After I unsubscribed from moveon's mailing list a couple days ago, their form asked for my reasons. Here's how I responded.
Do you remember when moveon started? I certainly do. It was to ask Congress to stop spending all of their time talking about President Clinton's sex life. We (for I signed on early) wanted them to regain some perspective, and move on.
Today you sent me this "emergency petition" to reject the nomination of Samuel Alito -- a nomination which was announced fewer than 12 hours ago. As you yourselves said in the message, "the battle lines are already clear." It'll be a long, protracted battle, where almost everyone has already made up their minds and won't budge. So what, exactly, will be accomplished by engaging in gross hyperbole this early?
Conservative commentators already use moveon to insult Democrats by association: "you and your moveon cronies' crazy ideas," etcetera. Are you actively TRYING to not be taken seriously?
After a few days, though, I realized what they were trying to accomplish.
