With my campaign to unseat the 20-year incumbent and rubber-stamp Republican Bob Goodlatte, we have an opportunity to achieve something of real importance, something that reverberates far beyond our Sixth District in Virginia.
Sure, it’s true, as the newspapers like to point out, it’s an uphill fight. Sure, my opponent will far outspend me. Sure, this is the most difficult district in Virginia in which to beat a Republican.
All the better—because the more surprising our victory, the more powerful the blow we can strike by winning this race!
Remember the nature of this terrible crisis we face in America today. Money power is taking over our country, robbing average Americans of their futures while enriching the already fabulously wealthy.
We have an opportunity to show America how people power can defeat money power – by inspiring old and young, liberal and conservative, to rise up and repudiate those who have put advantage for the privileged few ahead of serving the greater good.
The Republican Party has been dominating the political battlefield, with the Democrats too often bullied into submission, shrinking from the battles that need to be fought.
We can show the Democratic Party how to win – by standing and fighting unequivocally for the American people, and telling the truth about what the Republican Party has become and how it is stealing our birthright as Americans. (Already, President Obama’s position has grown stronger as he’s begun at last to fight in this way.)
This battle can be won. I can see how – despite Goodlatte’s obvious advantages — we can prevail. What it requires is that enough people throw themselves into this battle.
This battle – not just in our Virginia but in the nation as a whole – is about what kind of society we will become.
That’s why I’m running. That’s why I am working to fashion my campaign into an instrument for striking a meaningful blow against the destructive force that is degrading our country.
Please join with me in fighting this battle. Help me get my message out — fighting the battle by telling the truth about the dangerous thing this Republican Party has become. Help me show America how people power can beat money power. Help me beat the Republican rubber stamp, Bob Goodlatte!
Andy Schmookler – candidate for Congress in the Sixth Congressional District – is an award-winning author, political commentator, radio talk-show host, and teacher. He is a graduate of Harvard University and holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.
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