- In all, I read over 1600 emails from the candidates; there were likely more than that. I'd guess that fully 80% of them included a direct ask for money, with more suggesting that money would be nice. My guess is that fewer than 10% of the emails offered a policy, a position, a reason why they person is running, and so on.
- The most consistently hopeful? Mayor Pete and Cory Booker. The most consistently negative? Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The most consistent? Amy Klobuchar, hands down. The most mentions of Donald Trump? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The most desperate? Julian Castro - that was no contest.
Going forward, I will still keep an eye on the candidates, and will continue sharing the email of the week. Here's this week's winner, from Beto O'Rourke, who dropped out of the race back in November.
There’s a painting that hangs in the Capitol rotunda depicting General George Washington in front of the Continental Congress 236 years ago, resigning his commission as the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
The artist, John Trumbull, believed that it illustrated “one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world.”
Why?
Because here was a man at the height of his powers, a man who had led America to a stunning defeat of the most powerful military on the planet, a man who could have made the case to be commander for life, or even King, a case that would have resonated with many in a young, unstable country still not free from the military threat of Great Britain or foreign interference in our affairs… who nonetheless voluntarily resigned his commission and gave up his power.
He did it for the greater good of this nascent democracy and in support of the idea that no man is above the law or the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives.
He knew that if this great experiment, this profound idea of America, was going to work, then at this decisive moment he must set the example.
And though he failed abjectly in other defining moral tests — he owned enslaved people, failed to work for the abolition of slavery, and in so doing set a perverse example and standard that would require a civil war to overcome — this precedent that personal ambition would be subjugated to the interests of the republic allowed us to inherit a government, as John Adams described it, “of laws, not of men.”
This precedent also helped to inspire a Constitution that provides protection against those who would put their own interests ahead of the country’s, including provision for impeachment of the commander-in-chief should they abuse the power of their office.
The idea of self-government and the Constitution that guarantees it were fought for and defended by succeeding generations of Americans. The service members who lost their lives in the Civil War, and in the World Wars that followed, paid the ultimate price to see this idea through. So did the civil rights marchers, the freedom riders, the men and women and even children who forced this country to move closer to realizing it for everyone by adopting the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in 1964 and 1965.
We have inherited the service and sacrifice of those who came before us. What we choose to do with this inheritance will define us for future generations and will be the example we pass on to our children and grandchildren.
Which brings us to this moment and the choice we have before us.
