Something astonishing happened in the last twenty four hours. Grassroots/netroots contributions raised here on the Kos and other websites created a formidable challenge capable of preventing the re-election of one of the most extreme members of Congress ever--Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota's Sixth Congressional district.
I'm writing to thank all of you and any of you who contributed funds in any amount to the campaign of her current opponent Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg. It sounds corny, but when you did that you struck a blow for American democracy and a blow against a hateful right-wing demagogue. You really did: the more familiar you become with Michele Bachmann and her record of hatemongering the more you'll know that's true. (continued)
In case you don't know, the unprecedented grassroots funding for a Sixth District candidacy began yesterday, after MSNBC aired a Chris Matthews interview with Bachmann. During that interview, the conservative spokesmodel mask dropped for a moment and she called for an investigation of her Congressional colleagues on the grounds of "anti-Americanism."
That McCarthyist moment led to stories, diaries and a call for funds here on the Kos and elsewhere on the web. The last time I checked, the ActBlue donations for Bachmann's opponent were headed towards $500,000, less than forty eight hours after the initial call for contributions.
You don't know what that means to us, in the Sixth District of Minnesota
Her opponent's ad buys are critical. Even in Minnesota, many of the voters don't know just how bad Bachmann really is. You got a glimpse of it if you saw the charges she made against Obama and Congress in the Matthews interview--but most Minnesotans who know anything about Bachmann are still under the false impression that she's a mainstream conservative in the tradition of Ronald Reagan. She isn't. As she indicated on television yesterday, she's a hatemonger in the tradition of George Wallace and Joe McCarthy. If you want a picture of what she's really about, here's an introduction.
The reason she can get away with that is that the local traditional media in the geographic area simply don't report the kind of extremist remarks you saw her make during the Matthews interview. She's made charges like that against various different groups of American for years, nearly a decade--and the big local papers and broadcast media simply don't report them.
You never heard of the Dump Michele Bachmann blog, but you did a lot for us when you decided to contribute to Elwyn Tinklenberg's campaign. We have no budget, no traditional media access, no party affiliation or heavy political connections--and we're non-partisan. All we have is years of documented extremist demagoguery of Michele Bachmann, going back to the earliest days of her entry into politics.
When you donated to Tinklenberg's campaign, you gave us a tremendous boost and I thank you for it. It shows us that people outside the district can see Bachmann for what she really is, and agree that there's no place for a hater like that in government.
Thank you, you reading this, thank you more times than anyone can count.
UPDATE: ...and thanks for the Rec. If you sent in money and want to know how bad bad can be in modern elected officials, read the story of Michele Bachmann that I put together last night based on Dump Bachmann blog records--an introduction. Really, read it and you'll see your money was well spent. Bachmann is an embodiment of everything the Kos is against: a demagogue who's called Anne Coulter her hero, a gay basher, a race baiter--she's "the real deal," on the record. Here's her Dem opponent's contribution page, again: http://www.tinklenberg08.com/