The National Stonewall Democrats are doing a cool thing: trying to track transpeople’s donations to Barack Obama. The letter they sent out not along ago is reprinted below the break in full, but the basic idea is that, if you’re trans, & you want to donate to Obama’s campaign, you donate through their website, so that the donations can be “counted” as a bloc.
Excellent idea. Go do it.
Dear Fellow Transgender Advocate,
This year we have an opportunity to elect a President who will be the most transgender-supportive in history.
But electing a candidate isn’t enough just by itself. Unless we’re visibly and vocally involved with campaigns and giving our time, energy, money, and ideas we will miss out on an opportunity to create a relationship with a President who has already said he’s willing to stand with us. That is why we are asking you to join with us in supporting Barack Obama.
We’ve set up a specific page to track donations from the transgender community and our allies to Sen. Obama’s campaign. You can donate by clicking here:
http://www.actblue.com/page/trans
In both the United States and Illinois Senate, Barack Obama has a long commitment to supporting the LGBT community—and specifically the transgender community. Most recently, here is what he said when issuing his statement on Pride month:
“It’s time to live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect. Let’s enact federal civil rights legislation to outlaw hate crimes and protect workers against discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. . .
“We are ready to accomplish these goals because of the courage and persistence of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who have been working every day to achieve equal rights. The gay couple who demand equal treatment in our family laws as they raise their children; the lesbian soldier who wants nothing more than to serve her country openly and honestly; the transgender workers who ask for the simple dignity of being judged by the quality of their work. Generations of LGBT Americans, at once ordinary and extraordinary, have made possible this moment in our history. With leadership and hard work, we can fulfill the promise of equality for all.”
–Sen. Barack Obama, June 6, 2008
Fully inclusive hate crime protections, fully inclusive employment non-discrimination, and a fully inclusive vision of the American family; these are the values we can have in our next President.
But he can’t win—and our community won’t advance—without your support.
We’re encouraging you to give today to Barack Obama for President at a special fundraising page that will track the impact of the transgender community and our allies on the election.
This page, launched in conjunction with Stonewall Democrats, will track donations to the Obama campaign from the transgender community and our allies. The money raised on the page will go directly to Sen. Obama’s campaign.
This election is too important to sit on the sidelines. Let’s elect a pro-equality Democrat and help build power for our community.
Sincerely,
Marti Abernathy, Karen Bachman, Pam Barres, Caprice Bellefleur, Dana Beyer, Laura Calvo, Carrie Davis, D’Angelo Johnson, Julie Johnson, Eden Lane, Lisa Mottet, Rev. Elijah C. Nealy, Donna Rose, Diego Sanchez, Lisa Scheps, Amanda Simpson, Barbra “Babs” Casbar Siperstein, Melissa Sklarz, Lynn Walker, Jill Weiss, Jaan Williams
No contribution is too small. We want to demonstrate the number of trans people and allies just as much, if not more, than our fundraising ability. Please help.
I’m sorry, but I can’t help here. I understand that the Republican party doesn’ t support trans issues, but I’m not willing to severely threaten our country, our economy and our way of life by donating / voting for / supporting a socialist. And Obama is a socialist of the highest order.
Having a country that can still churn out entrepreneurs, and freedom loving people trumps my own special interests.
Test.
I am so torn.
On the one hand, I want to show that we are willing to stand up and be counted. In dollars if that’s what it takes (and in politics that is usually what it takes).
On the other hand, Senator Obama has let his true colors show on the FISA bill. He pandered to the left in order to get the Democratic nomination and now he feels he can abandon all of those lofty ideals in order to pander to the right leading up to election day. For months he promised he would not support and would even fillibuster any bill that included immunity. Then in the final weeks leading to the bill reaching the floor, once he got what he wanted he changed his stance to the polar opposite. I’m a little…sensitive to the tactic he is using; it’s like ENDA all over again. He’s even talking up the same idea of an amendment once the bill passes (pre-accepted to fail, so he can safely say he tried). Charlie Brown, Lucy, Football.
What are we going to do, after all? Vote for McCain? No, we are going to ‘forget’ about Obama caving to the Bush administration (or to the Telecoms, or their largest shareholders), and he damn well knows we will.
I hate having to trade trans political recognition for my other values, those corny ones of life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. It’s like selling my soul.
I dislike politics. I really do.
I can’t help but be amused when Americans talk about socialism. Obama a socialist? Ludicrous. Only in some extreme right wing fantasy. The only socialists in the United States are marginalized and nowhere near power.
Not to mention that Obama is tacking toward the centre these days, as Sara noted.
Many Obama Chicago advisers strongly recommended that Barack not go so far left to get the nomination. He is already very liberal from a very liberal State, from the most progressive community in that very liberal city, Hyde Park, Chicago. Many advised he can run on that platform to get the Senate seat he now has. But the positions he took in the nominating process would really haunt him later. (including this author)
And it is right now. He is losing primary support in core Democratic constituencies on the left because he promised them and then reneged already on those promises. That is “bad” in politics especially before you get elected. It creates bitterness in constituents. There is an unspoken rule in Chicago politics, always cheat your constituencies “after” you get elected like “Bill” did on his promise to do a “middle class tax cut” back in ’92. However, Clinton was smarter than Barack. He waited until “after” getting elected to screw those who voted for him for that reason.
Essentially, he could have been more moderate left-liberal and still won while avoiding this problem. Yet, expect more movement to the right by Barack.
Why did he appeal so much to the hard left during the primaries? Simple, he needed the money. The far left has reservoirs of big bucks. To any politician, especially a Chicago pol like Barack, that is causal when pondering policy formation. He blew away the Clinton machine that had a lock on centrist money in the DNC.
It is always about money and power…. always. And that is how you win elections.
Now, he has to get nationally elected… and that means going to the center… or even going further right than center because the ugly little secret of American politics, and the Democratic Party Establishment knows this, is that the country “is” right of center.
Hence, with respect and love to our more leftist sisters on these threads, expect more “to the right” initiatives by Obama. He does not need hard left money anymore. He now has mainstream Democratic Party funding. So he can screw the left any time he wants especially on “marginal” issues the left think are important but nobody else does.
Just a few predictions, expect Obama to start “supporting” the war in Iraq (or obfuscate big time when he will pull troops if elected.) Expect he will throw “trans issues” under the bus because he really does not care about it. (Trans is an outlier with little expressed direct money.) Watch as he hesitates on a capital gains tax increase (well heeled traditional Democrats don’t like it and know it is destructive). Watch as he flips on oil drilling and shale exploration because Bungalo Bill wants cheap gas.
Essentially, as these posts have tried to express, Senator Obama is not a “change” candidate or someone looking to the future. He is a hard core, will to power, tough Chicago politician that thinks of power first, the money that one needs to gain power and then maybe he might “change” something if it makes sense to gain more power and money. Thats the Chicago way.
This does not mean he will not be a good Democratic President. But he is no “rock star”. He is above all no idealist. He represents some very embedded and traditional interests that control the Democratic Party.
This is reality, the Senator has hit the wave of “hip and cool” propounding change. But there will be little or no change even if elected.
Wednesday Update:
On a 69-28 vote, the Senate approved an administration-backed update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after striking down amendments to modify its immunity provision. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) voted for the FISA update, while his former primary opponent Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) voted against it. Republican candidate John McCain skipped the FISA vote altogether.
Could President Bush have asked for more? From RawStory.com:
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley explained, “What the Democrats are doing here with the White House is they’re trying to conceal a crime that is hiding in plain view. … Nobody wants to have a confrontation over the fact that the president committed a felony. … That’s a very inconvenient fact right now in Washington.”
“The Democrats have learned well from Bush,” Turley said in amazement. “They’re just going to change the rules. … It’s otherworldly.
The actions under FISA really fell into a gray zone. The wiretapping program is still categorized Ultra Secret. So nobody knows what it was really about. The coordination on this is not a Republican – Democrat issue. It is a Washington elite issue.
Accusations that President Bush committed a felony don’t fly “unless” Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Senator John Rockefeller (Chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence) et.al. also are considered possible felons because they also knew, approved…. and signed off on the program as well.
Partisanship doesn’t work with these kinds of actions. The DNC thinks they will have the White House in November. They don’t want to limit their actions when they gain power. So they let some parts of their Party, scream about civil rights for fund raising purposes, then do what they did today confirm what was done as legal… so they can do it when they get power.
As to the telecoms, they were in a rock and hard place. Imagine having the Executive Branch “and” the high ranking members of the Democratic Party telling you to cooperate, then ending up getting sued because the company cooperated. Damned if you do… damned if you don’t.
That was all about the trial lawyers smelling deep pockets, read that $$$$ anyway…. and the Dem leadership knew it. It would have been total kill, and political suicide for the Dems to allow the trial lawyers to go on with the suits. Consider having ATT sued in public court for “assisting” the war on terror… in an election year. What would Bungalo Bill think?
Further, if the elites would have allowed those lawsuits to continue, the telecoms would have insisted on exposing private communications via public interrogatories – discovery, most likely from high ranking Democrats too, that advised them to cooperate.
Best thing to do here is to screw the trial lawyers.
Sorry for being so caustic here. But there is simply no idealism in politics.
Catrina: Nice response. I enjoyed the post very much! As my history prof used to say, “Analytical, Critical, Concise and Precise.”
C
Christinesus dear:
I stand with with humbleness in light of your kind comments.
BTW: I respect your political courage. 🙂
Best to you…