It only took a few minutes for the reaction from my earlier announcement of candidacy for Vice President of the United States to start hitting my email inbox.
Most of it, so far, has been surprised enthusiasm and good wishes, and I thank all who sent those positive messages. Only one person (so far) has sent anything at all negative, and it was from an old friend who should have known better.
What he wanted to know was "have you considered running for local offices first?" Good question, but it misses the point. (Besides which, I have run run for local office: Mayor of Sacramento in 1996.)
What Dave Koch and I are doing in our run for the White House in 2008 is taking a stand against entrenched, professional politicians. Spending two or three decades "working our way up the ranks" only buys into that system and makes us part of the problem.
Yes, we are serious. We know that at this point we have very little chance of winning, but that does not mean the campaign is a joke. We have already heard back that we are on the right track. We have heard from folks who say they had already decided to sit out the next election and not vote, but are now planning on supporting us.
This is exactly the voter that I am looking for. Those who are happy with the two-party duopoly and feel fairly represented don't need us. The majority who are either registered to vote, but don't bother, or who are eligible to vote, but haven't even registered, are who I want to speak with, and who I want to represent.
To another topic - In my posting of the third edition of the carnival of the decline of democracy, I accidentally implied that Joerg Wolf's main point regarding Guantanamo was that it was "an image problem" for the administration. His post may start with that, but goes much further. To see more of his writing on the subject, please visit the Atlantic Review.
Tags: campaign, candidacy, voters, 2008, politicians
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Good luck with the campaign. I don't think I agree with you about anything, but I do know that trying something like this, you'll learn a lot.
ReplyDeleteThere are certain ways we think regarding voting, and certain impressions mean more to people than others. As you try different things to get the message out, you're gonna get a feel for that, and know a heck of a lot more about politics than many others (not that you don't know a lot now. But it feels really neat when theory is tested and moulded by practice).
Good luck, and please feel free to talk about what works and why with the voters you're trying to reach out to.