Friday, October 5, 2018

Pa Rock's $7.77 Club Expands

by Pa Rock
Easy Touch

On September 7th in this space I discussed the topic of political donations, and lamented about how my circumstances as a retiree prevent me from contributing to selected candidates at the level I could once afford.  But even with the constraints of a modest fixed income, I still want to make my voice (as Republicans refer to money) heard.

In that posting last month I announced that I had sent small donations of $7.77 each to five Democratic candidates - five that I regarded as having the potential to win their races.  I chose the $7.77 amount because it sounded like the type of lucky symbol that you might see on a casino or a state lottery ticket - and it was an amount that I could afford.  (Here is Pa Rock's meager contribution to your campaign, and, as you can glean from the amount, he wishes you good luck in the upcoming election.)

The five candidates that I chose to honor with my minimum largess were Krysten Sinema, a current Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who is running for Jeff Flake's seat in the Senate - and is ahead in the polls,  Beto O'Rourke, a young Democratic congressman from Texas whom Willie Nelson and I would both like to see unseat the evil Ted Cruz from his perch in the Senate, Sharice Davids who is running for Congress from Kansas and who will - hopefully - go on to represent two of my grandchildren in the next Congress, Angie Craig who is running for a congressional seat in Minnesota, and Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for governor of Florida.

Sinema, O'Rourke, Davids, Craig, and Gillum - good people, one and all.

As is usually the case, most of the better people running for public office are doing so as Democrats - and there are still plenty of other Democrats who need the support of those who want to be active players in determining the destiny of our nation.  Yesterday when I heard that North Dakota's Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp had taken the very brave step of coming out against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to serve on the Supreme Court,  I decided that move more than earned her entry into the $7.77 Club - so I sent her a contribution.

Heitkamp's opposition to Kavanaugh was a very brave thing for her to do in a highly conservative state like North Dakota.  Fargo, after all, is not Frisco - and it ain't even Fresno.  Her brother, in acknowledging how hard it was politically for the senator to oppose Kavanaugh, noted that she did, however, have to look herself in the mirror each morning.

One suspects that Mitch McConnell probably has no mirrors in his home.

I also sent $7.77 contributions to Stacey Abrams, a woman who has a shot at becoming the next governor of Georgia, and Laura Kelly, a Democrat who is trying to keep bigot Kris Kobach from becoming the governor of Kansas.

All of that and I am headed into town this afternoon to cast my absentee ballot for Missouri's Claire McCaskill, another Democratic senator who has come out against Brett Kavanaugh.

Pa Rock is doing what he can to stem the tide of fascism in America.

(UPDATE:  Friday, 5 October 2018 - late afternoon:  Just added a $7,77 donation to Jacky Rosen, Democratic senate candidate in Nevada who can beat Trump tool Dean Heller.   Our Senate needs more Democrats - and more women - desperately!)

No comments: