http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1413931Oh my.
The mountain man primitive who, like all men, nightly pitches his tent one day's march nearer the mausoleum:
ThomWV (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-04-11 05:09 PM
Original message
Low Cost People Power
If I were to ask you to name a group that normally gets its way in Washington, one that wields such political clout that politicians stand up and pay attention when it speaks no one would be surprised if you answered the NRA or AARP. Indeed, the National Rifle Association and the American Association of Retired Persons have power galore over Congress.
I was thinking about that earlier today and I got to wondering, why isn't the Democratic Party like that? Or maybe a better question is why isn't there a Democratic Party Association who's only aim is to lobby Democrats to act like Democrats, to support those stick with the party and to work to remove those who are Democrats in name only. It doesn't sound like an impossible thing to me. So then I thought, well, that would be awfully expensive, but when I looked at the dues those two organizations charge their members I was a bit surprised. For $35 a year you can be a proud card-carrying member of the NRA and for about half of that the AARP will be happy to represent you. Really, that's all it costs, I went to their website and looked.
And what do those two organizations offer their members for this low price? Well first off both of them insist that they will protect their member's rights - 2nd Amendment in one case and anything that comes before the Congress that effects their membership in the other. That sounds good, I'd like to see the Democratic Party goaded in that direction myself Next is that both organizations have magazines that have articles on subjects of interest to their supporters . So those members are kept up to date, they don't have to watch the news to find out what their officials are up to now. And there are other benefits too - each of them offers various insurances (including personal property, life, and health) at group discounts - imagine a Democrats Association offering something like that?
Think about it, the price of political clout can be as low as $35 - why aren't we doing something like that? It boggles the mind.
I dunno. Last I checked, it seems the Planned Parenthoodlums gets its way in Congress more so than any other group, including retired people and firearms-owners.
