(thanks to my wonderful girlfriend who is editing and posting this for me while I am at work)
2010 isn't good enough.
Yesterday, the first Congressman I've ever been represented by and felt pride over, Seattle's Jim McDermott, voted to sell us out at the time we needed him most. Instead of more regulation, McDermott voted for the banking system to move to zero-reserve banking.
At a time when we need the US Government to come down on the banking system and come down hard, Jim wanted to make the problem worse. He wanted to give CEOs and the Treasury Department what little savings I have without a promise that I'd ever get it back.
This is the last straw.
Very little of you know me. My name is Jeremy Mendonsa (picture - i'm on the left). I'm a 25 year-old male living in Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington. My day is spent as an Accountant at a local brewery and brewpub - The Elysian Brewing Company. While working for guys who make beer for a living has its perks, between student loans and credit card debt, I'm still living paycheck to paycheck despite the title.
My generation doesn't know how to save. We haven't really had much of a chance. After wracking up school debt, car debt or whatever debt most of us are drowning in, we were thrust into a Bush Economy World. At no point since graduating college with a Bachelor's in Economics and minor in Theatre did I have enough of a buffer to put anything away into savings.
Having grown up in the Bay Area of California, I saw the dot-com boom firsthand. Having gone to college nearly entirely on Financial Aid and loans, I know what its like coming from a poor family. My mom never went to college and while my dad is well-off, they divorced at an early age. I knew that I was never going to be on the streets, but I couldn't say the same for my mom. And every day I saw her disappointment in herself when she couldn't afford to do something for her kids.
After graduating from college in east Los Angeles County, I tried living in LA itself for a while. I don't have much good to say about the town, but the hardest part is the total lack of entry-level jobs available. For a full year, I was temping, going back and forth between low-paying jobs that never afforded me the luxury of saving money. What good is a savings account when your stomach is empty? Since moving to Seattle, I've played catch-up without being able to get ahead. My savings account has suffered considerably.
So you can understand that when I heard my own Congressman tried to sell out my savings and the savings of everyone in America, my entire being caught fire. In the heat of an economic crisis that threatens to bankrupt the FDIC, Jim McDermott said yes on allowing that day to come sooner.
My first reaction was nothing. I sat there, reading the text over and over again, trying to grasp what I'd just learned. I've been a rabid follower of politics since my AP Government class in high school. I saw Gore get defeated after I'd volunteered for him because I couldn't vote yet. I saw Kerry get defeated after four of the worst years in our Government's history. Essentially, I'm used to the constant feeling that we need serious change and the passion that goes with that. But today, a different spirit fills my being. Today, every inch of my being is burning.
This was the last straw.
Today, I feel like I was sixth in a game of Russian Roulette, only to have the gun jam when I pulled the trigger. Today, I have been given a new chance at life. Today is the Beginning of the End. Not for me.
But for every elected Democrat who thinks that they have until 2010 to be challenged by the voters.
While I'm spending my day working, my incredible girlfriend is researching. When I get home, I'll be joining her. For now, I'm asking your help.
I want to run a write-in campaign against Jim McDermott, one of the safest Democratic seats in Congress. But I don't know the law well enough to know what I can and can't do in a write-in campaign. I don't even know if running a write-in campaign is legal.
But I can't sit here any more. I don't care if I have to go door-to-door every waking hour of my existence between now and the election. I don't care if I have to spend what little savings I have printing fliers and stapling them to posts by hand. I don't care if I get no sleep between now and November 4th. I will do absolutely everything legal in my power to fight between now and November 4th to remove a Democrat who voted to sell us out to the worst President in history.
But the one thing I can't do is sit idly by. The time for action isn't 2010. It isn't November 5th. It's yesterday. It's last week. It's last month. It's my adult life. It's my entire life.
The time for inaction has passed, and I need your help to take action. We're running out of time, and I for one cannot live with myself knowing I failed to do everything in my power to prevent this disaster.
Please e-mail me, comment below, send a telegraph or smoke signal. I need to know the law, and I need to know yesterday. I will be spending every minute I'm not at work researching this, but given that eight hours is roughly 1% of the time between now and the election, you can see why this urgent enough for me to have posted this before leaving for work, even if I can't check e-mail or read comments until tonight.
And above all else, not tapping the greatest left-wing revolutionary minds the Internet has to offer would be as stupid as, say, letting banks lend all of your money away during a financial crisis.
Below is Jim McDermott's pathetic excuse for his yes vote:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Barney Frank are two people I trust immeasurably; they tried as hard as they could to put together H.R. 3997 to protect the American people, and in so doing they earned my support. This was a day for leaders to lead in the most difficult of circumstances and they - and I- accepted that responsibility.
I voted in favor of H.R. 3997 because I know with certainty that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank put the American people first and negotiated a bill that would have taken a first step in restoring the faith and trust of the American people. Doing nothing sends a terrible signal.
Over the last week I have received thousands of angry emails from constituents and I share their anger over eight years of failed economic policies by this Administration that undermined our system of regulatory oversight and checks and balances. But, as angry as people are, they also understand that we are in serious trouble and that something needs to be done, and I share that sentiment.
The American people must understand that this economic calamity is the result of disastrous Republican economic policies, and today a majority of House Republicans voted against their president, their presidential nominee, their Republican leadership, their party and their country. They put ideology ahead of country.
Finally, I cannot emphasize enough that today’s vote is not a disaster. Democracy does not always take a straight line to a solution and we will find a path to a consensus.