Put Progressive Success On Your Gift List

It sure hasn't been "no crystal stair." Langston Hughes' great poem best characterizes the past several months, the first year of the Obama reform era. The president has called on the country to address its great challenges -- digging out of the Great Recession, health care, new energy, financial reform, building a new economy from the ruins of the old. He's roused the most powerful lobbies in America -- from Big Pharma to Big Oil. The path is filled with tacks, splinters, and boards torn up.

Your help and energy helped the Campaign for America's Future join this literal battle for America's future. That battle will intensify next year -- so once more we hope you will join with us as we move forward into 2010 and beyond. As we head into this holiday season, please put the Campaign for America's Future on your year-end gift list.

We began 2009 by putting out our Main Street Recovery Plan, making the case for a bold jobs and growth agenda to put people to work and pull us out of the recession. We then pushed hard for a larger recovery plan, taking on the conservatives in both parties who worked to make it weaker and smaller. Now, with unemployment over 10% and rising, we'll continue next year to push for a jobs program -- and to fend off misguided efforts to cut critical investments while people are still out of work.

This year, we took a leading role in galvanizing the drive for comprehensive health care reform -- and with your help and activism, helped build the demand for a strong public option to the private insurance companies. Now, it looks like we'll start the new year working nonstop to finish that fight and pass comprehensive health care reform.

In 2009, we began to make the case for reorganizing the banks, not just subsidizing them. We pushed hard for an independent investigation of the crimes and excesses of Wall Street. We succeeded in getting a Financial Crisis Investigative Commission created. Next year, we'll focus on exposing the follies and driving the reforms vital to making Wall Street the servant, not the master, of the real economy.

We made the case for taking the lead in the green industrial revolution that will transform our world. That requires a bold investment agenda and an industrial policy to ensure that we make things in America once more. Next year, we'll continue to enlist your support in battling for new energy and building a new economy.

Along the way, we've provided cutting-edge intelligence on the key battles in Washington through our daily email, OurFuture Today, and Bill Scher's invaluable Progressive Breakfast, posted each morning on our website. We've exposed the obstructionist Republican Party that has bet its future on Obama's failure. We "dogged the Blue Dogs" and corporate Democrats who stand in the way of change. Once more, we convened progressives in our annual conference, America's Future Now!, to share strategy and message.

The Campaign made your voice heard by challenging the insurance companies, the energy lobby, and Wall Street barons to build an economy that works for working people. You responded when we called on you to sign a petition to ensure that every American has access to quality, affordable health care. When we asked you to send a message to your representatives urging them to support the president's recovery budget, you took action. We know you will respond as we gear up for the crucial 2010 battles that lay ahead.

These fights won't be won easily. Even with a popular president, and Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, nothing is certain. We're up against the most powerful corporate lobbies, the heart of money power -- the insurance companies, the Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street's money politics, Big Oil, and much more.

This is heavy lifting, but the Campaign for America's Future is positioned at the center of the independent, progressive movement, and ready to take the battle into 2010. With your help and support, we can move America forward. We're closer to health care reform than any time since the passage of Medicare over 30 years ago. We're challenging the arrogance of Wall Street. Big Oil no longer reigns supreme in Washington.

This is the best opportunity for progressive reform we have had in 30 years, but we can take on the reforms vital to America's future only with your help and your engagement. Please make a contribution to the Campaign for America's Future this year.

This won't be a crystal stair. We've got a hard slog in front of us. But the stakes could not be greater, the need clearer, the opportunity greater. We can't afford to fail. Thank you for your commitment, for your support, and for your energy. Enjoy your holiday season this year. Get some rest. Next year, we turn up the heat.

If you prefer to make a tax-deductible contribution to our 501c3 educational arm, please visit the Institute for America's Future donation page.