MoveOn asked its millions of members "What are you thinking about yesterday's elections?" and this was my response

I've been a MoveOn member for many years now, and what's most troubling to me is how MoveOn's self-selected leadership continues to manipulate its members in a whole variety of ways that make it impossible for those millions of us to really get ourselves organized and mobilized, which imo is one big reason that we lost so badly yesterday. Here are some examples:

* A majority of voters across the political spectrum want a universal single-payer health care system for all. Yet MoveOn's "leaders" never allowed this fact to even enter into this discussion of what we should be fighting for. Instead, we were told that a "public option" was the goal. That's bullsh*t, and we all know it. So we were all asked to fight for a health care goal that we didn't even support. And Obama was so committed to his secret deals with pharma corporations, and so committed to not rocking the boats of the health insurance corporations so-called "rights", that MoveOn's "leaders" kept us confined within Obama's corporate framing. And the Dems totally sold us out on health care.

* MoveOn's "leaders" recently urged us to attack Target Corporation's funding of elections because it was donating to right-wing candidates. But that wasn't the problem!  The problem is that We the People continue to allow corporations to donate money to ANY candidate, left or right wing. In our hearts, we all KNOW corporate money in elections, to ANY candidates, is wrong. But MoveOn's "leaders" misframed this badly, and continue to do so. MoveOn's millions of members COULD be working together to end corporate constitutional "rights" for all corporations - not just their free speech rights (which gives them the power to donate), but all of their MANY other rights as well, which makes this democracy truly dysfunctional from top to bottom. Again, another huge lost opportunity, at least so far. (My primary political work is about ending corporate "rights", so I'm especially peeved about this one!)

* I'm a registered Green. I have been for decades. Many of you are also Greens and Independents of all stripes. Yet, MoveOn's "leaders" frame everything as if the ONLY option for us is the Democratic Party - and that party has been ignoring the yearnings of its base for as long as I can remember. MoveOn's "leaders" never come out and say so, but MoveOn is ONLY about supporting Dems and acting as if Independents and Greens don't even exist! This country has one of the most anti-democratic election systems in the world. I suspect most of you reading this already know this. What we desperately NEED in this country is Instant Runoff Voting and Proportional Representation, which many modern democracies already use. Why isn't MoveOn focusing on ending our two corporate parties monopoly (what Chomsky refers to as our two business parties) and opening up the playing field so that we can start electing candidates from other parties too, as do almost ALL modern democracies across the planet. But no, we have to support Dems, no matter what. I'm not anti-Dem Party. I just think they need some real competition from other parties!

I could go on with my critique of how misfocused MoveOn has become. At its core, I am convinced that the reason for this is that MoveOn itself is fundamentally anti-democratic. There are MILLIONS OF US here! Yet, our group's "leaders" don't provide us any STRUCTURES to find out directly what WE are thinking, other than this totally inadequate "discussion". They don't allow us to talk to each other en masse. To strategize together en masse. To plan actions and campaigns together en masse. And until those millions of us have a way to EXERCISE OUR OWN POWER TOGETHER, the promise and potential of MoveOn is mostly lost to us. And that's a big reason why we weren't more effective as progressives in this election season.

Feel free to respond directly to me via my website: PaulCienfuegos.com. Thanks for reading this!

Onward.....

---

I never received a response from MoveOn's leadership, but many members did respond, mostly favorably.