There are very few campaign e-mails with opening, even if it's from one of your favorite candidates. The candidates don't write them and the campaign e-mail-writing industry is the most hackish piece of the political business. The e-mails can ruin the image of even the most authentic candidates. The formulas come directly from the party committees and it's sad to watch even good candidates eventually give up and buy into their general tenor of deception, hysteria and stupidity. Although there are a few candidates who refuse to buy into the approach-- very few-- two exceptions whose e-mails are usually a joy to read are Alan Grayson's and Bernie Sanders'-- coincidentally, two of the only candidates who have been successful at racing money from the grassroots. You'd think more candidates could add 2 and 2 and come up with 4. I want to give you two examples from the last couple of days. First Grayson, who writes the e-mails personally and who asked what if Democrats win?
The national polling is forcing us to contemplate an extremely important question:What if the Democrats win?What if the Democrats win the House-- and the Senate? What if the Democrats win the White House back in 2020?My answer is simple. It’s not just enough to win. You have to make the lives of ordinary people better. You have to get good things done.As July draws to a close, think about that. We need to have someone in Congress who is determined to carry our progressive banner to victory, and GET GOOD THINGS DONE.Eight years ago, when Scott Brown won Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat and deprived the Democrats of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, certain people said, “OK, well, that’s it; let’s concede that the GOP will filibuster everything to death, and we’ll just have to see what happens after the next election.”And certain other people said, “to hell with that. We have 50 million Americans who can’t see a doctor when they’re sick. We have to solve these kinds of problems, or we’re not worth a damn. Power without progress is pointless.”I was one of those certain other people. (So was Nancy Pelosi, by the way.)In the beginning, the middle and the end, it’s all about the good things you can do for people.Frankly, having been through it once, I’m concerned about what might happen if we win. For too many Democrats, all it will mean is three more staffers, a larger office, and a couple of nice “congressional delegation” trips.I want to be in Congress because, whether the Democrats win or we lose, someone has to do his best to get good things done.Because that’s what it’s all about.
That makes more of a case to vote for him than an e-mail that says "I need you to contribute before midnight's deadline," don't you think? E-mails like that are disrespectful and usually cause me to unsubscribe from the candidate's list. The dumbest e-mail I got today came from Republican majority whip, Steve Scalise (R-LA). I'm glad to see it isn't only Democrats who write this kind of repulsive garbage to their grassroots. Does this make you want to throw up? Most e-mails from establishment Democrats are just as bad-- exactly just as bad; only the cast of characters change: Now Bernie's e-mail from yesterday. It goes along with this video he made about Medicare-for-All:This explains why Bernie should be the Democratic nominee in 2020 and why congressional candidates who don't pussyfoot around with "but we should fix Obamacare first" should be our nominees. Bernie's e-mail, starts with the assertion that "our ideas are winning," something that drives the establishments of both political parties-- and the donors who underwrite the careers of their leaders-- up the wall.
Earlier this week, a Koch brothers-sponsored study shared widely with the corporate media tried to scare people into thinking Medicare for all would be too expensive for our country.But what the study did was show that Medicare for all would actually save the American people $2 trillion over 10 years. And it would do so while providing health care for 30 million Americans who don’t have it today and eliminating premiums, deductibles and co-payments to private health insurance companies.Sounds like a good deal to me.So I want to thank the Koch brothers. I do not think their study had its intended effect.This year, more candidates than ever before are campaigning on the idea that health care should be a right for every man, woman and child in this country, and not a privilege. They are campaigning on that issue not just in places like New York and Vermont, but in Kansas, Texas, and states traditionally thought of as “red” and “purple.”And I intend to support them, because they are sure to face unlimited sums of money from the insurance and drug companies, from Wall Street and the Koch brothers and from all those fighting to protect their profits and the status quo....Medicare for all is an idea that's time has come.This is no longer a “radical” or a “fringe” idea. The last poll I saw showed that it is an idea supported by 63 percent of the American people.And why?Because people understand that the function of a rational health care system in this country should be to provide quality care for everyone in a cost-effective way, not to make health industry CEOs richer or drive up stock prices on Wall Street.Let me also be clear that a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system will increase wages and expand employment by lifting a major financial weight off of the businesses burdened by employee health expenses.Americans who are currently in jobs they don't like but must stay put because of health care access would be free to explore more productive opportunities as they desire. That is real freedom.Today the United States remains the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all while spending more per capita than any other nation. If every major country on earth can do it, please do not tell me the United States cannot.So I am going to spend the rest of the year campaigning not just for my re-election, but for candidates who agree with us on this issue.In this pivotal moment in American history, we must go forward to guarantee health care as a right and not a privilege. This is a struggle not just about health care but about the heart and soul of our country, about what we stand for as a people. And it is a struggle we are winning.
Good campaign e-mails tell what candidates are going to do for you, not just what they want from you. I love the way Bernie signs his letters too: "In solidarity." And then this:
