The news today about Obama finally leading in the fundraising race, for the month of August, warmed the cockles of my heart. It also has me thinking about ants. I imagine millions of little workhorse ants together carrying a gigantic load, or maybe a more positive image is a crowd of jubilant sports fans hoisting their hero upon their shoulders. It's a fitting image for the reason behind Obama's huge tallies of donations. Unlike Romney, whose donors are mostly the big rich guys giving the maximum donation, the vast majority of Obama's donations come from the little guy (and girl) who average around $50 gifts. I gave around that myself this past month, even with very little work coming in to pay my own bills. I figured if you add my piddly gift to all the others I hoped were amassing, it would really make a difference--and it did! THIS is what propelled Obama into the White House in 2008--and not just a lot of little donations but truly monumental grassroots efforts to spread his message, to register people to vote, and to get out the vote. Never was there an election before that convinced me one voice really DOES matter and really can change the world, and the news today reminded me of what dedicated, impassioned "little guys" can do. I am getting truly "fired up," especially with the positive poll numbers today--after being truly worried that the other side could pull it off--as I'm starting to let myself imagine that Big Money will not win out, that "obstructionist politics" will not be allowed to triumph, and our multitude of voices will once again propel this good and wise and honest man into office.
So I'm gonna keep on giving what I can, when I can, knowing millions of others are doing the same. You know those entire villages of people who have bought lottery tickets and then won big? We are that village, only this election won't be about chance or the luck of the draw. It'll be about putting our money where our mouth is, but especially about standing up and casting that all-important vote.
The contrast between the candidates seems to get clearer--or more painful--by the day. Fifty-eight days before the election, Romney doesn't even have a plan to close tax loopholes, and he's flip-flopped on health care--he now says he likes "some" of the Affordable Care Act and won't get rid of all of it, after swearing up and down that he would abolish the whole thing. From the start, he struck me as a candidate who would say anything, take any stance, to make himself more popular. That, to me, is the antithesis of integrity because you can't trust anything he says. Political motivation is a dirty, dangerous thing, and Obama isn't immune to it either, but the president's speech last Thursday did one thing beautifully--it confirmed and solidified in our minds who this man is and what he stands for. He didn't try to convince us that he was anything other than that, and for this alone, he will always have my deepest admiration--and of course, my vote.
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