MoveOn.org has a lot of friends in foreign places

A poster on FR had some interesting comments about this article in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. Well, I don't speak Swedish so I did a little Googling for co-author Hanna Armelius, and, lo and behold, here it is in English:

Democracy aid to the US

One year from now, on November 2nd 2004, the next American Presidential elections will be held. For the first time ever, because of the Internet, it is possible for non-American private citizens to participate in the campaign process. Should the rest of the world interfere with the choice of the US President? We claim that support for such action can be found in current theories of democracy.

The theories are tedious as expected. But here's the big plan:

Soon there will be another election, and the campaigning has already started. An estimated 100 million Americans (half of those who are eligible) will cast their vote. As always, there is a vast amount of money involved. However, in our view the greatest scandal is not that American Presidents can be bought -- but rather that they are so cheap. One dollar per EU-citizen would suffice to raise more money than the entire Bush campaign budget for the elections in 2000.

Compare this price to the cost of having Bush in the White House. Not only do we have the cost of rebuilding Iraq, the rest of the world will also have to suffer the consequences of environmental decay due to the withdrawal from treaties like the Kyoto protocol. Some countries might even cease to exist as the amount of carbon dioxide increases.

Charity contributions to democracy enhancement are becoming more popular. Why not invest where it will really make a difference? Since all the citizens of the world are obviously affected by the choice of American president, shouldn't we all have the right to engage in cross-border opinion making?

OK, but exactly how would a good leftoid do this?

In the light of the above, we would like to bring attention to an organization that makes it possible for non-American citizens to contribute to Bush's defeat, and thereby indirectly support democratic values, in the US as well as globally - MoveOn.org. It is not tied to any particular political party. Due to the wide international breakthrough of their peace campaign, "9-11 peace.org", foreigners now constitute one third of their network of 2 million. It is illegal for American presidential candidates to receive contributions from other countries. However, all private citizens can make donations to MoveOn.org as an organization. Currently they are buying TV commercial time to criticise the Bush administration. There is also a petition that anyone can sign, that calls for the resignation of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Emphasis is mine. Think about that when you hear about the Goron's speech this afternoon. Of course, Prince Al had a lot of practice with this kind of thing down at the Buddhist temple.

The Swedish meatballs also provide a convenient link for MoveOn contributions.