Eli Pariser

Eli Pariser is the executive director of MoveOn, grassroots political network that seeks to push the Democratic Party ever further to the political left. On December 9, 2004, a month after John Kerry's Election Day defeat to George W. Bush, Pariser declared that MoveOn had effectively taken control of the Democratic Party. "For years," he said, "the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base. But we can't afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers. … In the last year, grass-roots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive. Now it's our party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back."

Pariser is currently working to enlist young activists to join future leftist initiatives. In an e-mail distributed to MoveOn members on November 22, 2005, Pariser announced that his organization had created a spinoff entity called the New Organizing Institute, "a unique grassroots program that trains young, technology-enabled political organizers to work for progressive campaigns and organizations."

In early 2008 Pariser announced that he and MoveOn were endorsing Barack Obama for U.S. President. "We've learned that the key to achieving change in Washington without compromising core values is having a galvanized electorate to back you up," said Pariser, "and Barack Obama has our members 'fired up and ready to go' on that front."

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