On one hand, I have to thank George W. Bush. I have to thank him for the dubious dealings in Florida which allowed him to become the 43rd President of the United States.
In 2000, I was merely a junior in high school. I was working at my high school's radio station, WHFH-FM, where I was developing the station's web site. One morning I was offered the opportunity to attend a Dick Cheney campaign rally.
I went to see the Vice Presidential candidate attend a campaign stop at a local community college. This was my first experience working as a member of the media. I carried various pieces of equipment through the secret service checkpoint, and was given my very first official media pass.
And so it began. I was hooked. There was electricity in the air, and even though I was a Gore supporter, I loved being so close to the action. Seeing the reporters ask him questions during the press conference that followed inspired me to try and come up with something that might just be able to stump a political candidate.
Before Election Day 2000, I would attend rallies for Al Gore and Ralph Nader as well. I would stump Ralph Nader a press conference in Wisconsin. My hand was stepped on by Mayor Daley in Daley Plaza in Chicago. For once in my life I wasn't treated like a kid anymore.
In the agonizing time that passed from Election Day to Inauguration, I would co-host a political talk show on my school's radio station. I would interview members of Congress, local officials, and political analysts. I would go from planning on majoring in Computer Science at the University of Illinois to wanting to go to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. I started a blog on January 20th, with the hopes that it would outlast the Bush presidency.
The next year, 9/11 happened. I was now in charge at the radio station and I put together a 2 hour special edition featuring various government officials on September 12. I had media access to President Bush's visit to O'Hare Airport a week later. I hung around with reporters from the Chicago Tribune at a McDonalds near O'Hare as we watchd the president's motorcade go by.
Then I went off to college. To Georgetown. Here I became involved with print journalism. All of a sudden politics became so much more accessible. The White House was just down the street. John Kerry and John Edwards live merely a few blocks away.
And I fell in love. I became a Deaniac. I gave my first donation to a political candidate. I ended up giving over $300 to Dean, and another $250 to other candidates. I voted for Howard Dean in the first (and only one of two) elections he would win--the non-binding D.C. primary.
I went to Iowa as part of the Perfect Storm. I was there for the scream. I canvassed and spoke with Iowans from a town that had been hit hard by the economic downturn.
Now I volunteer for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, try to raise money, and donate whenever I can. I contribute and help out the DC Vote campaign. I follow D.C. and national politics.
And had it not been for that fateful election in 2000, perhaps my life would have remained how it was. Who knows? Maybe I'd be at University of Illinois, and I'd be writing a diary entry at Slashdot rather than at DailyKos. Had the election gone the other way, how many people would remain unregistered to vote, remain uninformed, remain uninterested?
Would you be here if Gore had become president? Would DailyKos even exist?
So, Mr. Bush, the one thing I will thank you for is being the catalyst that energized the left, and brought the Democratic party back to life.
And like any other catalyst, this reaction will spit you out in the end, and you can make your way back to Crawford, Texas. In the words of Howard Dean, I'll even pay the bus fare.