We need candidates at all levels of government, but especially at the local levels. We need candidates for auditor, township supervisor, school board, sheriff,...These local elections don't get the media attention of the larger national and statewide races, but they have a huge impact on people's lives. And, they are great places to groom people for the larger races.
At this point, it would be easy to point fingers and start blaming people. It would be easy to start blaming the national, or the state, or even the local level party leaders, but the truth is that individuals must take responsibility for the shape of their home. Remember, the Lord, government, others...help those who help themselves. When things stink, you take out the trash. When things are broke, you fix them. Enough whining already about money, money, money, and, oh yeah, money. Things will not get any better here in Central Pennsylvania until we make them better.
My parents are quite comfortable now financially, but they didn't start out that way. Mom was a typist out of high school and Dad was a ditch-digger for the gas company. They dreamed, they worked, they planned, they worked, and then they worked some more. Nobody gave them anything, but over a lifetime they built a couple of businesses from scratch and paid to have three kids go to college. The point is money came after hard work.
Building a business, building a community, and rebuilding a country is hard but noble work. We, each one of us individually, must not shirk our responsibility. These were the thoughts that I had in January of last year. The question was when should I run. I thought at the time that I was too busy to run. Hah! Too many people think that they are too busy to run, but we are not going to get a government "...of the people, for the people, by the people..." until we start getting regular people to run for office. Don't give me that business about how you speak your mind too much to run. That's a canard. People like honesty. You just have to stand firm.
Yes, public financing of elections would be great. I dream about such situations, but I'm not holding my breath. We need to use all the tools that are available and not just focus on TV. Blogs are great, and they are one piece of the puzzle. For the next campaign, I want to use Daily Kos, MySpace, YouTube, and other sites to a much greater degree. How? I don't know at this point, but my team and I will figure it out when the time comes. This evening, my wife came home with earphones and a microphone to make podcasts with. I'm excited to see how well weekly messages go over. And, I want to be the King of Knocking Doors. Yes, we need to raise money, but we need to find other ways to win. As a party, we keep giving too many of our eggs to consultants who say to put the rest of our eggs in TV. We need to find fresh ideas. We need to find more and better tools. We must look at both hi and lo tech. We must leave no stone unturned. We must look at those who are successful whether they are the R's, businesses, marketers, sports teams or whatever, and use their techniques where useful. And we must bring new people, both voters and candidates, into the process, otherwise, it will get stale. When things get stale, we lose.
This morning at school, I poked my head into the classroom of the teacher next to me. She was proud because this was the first election that she voted as a Democrat. She let on that she switched her registration because of me. Then she said, "...but, you know, I was disappointed in the lack of candidates on the Democratic ballot." Harumppf. I told her she should run for office. She looked at me like I was crazy. But, we need more crazy people. We need more smart people, and we need more people who care. WE NEED YOU!
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