If only he wasn’t so corporatist, I wouldn’t feel so bad about this election:
In 2008, more than 550,000 gave more than $200 to Barack Obama, entering their names in the longest list of individual donors ever seen in American politics.
That list was a snapshot of the hope Obama inspired in a cross sections of liberals, young professionals, African-Americans, and Democrats who saw in him a generational and historic moment. But now, as Obama struggles to keep pace with his 2008 fundraising clip, that list offers a cross-section of Democratic disappointment and alienation. According to a BuzzFeed analysis of campaign finance data, 88% of the people who gave $200 or more in 2008 — 537,806 people — have not yet given that sum this year. And this drop-off isn’t simply an artifact of timing. A full 87% of the people who gave $200 — the sum that triggers an itemized report to the Federal Elections Commission — through April of 2008, 182,078 people, had not contributed by the end of last month.
Interviews with dozens of those drop-off donors reveal the stories of Democrats who still plan to pull the lever for the president, but whose support has gone from fervent to lukewarm, or whose economic circumstances have left them without money to spare. The interviews and the data are the substance of an “enthusiasm gap” spurred by the distance between the promise of the campaign and the reality of governing, one that has begun to deepen Democratic gloom about this November’s election.
“Where’s the change I can believe in?” asked Lisa Pike, a 55-year-old from Williamsburg, Va. with a small medical transcription business who gave $658 in 2008. She said she is not planning on contributing this time around. “I wish he was the socialist they accused him of being. I wish we had the tons of change that would justify the right freaking out. I wish him well — I don’t dislike him personally — but I’m disappointed that he’s not the change-agent I had hoped for.”
I’m with Lisa, I understand on many issues the President had to be more to the center; but I feel at times he gave concessions to the republican party that is bent on misinformation and dismantling every aspect of the work he has done. Even when told he had resounding support he caved at times. Many wish he had the “so what” attitude of Cheney, especially because he has been correct on the issues 100% more than Cheney was, is and will ever be. I’ll vote for him and donate half what I did last year; because I got only half what I expected.
I can’t find it in me to believe Big0 cares so long as the voters still vote for him. It should be obvious by now that he really, deeply, and truly doesn’t give a flick of the eyelash for what we need. Getting votes in November rewards that. It doesn’t change it.
If you don’t like what Bush III has done, don’t vote for him. If you believe Romney would be too much worse (I’m not convinced, at least there’d be pushback), then, okay, vote for B0, but don’t kid yourself that you’re getting anything but Bush III.
Believing political marketing is what’s got us into this hole. Keep your eyes open.
We have two choices come November. Put 1% Romney and the Republicans (1%) in charge of everything——because that’s what will happen if you don’t vote or vote for 1% Romney. Or keep Obama in place and put the Democrats back in charge of both the House and Senate. That’s it. We are all in the mess that we are in ‘because’ people voted for Republicans (1%). Or stayed home and didn’t vote allowing a Republican (1%) to win. Sooooo……vote only for Democrats in November and let God sort it out. (PS. Ending corporate domination (oligarchy) of our lives is more dependent upon where we spend our money than it is on who we elect to office. Unless we elect a 1% Republican to office.)