Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Continuing the $100 revolution

Liberal Oasis makes the point that Dean's $100 revolution ($100 contributions from 2 million Americans = $200 million Bush is planning to raise) need not die with Howard Dean's campaign. It can continue with John Kerry even if Kerry is not the grassroots darling that Dean was.

Corporate special interests will give to Kerry (though less so than Bush), and they will get access for it. That’s not necessarily Kerry’s fault, simply the system as it is today.

But that influence can be significantly mitigated.

A powerful message about what the Democratic party should represent, and who the party should answer to, will be delivered if the grassroots band together and give in small amounts.

Giving Kerry a $200 million war chest can be a powerful message to the man from Massachusetts if for no other reason then he will know that he doesn't have to bow to the will of $2000 donors in order to fund his efforts. He still may not be as natural a grassroots candidate as Howard Dean might have been, but $200 million in small donations can go a long way towards strengthening that backbone that Dean gave him. (Besides, whose to say that Dean really would have given a damn what we thought were it not for the money we gave him?)

Remember, donations to a candidate don't buy you a stance on a particular issue. But they do buy you some measure of their attention so that they might start to act like what you want actually matters.

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