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madamesilverspurs

(15,784 posts)
Mon Sep 29, 2014, 02:35 AM Sep 2014

beep beep "You have mail."

I get it. Really. I do understand why they keep sending those annoying, begging emails. We all know that it costs money, a lot of money, to run for office or re-election. And it costs even more these days, thanks to the parade of Citizens United Goliaths facing our scattered Davids. We have nothing comparable, and for my thinking, that’s a good thing. We don’t want to be like them. Our victories are the result less of dollars than of people working together. The battles we do win are won with principle and brains against the brawn dripping with cash; it’s not “winning” if all you do is write a check for it.

Personally, I’m thankful for those on the Dem side who can and do write checks. I’m also thankful that they don’t stop there. In my neighborhood they get down in the nitty gritty with the rest of us. My income is so severely limited that donating cash is absolutely out of the question. But time can be donated, and I’ve been blessed with so many friends met across a table where several of us were folding letters and stuffing them in envelopes, or getting together to write letters to newspapers, or learning how to canvass or make phone calls, or work in the office answering phones and scheduling yard-sign deliveries, or doing data entry at one campaign then going a few blocks away to do the same for another campaign, or doing voter registration (one of my favorites!), or making sure our canvassers have enough water to drink and maybe some snacks to energize their walking, or coordinating a team to make sure there’s a meal for those who’ve been canvassing for hours, or helping voters find the nearest voting location…

When I sign up for these organizations I make sure they know that I can NOT give money. But I ask them to keep me on their mailing list, anyway, because there’s always a bit of new information in every communiqué. And maybe I can pass that information on to someone who finds it sufficiently compelling to sign up and donate. I do what I can, and no campaign has ever said, “Naw, we just want money, so go away.” In spite of limitations of age and health there is always something I can do.

So, as annoying as those emails are, I know that they really are necessary. I also know that this is what it’s going to look like from now on with every election season, at least until we undo the damage done by Citizens United. And we’ll get a bit of a break after the midterms. Then there’s next year and 2016.

The telephone rings all day, the emails arrive from early morning until late at night. All that begging pales in comparison to the barrage of nastiness that passes for campaign commercials. The upside is that my television screen is the cleanest spot in the house; I keep a basket of rolled up socks handy and pitch them at the ads. The screen gets continuously cleaned, and I get exercise picking up the ricocheted socks.

My ballot will arrive in the mail in a few days, and in filling it out I will smile and claim my portion in this thing we call democracy, money be damned.

Was that the doorbell?

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beep beep "You have mail." (Original Post) madamesilverspurs Sep 2014 OP
Activism without money marions ghost Sep 2014 #1
Big Money wants to make beggars of us all. Orsino Sep 2014 #2

Orsino

(37,428 posts)
2. Big Money wants to make beggars of us all.
Mon Sep 29, 2014, 09:38 AM
Sep 2014

It's fucking sad to see Dems being reduced to the same level as the GOP's trained dancing monkeys.

At least they're hitting up as many people as possible for small donations...but that just means they only have time to listen to the big wallets.

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