The Candidate Who Just Won't Die

Back in the day, when it looked as if there actually was hope that W's presidency would be limited to the 4 year term he did(n't) win, I decided that I wanted to do whatever I could to help make that dream a reality. Because I'm not the kind of guy who'll go out and campaign door to door or who'll make campaign phone calls, the only thing I could come up with that I thought might make a difference was to make financial contributions to the Kerry campaign.

I probably gave way too much money over the course of the campaign, but I did so hoping that it would make a difference. Obviously, that was a complete waste of money since a loss by even a slim margin is still a loss, and because W. is still the president.

One of the by-products of those contributions, however, is that I'm stuck on the johnkerry.com mailing list, and I get e-mails from him (more like from some johnkerry.com employee whose salary is being paid by all that money I sent to the campaign) several times a week. The latest one is begging for money to help pay for an ad in the USA Today next week trying to rouse public outrage over the Republican threat to use the "nuclear option" against the judicial nomination filibuster threatened by Democrats.

While I'm as outraged as most Democrats that the Republicans would do such a thing, I'm having a very hard time being motivated to contribute money to pay for newspaper ads against the idea. I mean, if the Republicans go through with their threat, then it's almost like the country is getting what it asked for. What good is a few dollars toward a newspaper ad going to do when you're trying to change the course of a juggernaut? With a Republican congress and a Republican administration, and a rabid conservative evangelical base, it just doesn't seem likely that a newspaper ad is going to change the outcome.

I suppose I'm glad that John Kerry is still out there speaking out and trying to hold the line against the Republicans, but he's not been very successful at motivating me. I know having all those "inactive" conservative judges confirmed would be a bad thing for the country. But maybe we just deserve it. After all, we got what we voted for.