Well its the new year and I posted a nice non-political diary last night, but now its back to the trenches.
Today I got this email from Organizing for America (formerly the Obama Campaign website)
Michael --
Looking back at 2009, it turns out you were right.
Early this year, millions of you chose to keep working together and create Organizing for America, to build on the momentum of the Obama campaign, take on the defenders of the status quo, and make change happen.
Special interests thought they could steamroll you with hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying and attack ads. Meanwhile, you built a massive organization, driven by local leadership, that reached out to millions of fellow Americans and made your voices heard to Congress in record numbers.
So I wanted to take a moment at year's end to reflect on everything you've built, and to ask for your help one last time this year to hit the ground running in 2010. Can you chip in $25 to keep our organizing strong in all 50 states?
Follow below the fold for the response I just sent.
To whom it may concern,
Stop sending me emails. I am hugely disappointed in President Obama`s recent stances, especially his stance on the Public Option (or Public Plan as he referenced it during the campaign). I will not be donating to ANY Democrat in 2010 (with the distinct exception of Alan Grayson, that guy rocks) and I will not be volunteering for the Obama campaign again in 2012 unless I see some changes in his leadership and stances near and dear to his base: those of us in the netroots and grassroots who worked our butts off to first beat the Clinton Machine (which if we wanted the status quo we would have voted for) in the primaries and then the McCain campaign in the general.
When your email said
Special interests thought they could steamroll you with hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying and attack ads. Meanwhile, you built a massive organization, driven by local leadership, that reached out to millions of fellow Americans and made your voices heard to Congress in record numbers.
I damn near laughed out loud (if it wasn't soo sad) because it seems to be the special interests have gotten everything they wanted and sacrificed nothing (the public is now going to be mandated to buy a product from a private enterprise with no publicly financed option. I would say that is "hundreds of millions of lobbying dollars" well spent
I donated money I could hardly afford and spent my time making cold calls into battleground states (from overseas where I had to stay up very late in order to reach voters at an appropriate time). I worked hard to get President Obama elected, and I expected him to work hard for me when he got there. From the nomination of of the same people who got us into the financial crisis to key financial posts, decision to not investigate the many crimes of the previous administration.. I was uneasy. But I thought keeping the powder dry for the Healthcare debate was the reason. After the recent statement by the President that he never campaigned on the "public option" when we all can read the speeches talking about the "public plan" I have had enough. Was I working for someone who is going to argue semantics when those of us in his base knew exactly what he was talking about on the campaign trail.
This is not the change I worked for.
Regards,
Michael
p.s. This was the first time I had ever been actively emotionally and financially involved in a campaign. I think it may be the last.