Howie Klein of Down With Tyranny, digby of Hullabaloo, John Amato of Crooks and Liars, and) Jacquie (me) who was fired up to join this passionate, creative team and begin working together for GOOD-- all found each other in what became known back then as the liberal blogosphere. I'm so glad we did.
2006 was a bad time. The country was mired in two wars, the Republicans were trying to privatize Social Security and Medicare, and Congress was overloaded with Corporate Democrats who didn't seem to understand what party they belonged to. We knew things were only going to get worse.
So we decided to create an organization outside the Democratic establishment to help elect Democrats who knew how to fight the Republicans and push the party to rediscover its heart and its conscience. From this, the Blue America PAC was born.
One of our earliest campaigns was a big hit! The Have You Had Enough? song from the mind of musical director/creator Tom Maxwell and vocalist Ricki Lee Jones was heralded as one of the very first "Netroots" video efforts to penetrate mainstream media.
More importantly, the corresponding video campaign was made available for our progressive candidates to use for their own local campaigns, thanks to Mike McIntee who created the music video and did all the editing for us.
Other Accomplishments...
Always Ahead of the Pack:
We're proud that Blue America was the only PAC to spend independently to help AOC during her historic campaign to unseat a corrupt 20 year incumbent/party leader, Joe Crowley! We were also the first national PAC to endorse Pramila Jayapal, Jamie Raskin, Donna Edwards, Jeff Merkley, Randy Bryce (Ironstache) ...
Who did we help elect?
Jamie Raskin, Ted Lieu, Elizabeth Warren, Donna Edwards, AOC, Alan Grayson, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Greg Casar, Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, among many others.
This cycle, with our Democracy and civil rights in peril from the fascists who are plotting to overthrow our precious Representative Democracy, the only way forward is to 'elect more and better Democrats' to Congress.
Throughout our history, one thing is a constant: Every contribution, no matter how small really adds up.
We're standing up to the very real threat of fascism. Join us.
We welcome your feedback and invite your fearless participation. If you have a great idea (like Tom Maxwell did) please, tell us!
Remember these words? They're true:
"They may have the money, but we have The People -- Together, we can win!"
Thank you so much for your continuing support over these past (almost) two decades,
-Jacquie, for the entire Blue America Team
