I was standing on a 6-ft ladder today putting paper clips on balloons. Red ones, blue ones, white ones.
The volunteer below me, "Susan," would call out the color and then another volunteer, "David," would string them on fishing wire so that the red, white and blue balloons made a swirling column of color. We were doing this as volunteers for an event to help raise money for Jerry McNerney in CA-11.
We talked as we worked. We talked about why we were volunteering for McNerney. We talked about who we were and what got us into politics.
Susan, who knows me, smiled as David, a student at UC Berkeley, said that what brought him to this event was a website called dailykos.com...that he hadn't realized that he lived so close to the district of Congressman Richard Pombo..that he'd decided he wanted get involved like he had in 2004...to take some action.
That, in a nutshell, is why I write here. That's
always been the reason why I write here.
My first comment here that I can remember was after I came back from getting out the vote in the dismal California recall election October 2003. My dejected comment got a response from a guy who went by the handle of Meteor Blades. He offered kind words. He knew a little something about GOTV; he knew what I was feeling.
(And, yeah, if I had to guess, I'd bet that's why Meteor Blades writes here too.)
You see, today was not the first time I've met a kossack out doing GOTV or volunteering. Far from it. Believe you me, we kossacks are out there...in all 50 states. We're out in force. And when you get out there you realize that for all the thousands of us who write here...there are so many more who read and take action.
Now, I did GOTV before I wrote about politics. I'm not going to romantacize volunteering. It's not always fun. It's not always clear what impact you are having. Sometimes you find yourself putting paper clips on balloons standing on a ladder in a Masonic Lodge...or some such thing.
But the point is: we volunteer because that's how we take our country back. We volunteer because that's what you do. It's not above or beneath any of us. It's just part of the fabric of what it means to be political, to be an activist, to be a Democrat.
I have more respect for David and Susan...people moved by what they read online to go out and work to change their nation...than I do for most anybody else in politics.
Politicians: I've met them.
Political operatives: them too.
Pundits and reporters: been there.
It takes something special to make me really like a candidate; I have nothing but respect for a fellow volunteer.
I could write more on this subject, but to be frank, I'd rather stop right there. I'm not going to try to pitch you on getting involved this election season. I'm not going to try to sell you on creating a local blog, or signing up with DFA. I'm not even going to try to link you up with someplace where you can give money, if that works best for you.
You see, this diary is a simple one. It's for the volunteers.
I'm just one guy, but my hat's off to you.