Sunday, June 26, 2005

The Spirit of 1776 eyes 2006

I don't generally contribute financially to a political campaign. . .to be perfectly honest, I don't think I've ever contributed money to a political campaign. I donate to medical research, community health programs, human/civil rights, food banks, all the organizations you see listed to your right under Tzedakah and a bunch more, but an election campaign - nope, can't say I've ever done that before. Something about contributing financially to an election campaign always seemed so, well, sleazy to me. I've worked on campaigns when I was in junior high and high school (Pete Kostmayer, Craig Lewis, John Anderson; two winners out of three isn't so bad) but became less involved with politicians and more interested in the specific issues in college and thereafter (I also became more interested in boys and my career as well, since I'm being honest). Most importantly, unlike some of the embarrassing high profile Rock the Vote and Vote or Die publicity hounds (Madonna, Lenny Kravitz & Paris Hilton), I make the ultimate contribution to the political process: I vote.


I prefer to vote
for someone, but in the (gulp) 20 years that I've been eligible to vote, I have been in the unfortunate position of having to vote against a candidate or vote for which candidate I considered the lesser of two evils. Needless to say, I prefer the former. Contrary to the behavior of the powers that be in the Democratic Party and the lack of coverage in the main stream media, Bob Casey, Jr is not unopposed in his bid to unseat Senator Rick Santorum from his seat in the US Senate. Casey will be running against Chuck Pennacchio in next May's Democratic Primary. Casey was pushed to the fore-front because he, like Santorum, is a strict Catholic who votes in line with the doctrine of his religion when it comes to medical issues and, is expected to split the "Pro-Life" vote in the state. Now I admit, I'm a sucker for an underdog (it's a throw-back of my early "bleeding heart liberal" days) and I am adamantly Pro-choice, but I am no single issue voter. Unlike Casey's web-site, Pennacchio's actually contains detailed information on his platform - his stand on issues. Issues that, in addition to reproductive rights and privacy (medical and personal), are near and dear to me like: health care (he dings my own industry); equal protection under and application of law regardless of race, color, creed, gender or sexual orientation; and Iraq. Pennachio is a staunch proponent of the separation of church and state which, in our current political environment, I fear is is trending toward a fundamentalist christo-theocratic oligarchy that shows no regard for the rights of non-adherents. The FEC fundraising deadline is Thursday, June 30th. I made my first financial contribution to an election campaign today.


Contribution amount:
$









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