Six months ago, Randy Bryce took the State of Wisconsin and the nation by storm when he announced his candidacy to run against Lyin' Paul Ryan and launched one of the most amazing videos in this cycle. It struck a chord with almost everybody because it accurately portrayed Randy as an every day guy - a guy who is struggling to meet the needs of his families but finding it harder and harder to do so.
If the gentle reader thought Randy's first video was powerful, grab a tissue as you watch the second one. This time, Randy points out that his campaign is not about him - it's about all of us. In just a few short days, during the holidays even, the thing has gone viral.
When Randy introduced his video, this is the message he sent with it:
We used to have something waiting for us. Footsteps to follow. A trade. The promise of better times for our families if we paid our dues.
But now, that promise has been broken.
CEO's close factories to avoid paying pensions to workers who have been loyal for twenty-plus years, just so their stock price goes up and they can make more money.
Drug companies that used to sell decades-old drugs for a few dollars a bottle sell-out to private hedge funds and wealthy investors who jack up the price of that same medicine hundreds and thousands of times over.
Politicians cut pay for teachers, close public schools, and increase our kids' class sizes so they can give billionaires and corporations another tax break.
So we break a sweat and we break our backs, single moms, and line workers, and teachers, moving mountains, working our fingers to the bone, pouring every ounce of blood and sweat, making sure the foundation of the work today makes tomorrow better for our families, for our brothers and sisters, and for our communities.
Because it's about survival.
From the beginning, this campaign has been about whether ordinary people can come together to build each other up like we do in our neighborhoods and shake the foundations of Washington.
Paul Ryan and his allies have made it perfectly clear they don't care about us anymore. After giving the top 1% another massive tax cut at our expense, Ryan now wants to decimate Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. And that's not even a surprise.
When we defeat Paul Ryan, and swing the massive arm of change back towards working people, all of this hard work will have been worth it. This is why we're going to win. It's what separates us from the other side: We care about everybody -- and they don't.
When Randy is saying that this campaign isn't about him, it's about all of us, he's not just offering up empty rhetoric. He's no Paul Ryan. Ryan will say what he thinks the people want to hear and then go about doing the dirty work that his dark money masters tell him to do - giving them massive tax breaks, even if it means breaking our backs to do so.
Randy is a good union man and not only knows, but lives, the meaning of solidarity. He knows that no one person can do this alone but it will take all of us, pulling together, to overcome Ryan's masters and make ourselves a seat at the table. The rich aren't going to give us anything just because we ask for it. We have to wrest it away and make it ours.
Let me remind you that it took all of us to show Randy that we had his back and we were going to be with him every step of the way.
Now, we still have 10 long months to go. The fight to win this won't be easy. But nothing worthwhile ever is. Randy needs us to support him and help carry him just as much as we need him to take on Lyin' Ryan and put him out of office. Please help out Randy - help out us - see this all the way through. You can give Randy your support by sharing his video and by chipping in whatever you can afford to get this done.
But what ever you do to help, don't think of it as just giving another politician a bit of your money. Think of as investing in your future, just like paying union dues.
