Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Howard Dean's online fundraising -- so good, it inspired me to give again

The Dean campaign is really good at inspiring me. And they've also inspired more than 130.000 other small contributors to band together to try to stop the Bush corporate money juggernaut. I sent over another $10 yesterday, after I had decided that I was going to take a pass on December contributions to any campaign. First a message from Joe Trippi, the campaign manager. Then one from Governor Dean (which I believe was written by Governor Dean). Then one from Al Gore. That's the one that got me to give. Here's an exercpt from Joe Trippi's email from this morning. If the campaign is this good at insipiring the most small donors to ever give to a campaign, they are probably going to be as good at inspiring swing voters to take back the White House from the corporate insiders that are ripping off taxpayers and vote to clean house in November.

Here's the pitch-perfect email from Joe Trippi, campaign manager (which makes me feel like I am part of a movement, and you can't ask for anything more from a campaign email than that):

Dear Dan,

Today you have made history. Together, because of your action, we will exceed $15 million by midnight tonight-- the most any Democratic campaign has ever raised in a single quarter.

But that's not the history you've made.

The history is that hundreds of thousands of Americans are coming together in common purpose to reclaim our values and our principles -- to remove an administration that misled us about the reasons we went to war -- and to defeat a President who is mortgaging our future with tax cuts for his biggest contributors. The history is that thousands are taking part to change the established way of doing things in politics. And you have made history with a single click of the mouse.

What's the definition of the establishment? They're people who've come to do things in the established way. Too many Democrats have lost the spirit to fight what's wrong. They voted for the war, and too many voted to give the President a second blank check in Iraq. They voted for his reckless tax cuts. And they've hidden behind faceless committees that use images of Osama bin Laden to attack our campaign.

But you have sent them a message that their vacant attacks are just that -- vacant attacks. Those who rely on special interests to fund their campaigns or on committees to launch their attacks are doing things the old establishment way. But we are going to shatter that forever. What your contribution represents is a new and different way of doing things -- a way to strengthen the Democratic Party by being the party of people.

Today, because of your contribution, you have shown the way to all the cynics and doubters who don't believe that millions of Americans can raise $200 million to match George Bush's special interest money. You have shown that it can be done by raising more than $40 million this year alone. You did that -- through hundreds of thousands of small donations.

Thank you for being part of the most determined Democratic campaign in history -- the only campaign that has the strength to defeat George W. Bush. Together we are going to win the White House in 2004.

Joe Trippi
Campaign Manager
Dean for America

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