I was watching the first season of The West Wing, which should be required watching for any progressive candidate, and I got to thinking about what my campaign for Congress in Colorado against Tom Tancredo should be and is about. I wanted to share it with you and open it for comment.
This campaign is about making a difference. This campaign is about making people's lives better and about changing the world and about saving lives. That probably sounds melodramatic, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who would say that's not what politics is about anymore. But I say that's what it should be about and I say that's what it's going to be about on my campaign.
I realized the other night as I was speaking at a GLBT fundraising party in Denver that my special gift is that I give people hope. I hand it out like it was candy from my pocket. I don't know how I do it exactly. I just go out and be who I am and people love me for it. I suspect it has something to do with most people wanting to believe in heroes. I give them something a little bit larger than life. I stand up and tell them they don't have to be afraid, that they can stand up strong for what they believe in.
But it occurred to me in recent days that if I win, then it's all different---then I can do something so much more tangible than just give people hope. Then I really can start to change the world. Then I can deliver strength and leadership in Congress and on a national scale, and I can give progressives someone to rally around. I believe that no matter how goofy it may sound to you.
What I want on this campaign are people who want to help other people. I want people who want to make a difference. I want people who are in politics to make people's lives better, period. I want people who believe, like I believe. I want people who see a mother's pain at a son lost in Iraq and feel real anguish in their heart the way I do. I want people who yearn to make a difference and who ache to make the world a better place.
What I don't want on my campaign is big egos and people who can't treat other people right. I don't want empty shirts who don't have any reason to be involved other than to serve their own ambition. I don't want people chasing power or money or status or any of that crap.
This campaign, and I would argue progressive politics on a larger scale, must become a crusade. We have to build something unique, something huge, something no one has ever seen in a Congressional campaign before. We need to raise money like crazy, but we also need to raise hope and excitement and buzz until everyone, even people who don't like politics, want to be part of this. This campaign has to be larger than life and the people in it need to care passionately about what we are trying to do. They need to understand me and why I'm running and buy into it. At the end of the day, at the end of election day, they need to FEEL the victory or the defeat with the same intensity that I do.
If we can do that, then we can create a historic victory. I believe we can win this by a good margin. I believe we could take back the House of Representatives by a wide margin. I also believe we could lose the same way. But I believe the choice between the two lies with us, with how hard we are willing to work, with how much imagination we can have, with what we are willing to do with the god given talents we all have.
People on my staff get this. They get it without being told because they are involved in politics for the right reasons.
If you get it too, if you understand what I'm talking about, then I want you on board. If you don't, then I don't. If you can come in and be part of the team, then you can help us win a great victory. But if you only want to do this to have a shot at being famous or some such thing, then I don't need you.
I'm looking for crusaders. I'm looking for people who will put everything they are into this campaign for the next six months. I'm looking for people who will give this thing everything they have, to the exclusion of everything else, and who understand that the next six months will end up being perhaps the most amazing six months of their lives, and worth the cost. I'm looking for people who can make everyone around them better and can make everyone around them feel good about themselves. And I'm looking for people who believe and who want to make a difference.
I'm offering a shot at history. I'm offering a chance to be part of something you will never forget. I'm offering friends that will last the rest of your life. I'm offering your own special kind of immortality. It's not for everyone, but if it's for you, you'll never forget having been a part of it.
I hope my campaign is not the only one out there with this purpose. We have to infuse real passion into our fight for the progressive agenda. If we don't we will lose. The other side has all the money, all the power, and at times it seems hopeless. But it's only hopeless if we give up the fight.
Don't give up the fight--ever!
Bill G. Winter
http://winterforcongress.com/