A couple weeks ago I decided to back off here...saying...in effect..."if I could pull some of the folks here to the local tavern over a few beers, we might be able to hash things out...but posting comments against this wave of anti-Kerry venom is futile..."
Well, I think the time has come for me to make my best stab at my half of that barroom dialogue...no holds barred...and if you want honest dialogue and engagement, you are welcome to answer back...
because, friends, the TIME IS NOW to get out act together, there is SO MUCH TO DO....
I'm a left Democrat....I've protested, organized, walked door to door, done GOTV, given my money, my time, my blood, sweat and tears...
I believe in the dignity, rights and vast potential of every single human being, and I am willing to fight for that cause now, in the past, and into the future....
side by side with my brothers and sisters, Green, Democrat and Independent, not always agreeing...but agreeing to put our shoulders together in the effort....
and I am not the only person like me who supports John Kerry.
Think about that for a second...
because those of you out there who so blithely hurl epithets, demean Kerry, his supporters and the Democratic Party and threaten to vote this way or that...
are coming off like SPOILERS.
And in my book that includes none other that Howard Dean himself.
Howard Dean wants to call me a "rubber stamp?" I'll tell you this, he can go jump in a lake.
Howard Dean wants to call people like me "part of the problem"? Let me say this:
I've done grassroots since I was a kid following my parents around leafletting our neighborhood...
...and I resent the idea that Howard Dean and his supporters here on dKos want to imply that because I don't support the Doctor that I am on the side of George Bush. It's one thing to run a "grassroots, populist" campaign...it's another to pretend like you invented the frickin' concept.
Howard is not Jesse. Howard is not Paul. And, at this point, Howard is sounding more and more like Ralph.
Howard Dean is a politician whose pursuit of the presidency is transforming itself from one that had a shot at being a hopeful, positive effort at revitalizing our Party...into one that has rapidly hurtled in the direction of a: believe-your-own-hype, divisive, true believer leap off the cliff of "the politics of electoral protest."
It's time to get some perspective:
It's the tenth anniversary of the first full and free elections in South Africa:
Nelson Mandela, on that day said....
"Today our march to freedom is irreversible."
We are at that kind of crossroads today in the United States....
the outcome of this election...what we do, and how we do it...will be remembered for generations to come...
and watched by everyone around the world.
And we don't have a Nelson Mandela to lead us.
But if John Kerry is not Mandela, if he is too much the politician...I guarantee you this... if we elect John Kerry next November, he will give a speech next January that will make you proud to be a Democrat and an American. He we build a cabinet that will reflect a vision of our country and it's role in the world that you can stand with, even if you differ with it. And where we differ with Kerry, we will be hold him accountable to the ideals and passions of those who helped elect him.
This election is about more than just John Kerry. And, at the end of the day, for better or worse, I do think John Kerry deeply understands that and the importance of this moment.
Friends, George Bush and the Republican Party have done more in the last three years to sabotage our cause than anyone would have thought possible in January of 2001....
but they are VULNERABLE.
We have a chance to turn this tide because they showed their hand...and it was a neo-conservative, right wing, born-again, "all or nothing" go for broke gamble that has proven to be a miserable failure.
We have the chance of a generation RIGHT NOW.
I am not just talking about the Presidency...and, to be honest, I don't think most of us here ever were...
we do have a chance to take our country back...
in 2004 and 2006....
which is what ALL OF US are hungry for.
Kos has been putting his energies and focus on the races around the country where we stand to pick up Congressional seats.....BRAVO.
And I would say that there is one other focus that is RISING to view in 2004 and will not be brushed aside:
We may be headed into a situation where the Republicans will try to use their culture war issues and fear of gay marriage to set us back...and we need to fight back, all of us, together.
Friends, this should give all of those hurling the Republican epithet at fellow Democrats pause...
because there were SO MANY who said that Gavin Newsome was "more like a Republican"...
no one is saying that NOW.
I have to say....in this last week, seeing the photo that ran here on the front page...I was deeply moved. Moved to think...moved to reflect...moved to change and evolve my views...
and moved to realize that, when it comes to gay marriage, the TIME IS NOW. I understand, more and more, each day that equal rights has to mean equal rights. Period, end of sentence.
To use Mandela's words, "This march to freedom, as well, is irreversible."
and if that means building a movement that can elect John Kerry, push for regaining Congress...and at the same time resolutely fighting for equal marriage rights for everyone....
I say BRING IT ON.
There is so much to do, and so much petty squabbling done here...
let's get past it and do something this year that will make all of us proud. Something that we can point to...
and say....2004 is the year we turned it around.
Isn't that what the Dean movement was about in the first place?
Isn't that what it means to be a Democrat?