A chronicle of a Dean Doubters' thoughts before, and after, his first DFA meeting.
Put first and foremost, I am not the biggest Dean supporter. I like his ability to get people off their collective asses to do something they feel, but I am at the same time wary that, by putting him in charge, are alienating the people that were there before, in a sense forsaking the old to make as much room as possible for the new. Let's get one thing straight, as a party we should depend on our inclusiveness to a fault, as long as those that want to carry our brand
share our core values. This isn't meant to be a debate over those values, and I digress. It is my belief that Dean will have problems coming in, especially from those that feel they are now being neglected in favor of the netroots. This is to be expected, every regiime change has its people who have pegged their lives on the old ways. Deans' success will largely be measured publicly on his ability to bring in the new, but privately, his job will depend on his as yet to be proven ability to coalesce those that came before with the new coming up.
Disclaimer aside, I did not have high hopes for the political legitmacy of any DFA meeting, and honestly, expected this meeting especially to fall into a congratulatory backslapping about "Dean winning the DNC".
But I am, as I have been since he was first mentioned as a nominee, curious about this paticular phenomenon. So, instead of sitting around and reading to escape the SOTU, I resolved to attend their conveniently timed meeting.
What I found really did suprise me.
Instead of the backslapping I had mentioned before, only one comment was mentioned, and that was based on the NYT prediction. It was quickly shot down by the event organizer, who said, "They said that about his nomination, too."
Although I cannot speak for any other meeting, or for the organization as a whole, as I have olny been to one, the Norm of these meetings appears to truly revolve around local issues. Of course there were quite a few disparaging remarks made about various national level Republics, but the brunt of the 2 1/2+ hours of the meeting was devoted to 3 local politicians that were in attendance. The first was a nice young man (Brace, if I remember right) running for a State congessional spot in a local gerrymandered district. He was using the Q&A time he had to sound out the specific stances he should take, and to basically develop himself as a candidate. The second speaker was a man running for Allentown, PA city council. While not as dressed up and as serious looking as the first, he had specfic issues he wanted to tackle and gave quite a few good reasons why he should be picked out of a crowded field. The third speaker is a woman who is running for mayor of Allentown. I won't even attempt to spell her name, I'd just mess it up horribly, but she was the one that really stole the show. She was lively, animated, and best of all, had a great sense of where things should go. She said quite a few great things, about how she started, and how she thought things should be, not to mention how she would do it. The one that stuck with me was(paraphrased), "If I can run my first ever political race against an incumbent with name recognition this big (stretches out her arms as far as they would go), and lose by only 49 votes, imagine what you could do if you would try." This point was hammered home over and over again, by her, the event organizer, and almost every other speaker.
That zeal to get everyone involved, small or big, in how their government is run, is Deans' and DFAs' strongest asset. They take care of their own, and for that they are all stronger.
After the meeting was officially over, everyone just stood around and talked, mostly about local elections, even moreso about those involving the candidates that spoke. While I didn't really feel I fit in at first, a man named John Norvaisas came up to me and really made me feel at home. He asked all the usual questions, and seemed excited that there was someone from his area out to the meeting (both of us are out of a area 1/2 hour or so away from the main focus area of that group). We talked for a small while about things that mattered to me, and I found out that he was running for, and I'm terribly ashamed to say this, I forgot. I want to say state congressional, but I honestly could be wrong. He struck me as a caring, moral kind of guy, and I'll be happy to stuff envelopes or work phones for him come 2006.
I honestly can say now that I understand why people are the way they are for Dean and what he wants to do. His organization, and the people involved in it, are making a difference in their own communities, and by doing that they are making it better for all of us. I saw three future state Congressmen, at the least, and a couple that could possibly make it to national level. Two of them would not have even tried, if not for DFA. That in itself is a blessing for the Democratic party.
Once a pessimist, now turning optimist. I'm just glad I took the chance.