I gave Dean $25 last night because I wanted to stick with my guy in his hour of need, and I posted about it. But someone else was worried about Dean's chances after having given $600. This got me thinking.
When a few people give a lot of money to a campaign, that keeps the campaign alive in the media, but that's all. When a lot of people give a little money to a candidate, it creates a mandate.
The thing that Dean's got that none of the other candidates have is a rock-solid group of supporters; every other candidate's support is soft. Look at Kerry, who was in single digits right before Iowa. He is riding high in the polls now, but he might slip just as quickly when the smear machine really gets into gear. But Dean never dropped to Kerry's pre-New Hampshire single digit numbers, even after the full on scream attack from every media outlet in the country.
$25 isn't much, but that doesn't matter. I almost wish that the bats they show on the Dean website would track the number of contributors instead of dollars contributed, because that's the truly impressive number.
Even if you don't want to vote for Dean, there can be no doubt that he is energizing the party's base and speaking up for those of us who want a true opposition to the creeping conservatism that's ruining our country. The longer he stays in this thing, the more people will hear the truth about the war; the truth that John Kerry's moderate strategy won't allow him to voice even if he agrees with it.
Finally, it's not clear who was responsible for the robo-calling and push-polling, but we know who the target of these attacks was.
So slip the man $25 to show you respect what he's doing for our country, but don't give him more than $200. It's the people that matter.
