Tonight, I was at the Polk County DEC meeting. I moved down here to central Florida four months ago for a job. I wanted to immediately lend my time, money and talents to help getting Democrats elected in this state -- a state long beset by Republican extremism and big-business pandering. But having spent the last 4 years in Chicago, I was used to a different type of Democratic party, and one especially fond of Obama. But I was surprised.
The Polk County Democratic party is run by mostly older women (much older and wiser than my 27 year old rookie self). After the meeting, a few of the more important members and I went out to eat. But I am glad I got to know these kinds of Democrats. I know a woman at work who has been involved in the Democratic Party here in Florida for decades, and she was kind enough to invite me along.
These women were all Hillary supporters -- all of them. They were also very anti-Dean due to the Florida primary fiasco. They felt belittled and abandoned by the national Democratic party. They wanted their delegates seated, and they wanted their votes to count. And all they got were flippant responses from the DNC.
But over and above their words, they were most upset over one thing: Hillary. These women were smart as a whip, good hearted, and had fought for women's rights all of their life. I could literally see it in their eyes: they had lived all of their lives for this one day -- the day they got to elect a woman for President of the United States of America. They were still looking for any reason to believe Hillary could win. Yet they all begrudgingly noted that they would work for Obama if he was the final nominee.
I didn't tell them that I was a Dean and Obama supporter. I just listened to them talk. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I had just moved down from Chicago and that I was an Obama supporter all along, and I didn't have the nerve to try and console these people that were more than twice my age. After discussing amongst themselves for 15+ minutes about how Obama is unelectable, my coworker finally mentioned, "Well, John is for Obama -- he's from Chicago." So my cover was blown. I had to explain myself, and explain how I though Obama was also a strong nominee. I explained to them why I thought Obama appealed to us: He is an outsider at a time when people totally distrust entrenched Washington interests, and he has raised all his money without the help from lobbyists or special interests. One responded that they thought Obama would be the next Carter. I sort of laughed and said "we'll see".
But these people were discouraged. Being in Florida and having your votes not count YET AGAIN can really take the wind out of their sails, especially if you have been a women's rights activist all of your life and you want your vote for a legitimate woman contender for president to count. These people have been disenfranchised and excluded enough!
As a ardent supporter of both Obama and Dean, I call on both to just seat the Florida delegates and put this dispute behind them. Obama will win the delegate count anyways. Yes, Florida broke the rules and held their primary too soon. Yes, it's important to set a precedent that states that move around their primaries will not be punished. But it's also important not to disenfranchise Florida voters yet again. It doesn't matter how you view it from Washington or Chicago, these people and their mothers and their mothers' mothers have been working all their life to have women's votes count.
I don't agree with Hillary's politics, I don't think she is the best woman candidate for President, and I don't even like her personality. But the Democratic party is not about what I think, or what we think here at Daily Kos, or what Howard Dean thinks the rules are. It's about what we all think, and it's about including everyone. That means that even if you are old and from Florida, your voice and your tireless work for the Democratic party should not go unheard! Dean needs to seat the Florida delegates in full, and he needs to reach out to the voters and activists down here. It's not going to overturn the results of the primary. So just do it, Howard.
Furthermore, Obama needs to reach out to these women voters who have worked all their life for women's rights. He needs to nominate a woman for VP. I think Kathleen Sebelius is that woman. She is sharp, competent, and can win in conservative districts. Furthermore, she is a Catholic, which is a constituency where it wouldn't hurt Obama to make up ground. This article explains it more succinctly than I can.
While some of the arguments for Sebelius—she is a Governor, a woman, and is from a Red state—are not convincing, a closer review of her record shows that she has been surprisingly progressive while maintaining her popularity in a conservative state. Obama's running mate should share his ideology and approach to governance, and, most importantly, help him secure the "working political majority" essential for implementing his agenda. Sebelius appears to meet all these tests, and may well be Obama’s best choice.
Except that I would argue that the fact that she is a woman is convincing, as well. But, as the article states, her credentials go far beyond that. The change this country wants is a change for everyone: whites, blacks, men, women, educated, uneducated, city, country. Barack Obama symbolizes that change because of his progressive politics, his decision to run a campaign without special interests, and yes, because of the color of his skin. And Sebelius symbolizes that change as well, because she has proven that she can unite both conservative and liberals in one of the reddest of states while still having a strong, progressive record, and yes, also because she is a woman. Together an Obama/Sebelius ticket would be virtually unbeatable. Hillary still would have an important job in the Senate. And we would have, as our leaders of the United States of America, two people whose brothers' and sisters' journey through our country's history has been grueling, painstaking, sometimes humiliating, and sometimes life-threatening -- and this was just to get the right to vote and be treated as simply equal to everybody else. It's an overwhelming journey that our forefathers and foremothers have taken though the last 230+ years, but this election is about them. It's not about me, it's not about Daily Kos, it's not about Howard Dean, it's not about the blogosphere: It's about the journey for equality. And we can't leave women out this time. They are every bit as much a part of this non-violent revolution through time as blacks are, as progressives are, as Hispanics are, as we all are. The women in this country deserve this: a woman leader.