They wanted a donation of $200 for the Obama campaign. Honestly, I don't have it. My health care costs are too high, even with insurance and, of course, as a federal employee, my raises have been frozen for at least another year. I just sent $1600 to my specialty pharmacy this week. But I probably could have scraped something together. I chose not to.
I told the woman I wanted to put any money I have into progressive candidates for Congress. She said, "Obama is a progressive Democrat" and set out to try to convince me. I told her that I hadn't heard him really speak out for any of the things that matter to me, like a public option, jobs instead of austerity, no cuts to social security or Medicare and, regardless, it seems clear that what we really need are good progressive people in Congress. Either Obama is a progressive Democrat who shares some of my values, but he can't get anything through because of the lack of support in Congress, in which case I should put my money into the candidates who can make a difference, or he is not really a progressive Democrat who shares my values, in which case, I should put my money into electing those who do. It felt kind of good to engage with that woman and speak my mind. Maybe the message will get back to him. I assured her I intend to vote for him, though I live in a safe state so I may decide to vote green this year. I'm curious to know what others are saying and doing when you get those calls?
Update - i had put this in the comments, but thought I should add it, because the more I thought about it the stranger it seemed. Part of this woman's proof that Obama is progressive was that he did nothing when the protests in Wisconsin broke out. The fact that he didn't speak out against them or make any effort to squash them apparently proves his progressive credentials. Hopefully that's just coming from her and not a plan to campaign on to win back those progressive credentials.