Yesterday, as I was creating the fundraising maps, I spent a bit of time thumbing through the FEC filings. There are a lot of rich people that have donated a lot of money to the Presidential campaigns. In politics, these are the ‘high dollar donors’ and the fundraising teams carefully nurture them. They get the maxed out donation, and then try to get friends of the high dollar donors to also max out.

Then, there are the ‘low dollar donors’. They are the people contributing $25 via ActBlue. They get nice emails, and maybe a mass mailing or two. They get tallied up as statistics on the quarterly reports, but don’t get any wine or hors d’oeuvres, unless they volunteer to help out at a high dollar event.

Two donor lists, two Americas. Some of us try to be in both worlds. We volunteer for high dollar events. If we are fortunate, we max out, and still get involved in nitty gritty volunteer activities. I would love to see campaigns try to bridge these two worlds.

It makes me think of Joni Mitchell’s song, “The Boho Dance”, where she talks about how when she was “working cheap”, doing the Boho Dance, yet always having well pressed jeans and “a little lace along the seams”. She contrasts that with the “a lady in a Paris dress With runs in her nylons”. Yeah, many of us straddle two Americas, whether it be two Americas of political donations, two Americas of artistic endeavor, or some other bifurcation of our country. Some of us want to bring the two Americas together. Others want to keep them apart

Don't you get sensitive on me
'Cause I know you're just too proud
You couldn't step outside the Boho dance now
Even if good fortune allowed

It isn’t just the “artists in noble poverty” that perpetuate the Boho dance. It makes good news copy. The sort of writing that Ben Smith is doing at the Politico only serves to further the rift between the two Americas, instead of bring them together. It serves to feed the divisiveness and further damage our country.

As I read about Virginia Tech, it struck me about how horrible things hit people independent of their economic status, or which America they belong to. As I read about psychological first aid, I thought about some of the ‘core actions’:

To respond to contacts initiated by affected persons, or initiate contacts in a non-intrusive, compassionate, and helpful manner.
To enhance immediate and ongoing safety, and provide physical and emotional comfort.
To calm and orient emotionally-overwhelmed/distraught survivors.
To offer practical help to the survivor in addressing immediate needs and concerns.
To help establish brief or ongoing contacts with primary support persons or other sources of support, including family members, friends, and community helping resources.
To provide information (about stress reactions and coping) to reduce distress and promote adaptive functioning

Whether or not you are a trained mental health professional providing psychological first aid, or you are simply a citizen concerned about the welfare of our country, it seems like these core actions are probably things that we would all be better off doing more of.

It is much better than trying to stir things up about how much a presidential candidate spends on a haircut, or calling basketball stars ‘nappy-headed hos’.