How Large is Vision America?

Last year we noted that Vision America claimed to have sent out ten million emails in one day in support of Mike Huckabee during the GOP primary, which seemed hard to believe considering that a powerhouse organization like MoveOn only claims 3.2 million members.

But they are sticking with their story – according to a recent “Rick Scarborough Report,” the organization claims to have more than 1 million subscribers:

As the end of the year approaches, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who receives this Report and prays for our efforts. Because we now have over 1,000,000 subscribers, I am certain some will forward this email to friends who do not typically read our reports so let me rehearse who I am and what I do, and most importantly, why.

How could that possibly be true?  Even by fringe right-wing group standards, Vision America is among the smallest and fringiest.  I follow VA as closely as I follow influential groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council and yet if you were to ask me what they actually do, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you. They rarely issue press releases or hold events and almost never generate any press coverage, even by their own admission.

Could this tiny organization, which always seems to be in desperate need of money, really have more than a million subscribers?  That just seems beyond belief – I just can’t imagine that there are a million people in this country who would sign up to receive Scarborough’s rambling emails, which are full of hyperbole and nonsense: 

I believe that America is facing the gravest challenge since the Second World War, and one that will forever change the course of this great nation if Christians do not experience a renewed commitment to freedom and understanding of the role of God in government.

I am not hopeless, but I do believe that Christians and other god-fearing Americans must be willing to confront what Barrack Hussein Obama has made clear will be the most radical pro-abortion and pro-homosexual big government administration ever. We still have friends in Congress, but we must mobilize millions of Americans to stand with them and let them know we are here to pray and to act!

And now we are hearing of plans to take the financial crisis this country is facing and using it as the gateway to nationalizing enormous chunks of the American economy, moving us down the road to European style socialism. One of the foundational principles of the Declaration of Independence was the inalienable right to pursue happiness. With nationalized healthcare, no health care professional will ever be included in that right again, and you will see an erosion of the greatest healthcare system the world has ever known.

Who knows?  Maybe there really are a million people out there just waiting for Vision America to mobilize them to action.  I doubt it, but if that is the case, one has to wonder just why the organization has seemingly been unable to accomplish anything at all.