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Progressive political organization launches new college activist site
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by Stacy Waite
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Progressive political organization ClickBackAmerica launched a new website Monday designed to generate liberal political activism on college campuses.
The website allows active students to raise funds for CBA’s sponsor through the “College Click Drive,” a fundraiser that urges students to complete activities on the site, such as signing a petition or participating in a CBA campaign.
According to CBA Executive Director Ari Rabin-Havt, each time a student completes a campaign task on the site, an anonymous donor donates $1 to MoveOn.org, an advertising program designed to convey the organization’s understanding of the truth about Bush Administration policies to voters.
Rabin-Havt said CBA hopes to raise $1 million for MoveOn.org.
CBA’s current leading campaign is called “Reject George Bush’s Credit,” designed to make a statement against Bush’s spending priorities and his attention to the federal deficit. CBA activists will send a letter to the President in the form of a credit-card rejection letter before the presidential election this November.
CBA plans to make phone calls to Congress, throw political parties and create petitions on issues presently affecting young voters to raise money.
Rabin-Havt said CBA will e-mail active members to complete the tasks as they arise.
Rabin-Havt said CBA is non-partisan, and the organization’s main goal is to politically “energize” college students.
“You have College Democrats and College Republicans, but you have no group that’s just trying to energize students,” Rabin-Havt said.
He said CBA’s focus is not to get students involved in the voting process, but to sign petitions and contact President George W. Bush in regards to what young voters want politically.
“Great organizations like ‘Rock the Vote’ are merely getting students out to vote, that mission’s been done,” Rabin-Havt said. “We want to raise the voice of progressive voters.”
College students nationwide have raised roughly $27,000 for MoveOn.org Voter Fund’s campaign, with the University of Wisconsin raising $194 to earn a seventh-place spot on the site’s top fundraisers.
UW junior Adam Smith supports Bush and is skeptical of CBA’s motives.
“MoveOn.org is inherently anti-Bush,” Smith said. “I certainly wouldn’t support an organization that claimed to be non-partisan which is clearly not.”
Smith does not believe CBA’s $1 million fund to MoveOn.org Voter Fund will influence the presidential election. Smith said although MoveOn.org’s advertising may have an effect on voters, the $1 million will not fund enough advertising to affect Bush’s campaign.
“I would tend to say an organization like [CBA] would certainly be ineffective for energizing a student base,” he said. “[CBA] seems to me like it’s a ploy to try to gain support for Bush’s opposition on campus, disguised as a non-partisan movement.”
