In his March 21 column, the Fort Collins Coloradoan's Erik Rush warned readers about the alleged perils of voting for Lisa Poppaw, a Fort Collins City Council candidate supported by the Washington-based political action committee (PAC) Progressive Majority. According to Rush -- who repeatedly mischaracterized the PAC as “a lobbying group” or “lobbyists” -- the organization's “Progressive agenda ... translate[s] into socialist policies, open borders, economy-stultifying environmentalist zealotry and pliant, radical Charlie Rangel types in Congress.” Rush, who also writes for the conservative website WorldNetDaily, further warned that “the Progressive movement's plan for all of America” -- its “malignant design” -- is to make it “a cross between Amsterdam and San Francisco.”

As Media Matters for America and Colorado Media Matters noted, during a February 28 appearance on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Rush said the church to which U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) belongs -- Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago -- has a “scary doctrine” that is “something that you'd see in more like a cult.”

After asserting in his column that Poppaw has bought into the Progressive Majority's so-called “malignant design,” Rush asked, “Haven't we seen enough of the Progressive movement's results to know that its agenda is pure socialism?” He then concluded by asserting that Progressive movement advocacy “over the last 40 years has fostered the culture of dependency amongst poor and minority individuals, the dissolution of the American family, widespread moral ambivalence, nascent religious persecution, weak foreign policies and apathetic or even disdainful attitudes amongst Americans toward our sovereignty and our nation.”

However, contrary to Rush's characterization of Progressive Majority as “agenda-driven lobbyists in Washington, D.C.,” the organization's website clearly states that Progressive Majority is a “multi-issue political action committee” that is focused on “recruiting, training and electing a new breed of candidates ... [w]e are the nation's only political organization dedicated exclusively to electing progressive champions at the state and local level.”

From Erik Rush's column, “Beware of Progressive Majority's reach,” in the March 21 edition of the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

Do you, the residents of Fort Collins, want your city to be governed by a locally concerned, community-dedicated City Council or by agenda-driven lobbyists in Washington, D.C.? This is indisputably the choice we have regarding our upcoming city election.

I'm referring to the association between District 2 candidate Lisa Poppaw and the Washington-based organization Progressive Majority (www.progressivemajority.com), a lobbying group dedicated to:

" ... identifying and recruiting the best progressive leaders to run for office; coaching and supporting their candidacies by providing strategic message, campaign and technical support; prioritizing the recruitment and election of candidates of color; and bringing new people into the political process at all levels.

“We elect progressive champions by: identifying every electoral opportunity; recruiting the best progressive leaders to run; training candidates and staff to win; providing state of the art political support; helping them become effective leaders once elected.

” ... We build locally to win nationally."

Their agenda -- the Progressive agenda -- includes well-spun catchphrases that translate into socialist policies, open borders, economy-stultifying environmentalist zealotry and pliant, radical Charlie Rangel types in Congress.

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Now, I'm a national columnist who happens to live in Fort Collins. I make no bones about my conservatism and desire to keep our city from becoming a cross between Amsterdam and San Francisco -- which is the Progressive movement's plan for all of America.

So Poppaw isn't some garden variety concerned resident who decided to run for City Council, after all. She is a savvy individual who buys into the Progressive Majority's malignant design. Worse, I doubt one could get Poppaw to admit to the extent of her entanglement or identification with it, especially because it's giving her a full-blown campaign machine rather than money.

[...]

Instead, we should be outraged. The residents of Fort Collins need to recognize what a dangerous precedent this is. Turning over our local government to operatives for national lobbyists -- of any political stripe -- poses the specter of a local government in which the individual's vote is effectively nullified.

All this is part of Progressive Majority's plan, of course, to eventually “win nationally” through the stealth placement of their candidates in local governments and upon a sleeping citizenry.

What I want to know is: Haven't we seen enough of the Progressive movement's results to know that its agenda is pure socialism? The “progress” they've advocated over the last 40 years has fostered the culture of dependency amongst poor and minority individuals, the dissolution of the American family, widespread moral ambivalence, nascent religious persecution, weak foreign policies and apathetic or even disdainful attitudes amongst Americans toward our sovereignty and our nation.

We can make the right choice by saying “no” to “progressive” outsiders hijacking our city election to further their national agenda, or we can start considering where we're going to put our red light district.