That** room? That's where I got to spend one-on-one time with then-Prof. Barack Obama, now 16, 17 years ago. Picture of Harold Washington on one wall, voter registration poster behind him. I've written about it before here, and like many who knew him back then, or back at Oxy or Columbia, I sure wish I had kept my notes. Because who knew, really? Who would have predicted this?
But what I do have are the memories. Memories of a professor who pushed me to understand the roots of my progressive principles, and of the need to work them out in the real world of pragmatic politics.
Flash forward to today. He's a little grayer; I'm a lot grayer. And until now, I've been reluctant to support him financially this time around, and specifically because of his refusal to evolve already on the issue of marriage equality. It was something I just couldn't overcome in 2012.
That was then, this is now.
He has stepped to the plate, even more boldly than I had expected, and he's pulling the rest of our party forward.
Now it's our turn. It's time to get off our asses already.
I don't need to tell you the stakes here. Forward or backwards. Progress or division. Hope, peace, and security, or another dumb Republican war they'll conjure up. No, we may not accomplish all our dreams in the next four years, but can you imagine the alternative?
Step up today. Give what you can, because you probably haven't done it yet, and even if you have you haven't done all that you can.
Let's open field offices in Arizona and North Carolina, New Mexico and Virginia. Let's get every possible voter registered to vote—and with the proper IDs where needed (grr.). And let's tell our story, of all the progress which has been made, and the worse crises avoided.
It starts with money. It requires money. Yours and mine. It's winning time.
I'm giving $500, right now. I'm fortunate that I can. If you can too, match it. If you can give $100 today, do that. Or $50, $25, $20. You can give something, today.
Remember the Howard Dean bat? Remember all the times in 2006, 2007 and 2008 when we shocked the world by showing how much we could raise through the netroots to support candidates when they did great things? Do you remember how in 2009-10, we raised a combined $90,000 from this community for vulnerable pro-choice House Democrats who had been bold in supporting health care reform despite being in R-leaning districts?
It's time to support the president's boldness now. I'm starting with a goal of $10,000. Support him now.
** Okay. This office may have been his law firm office at the time; I can assure you his law school office was equally tiny.