From Denny: Are you tired of the unending bizarre nonsense coming out of the mouths of the extreme right like conservative talk show hosts Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh?
Well, the Democrats are finally starting to organize the yardcats, bringing them to the government's back yard. Banding together in solidarity are 400 groups comprised of labor unions as well as progressive and civil rights groups.
Their aim? Jobs creation and a force of unity against the Republicans and bigots that keep undermining social and economic progress in this country. The rally wants to promote placing jobs creation at the top of the Congressional agenda. They call themselves "One Nation Working Together."
Glenn Beck held a conservative rally that drew about 80,000 people to the nation's capitol in August. Organizers of this rally say their rally was planned well in advance of Beck's. This rally is about demanding lawmakers find bi-partisan common ground when it comes to jobs. They also hope this rally will help boost Democratic turnout to the voting polls in November when traditionally the opposition party makes gains in Congress because of voter frustration.
"We're not a response to the Tea Party. If anything, we're the antidote. We are a different response to the same moment," NAACP president Benjamin Jealous told ABC News. "They have sought to attack diversity. They have attacked the 14th amendment. They made racial profiling the law of the land in Arizona and have ambitions to do it elsewhere. We say, 'Don't push down on diversity; push up on prosperity.'"
One thing is for sure it's about time that the Democrats energized their base. Most Democrats only vote in Presidential elections every four years. It's important to vote in off year elections and in primaries in order to get better candidates.
Democrats, and the President, are working hard to gin up the enthusiasm among their voters. It looks like their efforts are beginning to pay off. What the Democrats are just now learning and applying is how important it is to keep the organizing on-going, not just in election years. It is one reason why the Republicans are successful in holding together their base.
A recent poll this week from NBC News/Wall Street Journal, shows enthusiasm for mid-term elections is moving up among Democratic-leaning voters. For now the Republicans have a three point advantage over a generic party choice over Democrats for Congressional elections. The good news about this poll is that the Republican advantage is now down six points from their previous nine-point lead in August. It's too early to tell if this slide in favor of the Democrats is enough to guarantee their hold on Congress come November.
This 400 group rally this weekend is also about getting people out to vote when normally they do not in mid-term elections. If the Democrats ever succeed in getting out their voters regularly for every election, this Congress would look a lot different and heavily in favor of Democrats.
"We want everybody to vote. We are not in this for parties, we are in this for the next Congress," Jealous said. "This is about making sure whoever is in office in the next Congress in either party understands that the expectation of the majority of people in this country is they will focus on creating more jobs."
Thousands of people from across the country are expected this rally, according to Jealous of the NAACP. He confirmed that more than 1,600 buses will be arriving and is "positively optimistic" the rally will be attended by a healthy turnout.
Other groups coming to attend? Sponsors for this rally include: Al Sharpton's National Action Network, Hispanic civil rights group National Council of La Raza, environmental group Sierra Club and labor unions AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union and UAW.
"I think our members are saying that working people are facing the biggest crisis in our generation and that we want to stand up and speak out and we want to vote in numbers like never before November 2nd, because we need to get back to work," SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said in an interview with MSNBC's Ed Schultz this week. "We need to fix our broken immigration system and we need corporations to share in the responsibility of getting this economy going again."
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