I just sent out an urgent e-mail appeal to my friends and family to contribute to the John Edwards campaign. Here's what I wrote:
Hi All,
I never ask for donations in my FYI messages, but this one time I am going to break my rule. My candidate in this presidential race is John Edwards. I believe strongly that while the other candidates say they are for change he is the only candidate who is going to fight tooth and nail the corporate and money interests who have bought our government lock, stock, and barrel. He is the only candidate among the top three who is not taking money from corporations and their lobbyists. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are taking this money. This means that all of his funds must come from regular folks. We're never going to get universal health care, economic justice for poor and middle class people, rid our government of corporate greed and corruption, reclaim our democracy, etc. if the approach is to say we'll sit down and make nice with these leeches and the extreme right-wing republican politicians whose approach is to take no hostages. I want a President (and for that matter Congressmen and Congresswomen) who will take no nonsense from these people and one who cannot be bought off. I believe John Edwards is such a candidate.
Of course another big obstacle is that because he is strongly opposing the corporations, the corporate-owned media has pretty much locked him and other candidates out and it has been much harder to get his message out. However of the candidates who are anti-corporate he is the one with the best chance to win. Can we take the chance that his voice will not be heard or worse that he will have to drop out of the race before the rest of the country gets an opportunity to make their choice in a caucus or primary (this stupid primary/caucus schedule is another whole rant)? I am extremely worried that you and I may not get a chance to vote for John and that our choices will be narrowed to just the candidates chosen by the corporate press and money interests. Even $5 or $10 will help. Since John is taking public financing your donation will be matched and your $10 donation will actually be $20. Even if John is not your candidate, making a contribution will mean that one additional candidate can stay in the race and that all of us will have one more choice in our caucus or primary. Here's where you can go to make a contribution:
https://www.johnedwards.com/action/contribute/mail If you want to learn more about John's positions on the issues go here:
http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/ Thanks for considering this!