For the last four days, Senate Republicans have been holding up every bill in Congress, trying to force a vote on an Iran
sanctions bill that experts believe would put us on a path to war.
Hawkish foreign policy bills often pass unanimously. But this time, it's not going to work. And the reason why is a fantastic
story.
We've just released a new episode of "The Good Fight" that tells the whole tale—about a grassroots uprising,
led by an unlikely crew of outsiders and MoveOn members like you and me who turned the tide.
If you don't like needless war, if you want to know the real story behind the headlines, if believe in giving diplomacy a
chance to succeed, then you should check out this podcast.
President Obama is in the middle of high-wire negotiations to ensure that Iran never gets nuclear weapons—and to take
war off the table. But those negotiations were nearly torpedoed by the Iran sanctions bill that popped up just before Christmas
and instantly racked up dozens of Senate co-sponsors. The last time a bill like this came to a vote, it passed 99 to 0.
What happened next surprised everybody.
Or at least, almost everybody. If you were one of the MoveOn members who called your senators during the last month or two,
maybe it didn't surprise you. And our guests weren't totally surprised, either—because they were at the heart of the
lightning grassroots campaign to stop the bill and save the negotiations. They'd learned their lessons from the Iraq war.
And they were laser-focused on preventing the next one.
The guests you'll meet on this episode are a fascinating bunch. A young Iranian woman who moved here from Australia to organize
for peace—and started a MoveOn petition that drew 150,000 signatures. The leaders of the pro-peace, pro-Israel group
J Street. And Ilya Sheyman, who got his start in activism by opposing the Iraq invasion while he was in high school—and
now serves in MoveOn.org's national leadership. But this isn't just their story: it's a story about all of us.
Remember the time before the Iraq war began? Millions of us marched in
the streets—but we were ignored. So we decided
to build something unignorable. We've built a progressive movement that
has changed American politics, helped elect a president...
and can now move the country away from military action, before it
happens. Politics is rife with frustrations and disappointments
and defeats—but there's something extraordinary here. Something to be
proud of. Something we've all helped create.
I'm grateful for the chance to share one of these movement victory stories. Listen
in here.
Thanks for all you do.
–Ben
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