I'm sure anyone even remotely interested in politics somehow gets their name stuck on the email list of a major candidate. Thousands of us are constantly bombarded with bland, blanket emails that lack character or personality, but don't lack the gall to ask for a few bucks. A few days ago I made my first ever personal contribution to a political campaign, I gave $5 to Barack Obama. I received the standard 'thank you for your commitment blah blah' response and went on with my life. A few days latter though, I received another blanket email (Note: I receive them from Hillary, Edwards and Obama), but this one was different, it had some character. I'd just like to share it with you, because for some reason, it really captured me.
Dear Chris,
The 75,000th person who decided to own a piece of this campaign did it with just $5.
It happened late last night, as we hit our goal of 75,000 people donating to the campaign more than two full days in advance of the March 31st quarterly reporting deadline.
His name is Rashed. He's a Navy veteran and this was his first donation ever to a political campaign. We gave him a call from headquarters here in Chicago last night to thank him, and he told us that the reason he decided to give had a lot to do with his young daughter, Yasemin:
"Being an African American male, to have that positive role model in Senator Obama, it's given me so much hope. To be able to look at my daughter one day and tell her, 'You can be anything you want in the world" ... In the past I might have said, 'You could be anything you want to be. But president? No' ... But now, he's given me that light. Now, I can tell her, 'You really can be anything you want in the world.'"
We're running out of time, but there's still an opportunity for you to be counted along with Rashed. We've got until midnight Saturday night to bring as many people and as many donation into the campaign as possible. Whether you've given before or this will be your first time, you can be part of this historic drive -- make a donation now and be counted. (End).
The American political system is broken, and Tom Vilsack is proof of that. Although not my personal favorite for the presidency, he was a successful governor and a man with a lot of new ideas. After only a few months of campaigning, he was forced to withdraw because his campaign was $400,000 in debt. A month after dropping out he endorsed Hillary Clinton, who, undoubtedly out of the kindness of her heart, paid off his debt.
America was founded on bold new ideas and partisan dialog. Indeed, by most measures, our partisan spats today are tame when compared to Alexander Hamilton, who personally participated in half a dozen duels. The problem isn't partisanship, its priority. The priorities of our leaders are in raising money to maintain their own personal power. We have been reduced to a country of selfish egomaniacs. Political mantras should be "I'm in it to do good for the people of this nation" rather than "I'm in it to win."
Is Barack Obama the silver bullet to ending the problems with America's political system? Absolutely not, but I can't help thinking with a smile that he is a pretty damn good start.