, many channels, and many uncertainties?

Yes, I'll support MoveOn's work by chipping in $5 a month.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

Thanks for all you do.

–Justin, Jayne, Ankur, Isbah, and the rest of the team

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?

Yes, I'll chip in $5 a month.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.


PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

This email was sent to Mar Alfaro on March 28, 2020. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

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