Alan Grayson-- The Essential Member of Congress

Blue America doesn't do many live events. But on November 12, 2011 we were very excited to offer all of our Southern California members an opportunity to meet Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson at the Brave New Films studios in Culver City. John Amato, Digby and I had worked with Robert Greenwald to host the free event featuring Grayson. I blogged about it that day and again last July on the occasion of Britain granting one of World War II's greatest heroes, Alan Turing, a posthumous pardon for the crime of being gay.

That day at the Brave New Films studios was a wonderful day for the Blue America members from L.A., Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties who came to hear Grayson speak. It was also the beginning of an important relationship between filmmaker Greenwald and the most outspoken Member of Congress. That led, eventually, to a new film about how Grayson and the grassroots progressive movement stopped an "inevitable" attack on Syria. There's a clip up top you should watch. Grayson:

In late August, war with Syria appeared inevitable. The President said we were going to war. So did the Secretary of State. But over the course of two weeks, something extraordinary happened. Americans rose up and said, "No way." Nearly 100,000 signatures, 80,000 Facebook shares, and more than 10,000 tweets later, a war with Syria was no longer inevitable, or even possible. Together, we won the war against the war.

A coalition, unlike anything we've ever seen before, banded together to say "Peace!" International pressure came when Members of the British Parliament rejected their own Prime Minister's call for war. Reasonable Republicans joined with war-disgusted Democrats, and said, "Enough is enough."

And we established an important principle: On war and peace, it's our money, and it's our blood. So it must be our decision.

That's why it's so important to reelect Alan Grayson and help him ascend the leadership ladder in the House. If you're a regular here, you'd probably rather see a Speaker Grayson one day than a Speaker Hoyer, a Speaker Wasserman-Schultz or a Speaker Crowley. Unfortunately, hat doesn't just happen based on a contest between ideas. You can help Grayson help us all here on the main Blue America page.