Over the past couple of months, one thing that has been on the minds of politicians and citizens in the U.S. alike is the Iran Deal, which has garnered polarizing amounts of right-wing discontent and left-wing support.
The Iran Deal essentially allows Iran to begin legally harnessing nuclear energy on a probationary basis and drops sanctions between Iran and the rest of the world’s powers. In return, Iran is supposed to reduce their number of working centrifuges and is not allowed to develop nuclear weapons for ten years.
Recently, the deal has been catching a lot of flak for allowing Iran to test its own facilities, dropping sanctions and many contend that it not hard enough on Iran, which despite the numerous sanctions continues to be one of the largest sponsors of global terrorism. Some terrorist groups included in Iran’s budget are Hezbollah in Lebanon and, most recently, Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip.
This hot-button topic is the basis for a number of increasingly disturbing emails from MoveOn.org.
MoveOn.org’s Political Action organization is described on their website as “a federal PAC… focused on running powerful progressive advocacy campaigns.” The MoveOn.org organization as a whole offers petitions that aim to help the underprivileged people of this country by seeking political and social reforms, instigating positive change for many people. Unfortunately, the seemingly wholesome organization appeared to derail from this positive activism when it began advocating for the Iran Deal.
On Jul. 16, MoveOn.org requested via email that its members contact Senators Schumer, Gillibrand and Rep. Tonko stating, “Republicans will try to take us to war by sabotaging the Iran nuclear deal. I urge you to support the deal and stop Republicans from starting another costly war in the Middle East.”
On Aug. 6, MoveOn.org again contacted its members stating “So, Sen. Schumer is truly undecided—or at least undeclared—making it essential that we act now. We can’t afford to have a war hawk leading the Senate Democratic caucus.”
Within days another email was sent by MoveOn.org, immediately following Sen. Schumer’s announcement of his stance against the Iran Deal, with the subject line “Unbelievable. Schumer. War.” Followed by the opening line, “We could be starting down the path to a new war in the Middle East—and New York Senator Schumer is to blame. This isn’t a hyperbole.”
There were several other statements in this correspondence, including: “Any democrat considering joining Sen. Schumer must also be held accountable and must know that he or she too will pay a steep political price for attempting to sabotage the Iran Deal.”
This came just before their request for a pledge to withhold $10 million in donations to any Democrat who opposes the deal.
Through their coverage of the Iran Deal, MoveOn.org has not only unfairly accused Sen. Schumer of being a war hawk solely on the basis of his potential lack of support for the Iran Deal. They have also used textbook strawman fallacy to scare its members into compliance under the pretext that without this deal war between Iran and the U.S. would immediately break out.
Their thinly-veiled hatred, thuggish tactics, blackmail and gross generalization has shown MoveOn.org’s true colors, and their archaic fearmongering practices should have no place in government lobbying.
This was contributed by Marist College CAMERA Fellow Zach Cohen.