It has been my good fortune over the years to work with a lot of wonderful grassroots groups to agitate for progressive policies. Let me tell you about one of the best: Progressive Democrats of America. I love their toughness, energy, and smarts.

When some Washington-based organizations backed away from fighting for single-payer healthcare for everyone, PDA teamed up with Sicko’s Donna Smith and the California Nurses Association to keep single- payer healthcare alive in the Congress. On the national level–when key leaders in Congress announced that single payer was “off the table”–PDA met with the leadership of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, with Representatives Dennis Kucinich & Eric Massa, with Senator Bernie Sanders, and even with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer while organizing for state single-payer legislation in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. All in the service of keeping the single-payer healthcare idea alive at the state and national level. That fight is far from over, but believe me, without PDA there would have been no single-payer provisions alive to be argued about. (Here’s a link to Nation magazine commentary by John Nichols, pointing out PDA’s critical role in the national health care battle.)

When other organizations backed away from challenging the Administration’s policy towards Afghanistan, PDA stuck with its antiwar principles. When PDA Executive Director Tim Carpenter was invited to a White House briefing just prior to the announcement of the troop escalation, he didn’t waver or cower–he told the Administration staffers there that PDA wanted to help President Obama be a success by opposing an escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Tim then brought up the California anti-occupation resolution that PDA played a key role in passing, a resolution that the State Democratic Party passed overwhelming last month, demanding an end to the occupation of Afghanistan. (Here’s a link to that resolution.)

And when it comes to agitating about the crimes of the Wall Street “banksters,” the failure of the National Democratic Party to push harder for serious climate change legislation, for immigration reform, or for labor law reform and card check organizing, PDA is always there, ready to rumble. Maybe I just like PDA because their feisty inside/outside strategy follows the logic of one of my favorite sayings: “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead armadillos.” Well, you won’t find PDA in the middle of the road–unless they’re holding a rally there!

One more thing: no one gets more bang for the buck than PDA. When you give to PDA, however large or small your donation, you will know that it will be money well spent, that PDA will squeeze the most from every dollar. There’s good reasons why the Nation magazine picked PDA as the “MVP”–the Most Valuable Political Group of 2008! (Here’s the link to that wonderful award.)

So when you give to PDA, you’ll help make possible the progressive political change that we wanted when we voted last year.

Please donate to “Change Makes Change.” Help PDA keep the agitation alive!

Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,
Jim Hightower | PDA Advisory Board Member