Email from MoveOn: Time to reach out and touch AT&T is NOW!

Dear MoveOn Member,

Our nation is just days from defaulting on its debts, and Republicans are willing to crash our economy before they compromise on their radical ideological agenda.

According to The New York Times, corporate America is "devising doomsday plans" in case Republicans force the country into default.1 But all these big corporations have to do is pick up the phone.

The Republican Party may have been captured by Tea Party ideology, but it can't survive without corporate donations. That's why we need some of the biggest Republican donors to tell the Republican leadership: "you don't get one more dime from us unless you stop this insane assault on our economy."

In this desperate moment, we need to use every bit of leverage we have. And just like Republicans need corporate dollars, big corporations need us as customers. They either need to keep your business or they want to get it, which means you have power.

Some of the biggest Republican donors are AT&T, Verizon, Bank of America, and J.P. Morgan Chase.2

Can you tell these companies, "You could lose my business if you keep funding Republicans as they crash our economy"?

There's a lot of competition for phone companies and banks, and you can switch your business any time. They know that, which is why they'll have to listen—especially if we all send this message together.

For example, over the past 20 years, AT&T has donated more than $22 million to Republicans and over $2 million in the last election cycle alone.3 Which means AT&T and other big corporate donors have a lot of leverage over Republicans to get them to compromise.

And the average annual cell phone bill in the U.S. is about $566, which means if around 3,500 customers took their business from AT&T, that would mean $2 million less they'd have to donate to Republicans next year.4 Now imagine if it's tens of thousands of us.

That's the kind of leverage we have together over these big Republican donors. And with our economy being held hostage by Republicans so they can gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and leave tax breaks for the rich untouched, there has never been a more important time to use it.

Can you tell these companies, "You could lose my business if you keep funding Republicans as they crash our economy"?

Thanks for all that you do,

–Daniel, Michael, Elena, Tate, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Wall St. Makes Fallback Plans for Debt Crisis," The New York Times, July 20, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211704&id=29180-1765173-HeYJu4x&t=4

2. "Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2010," OpenSecrets.org, Center for Responsive Politics, April 25, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211705&id=29180-1765173-HeYJu4x&t=5

3. Ibid.

"Top Overall Donors, 1989-2010," OpenSecrets.org, Center for Responsive Politics, April 25, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211706&id=29180-1765173-HeYJu4x&t=6

4. "Average monthly cell phone is dropping, but higher than late 1990s, while voice usage is sinking," The Dallas Morning News, April 8, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=211707&id=29180-1765173-HeYJu4x&t=7

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MoveOn was an early turn-on for me. I have done their stuff; they give great support to their activists.

... without even a hint of due process.

They have fucked with my bill and my service continuously for over a year. I called our state regulatory authority and they said that they have to have an attorney on staff to deal exclusively with AT&T complaints.

One day, I will drop them. Like a lead balloon.