The unemployed can dramatically change the trajectory of these midterm elections. And with your help, they will.
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Jaws
, the 1975 Steven Spielberg movie about a voracious great white shark, provided the inspiration for Bite Back. This two minute internet ad reflects the plight of America's jobless millions, and refocuses their rage on their real tormentors.
Having seen the ad, let me explain why Ur Union of Unemployed produced Bite Back, and why we need your help to take our rallying cry viral! The jobless are the swing voters of 2010. The vast majority are already registered. Many were the surge voters that propelled Barack Obama to the White House in 2008. But in the intervening two years, those surge voters -- Blacks, Latinos, Blue Collar males with a high school diploma and college students -- faced much higher unemployment rates than other Americans. Unfortunately, if recent surveys are to be believed, the jobless are swinging hard right, right towards giving someone else a chance. And that someone else is usually a little known Republican challenger. In 21 congressional districts polled by Whit Ayres for the American Action Forum last month, "giving someone else a chance" beat the Democratic incumbent by 15 to 30 points. Both Ayres and the American Action Forum are fixtures in the GOP establishment and their bias is clear. But 16 of those 21 districts are listed as "lean democratic" or "democratic toss up" by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Ayres polled districts in eight states with a total of 3.1 million "officially" unemployed residents. Underemployed and discouraged workers would double that number. So it is completely understandable that 26 percent of Ayres' likely voters would say "creating new jobs is most likely to affect their vote for Congress." To many jobless voters, the jury is still out on whether or not "someone else" running as a Republican can "create new jobs." Even in Ayers' surveys, the head-to-head tallies are much tighter than the hypothetical match-ups. And here's why. For the last 21 months, America's jobless have heard only that (a) the Democratic stimulus did not work, and (b) the Democrats failed to extend unemployment benefits. What they seldom, if ever, heard was that (a) the Republicans voted en masse against the stimulus, (b) the Republicans kept voting as a block against extended unemployment benefits, and (c) that leading Republicans considered the jobless "lazy" ... "drug users" ... and "hobos." Bottom line: Republican strategy is to bludgeon quiet truth with the loudest lie. So it is no wonder the unemployed are angry. They have every reason to be. They have lost almost everything. They have been lied to, deliberately. And they have been defamed by GOP mouthpieces like Jon Kyl, Orrin Hatch, Rand Paul, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. So, if the jobless ever learn who their real tormentors are, then "someone else" becomes shark bait. And that's where you come in. Bite Back was produced so America's jobless could become political predators. Its effectiveness depends on how many views it gets from the unemployed and underemployed. So, will you help us remind jobless Americans about the greedy bastards who stole their jobs, life savings, pensions and even their homes? Will you help us remind the jobless who, exactly, wanted them to pee in a cup to get extended unemployment benefits? Will you forward Bite Back to friends and family members who are unemployed, working part-time involuntarily, who have looked for a job in the last year but did not find one, or who just stopped looking for work? There are 31 million Americans who fit that description. They can dramatically change the trajectory of these midterm elections. And with your help, they will.

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