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Home / Washington Business - May/June 2005 / Move Over MoveOn.org: Here Comes JobMakers.com |
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Move Over MoveOn.org: Here Comes JobMakers.com |
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Written On: May/June 2005 |
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Written By: by Alexis Nepomuceno |
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With 3 million members and a track record of raising millions of dollars overnight, MoveOn.org serves as the poster child for anti-business interests on the Internet. This 800-pound gorilla is the conduit for people, many of whom have views very different from AWB members, to flood the airwaves and stuff your mailbox with political messages aimed at defeating candidates who support free-market approaches.
They target swing states like Washington where they have the best chance to win. In areas evenly divided between the rural (red) and urban (blue) counties, MoveOn.org can influence an election outcome.
During the 2004 presidential election, MoveOn.org launched a seemingly endless series of ads trying to bring down President George W. Bush. For example, the “let-the-inspections-work” ad aimed at his Iraq policy appeared in 13 major U.S. cities and was financed by more than 10,000 MoveOn.org members. In total, MoveOn.org members gave almost $10 million to issue campaigns last fall.
Much of MoveOn.org’s power comes from people with very liberal leanings. Billionaire George Soros contributes millions to the site, as does a long list of celebrities. It is also where many people begin as online activists. For example, if you know people who supported Howard Dean, odds are they are registered users of MoveOn.org.
From the very beginning, MoveOn.org has prided itself in bringing “ordinary” people back into politics, and “supporting busy but concerned citizens in finding their political voice.” This approach served the site well by giving a disenfranchised constituency a collective voice.
Business people busy keeping their shop doors open feel increasingly disenfranchised. That’s where JobMakers.com comes in. It can re-engage our members quickly and effectively.
We’ve already started that process. This year, more than 300 AWB members contributed more than $150,000 to fund our ad campaign during the legislative session. We partnered with the Washington Roundtable and the Coalition of Washington Business Organizations to raise $300,000 for radio and newspaper ads designed to avert a replay of the disastrous 1993 legislative session. Those ads drove people to Jobmakers.com.
By its name alone, JobMakers.com drives a wedge into the heart of those who rail against the private sector. Without businesses there are no jobs. Without entrepreneurs and risk-takers there are no businesses. And, for those who think government should be all things to all people, backers of MoveOn.org would not exist if it wasn’t for the great innovative and entrepreneurial climate in the United States of America.
JobMakers.com is more than a name. It is a potent web tool for employers in an easy-to-understand format. Now, business people can monitor their elected representatives the same way they monitor stocks or mutual funds. And, since our ad campaign linked ordinary business people back to JobMakers.com, we are seeing some of the same political activism from the very people who need to be involved in politics to make it easier to create and retain jobs in Washington.
In April, AWB’s Executive Committee asked us to explore taking JobMakers.com to the next level. Over the next months, you’ll see those steps unfold. In today’s political climate, our “job providers” must be able mobilize quickly, easily and effectively because the only way to beat MoveOn.org’s 800-pound gorilla is to become one of JobMakers.com’s thousands of pro-business “guerillas.”
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