I just had a few epiphanies. Bing! Bang!! Boom!!!

Man, my brain hurts. Help me sort this out. ...

Another fund-raising letter from Organizing for America just arrived in my email inbox. Most emails I get from OFA are sent in the name of OFA officials like Mitch Stewart or Jeremy Bird. Occasionally an email from some White House official, and a few times from Michelle Obama. I can't remember getting more than one or two sent in the name of "President Barack Obama" himself.

I got one of the rare kind last night, after the State of the Union address. Maybe you did, too. The Prez was writing to tell me that he would keep fighting for us and that he needs my help:

So tonight, I'm asking you to join me in the work ahead. I need your voice. I need your passion. And I need your support.

Can you help fuel our fight for the middle class with a monthly donation of $15 or more?

https://donate.barackobama.com/StateOfTheUnion

Epiphany 1: The DNC and the Prez want my money and could care less about my voice.

That may be too harsh, but I've noticed that OFA doesn't provide a mechanism for listening to me. Click the reply button on an OFA email and the reply-to always comes up: info (AT) barackobama (DOT) com. Write to it and watch your email come back. Just follow the bouncing ball.

Is my political voice being modulated and bowdlerized through the political process in some odd way that compresses the signal to some binary equivalent of $n, where $ is the only frequency and n is the value of my support without any reference to a particular issue? If so, isn't the DNC's view of political speech as simplistic and craven as the same equation in the hands of corporate interests?

Since money really IS all that politicians require from their supporters (tangent thought: "coin of the realm" is a meaningless phrase outside the literal context of accepted currency; money is ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE the coin of the realm), then maybe the big campaign pros are right: political speech = money.

So I now take it as a given that political parties worry about counting votes on election day and about counting cash every day.

Epiphany 2: The Democrats are terrified of being outspent and outmaneuvered by November.

Following Ripper's First Epiphany of Campaign Cash (money = political speech), there must be a corollary that explains why the president is asking for a continuing commitment of my money long before the November elections. Why so much so often and starting so early?

Answer: Because the Dems are trying to build history's biggest campaign war chest starting now. In fact, EVERY political party ALWAYS tries to build history's biggest war chest. But this appeal strike me as different. Asking for $15 a month EVERY month seems a little cheeky only hours after acknowledging the desperate financial straits of most Americans. Cheeky, unless the urgency behind the request is real. And given the Citizens United ruling, I think the urgency IS real. Democrats know they have to get ahead of the money curve now or they will NEVER catch up.

Epiphany 3: Who we send money to is more important than how much we send.

So here's my question: Who is our money best sent to? I'm thinking about the need to forestall Republican gains and of supporting the DNC. I'm also thinking about how to best push and support a liberal agenda that can get traction and succeed.

Who's in your wallet?