The local Dean enewsletter printed this a couple of weeks ago. I thought I'd put it up here for your comments.
I came to political consciousness in 1968. Those of you who are old enough will remember the assassinations, the riots in the cities and at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the escalation in Viet Nam. It was a year when politics could get your attention. I was in the eighth grade and my civics class was assigned a project in the community. One of the options was to volunteer on a political campaign. I grew up in Minnesota and a favorite son, Hurbert Humphrey, was the Democratic nominee for president that year, and I went to work in his St. Paul office. I was a Humphrey Girl, we sang and danced and opened his campaign events around the Twin Cities. I stuffed envelopes, manned phone banks and learned about all the scut work a political campaign needs. I had a wonderful time: not for nothing was Humphrey known as "The Happy Warrior." His campaign was upbeat, he was terrific to be with in person, and I learned that who the candidate IS matters. Oh, and I horrified my very Republican family.
I voted for the first time in 1972, pleased to take my adult place in the process as I started college. My political baptism of fire, however, came the following year. I'd accepted a position as staff announcer at the University of Minnesota's NPR radio station just as the Watergate Hearings began, which were broadcast live by NPR. Every afternoon for months, I listened to the revelations of crimes and dirty tricks unearthed under oath by the Senate Watergate Committee as I worked my afternoon shift on the broadcast board. As we all know, the hearings cultiminated with Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency in the face of certain impeachment in 1974. NPR had given me one hell of a political and legal education in just over a year. By age twenty, I was already a cynical voter.
In the 29 years since Nixon's resignation I've never again volunteered for a political campaign or candidate. I've voted in every election, local, state and nationally, but often feeling that I was choosing the lesser of two evils. I've been pretty faithfully a Democratic voter over all these years, but I will admit that I voted Nader in 2000, disgusted by the spiritless and unfocused campaign waged by Gore/Lieberman and knowing that it wouldn't matter since Virginia was sure to go heavily for Bush/Cheney. It took me a couple of years to understand that the cynicism of the Nader campaign was even deeper than my own, and that Al Gore and Joe Lieberman had pretty much been savaged by the press during the entire campaign, while George W. Bush had gotten a pass from the media.
As I watch the way the Bush presidency and its neoconservative partisans are methodically tearing up everything I value about this country, I've gotten plenty angry. I don't hate Bush, but I hate his policies, his arrogance, his crony capitalism. I want my country back.
Last summer something happened which overcame my cynicism. Howard Dean came to Falls Church in August to kick off the "Sleepless Summer" tour. I'd been hearing about him for months and I wanted to "squeeze the Charmin," check out the merchandise and decided with my own eyes and ears if all the buzz about the doctor from Vermont was warranted. I found the Blog for American and then found a way to volunteer for the event. I've learned from lots of experience at church that the way to get to know people is to work on clean-up. There's time to talk to people without deadline pressure, so I worked on putting our park back ship-shape after the event broke up. I talked to Dean supporters who are undoubtedly "Deaniacs," those who were still checking Dean out, like me, and those who were more pragmatic than enthusiastic, who said, "Look, this guy can win and he's real. I'm going there."
I'd signed up for this event by email and a couple of weeks ago I got another email from Julie Ide, volunteer coordinator for Virginia for Dean. She was looking for volunteers to write letters to North Dakota Democratic primary voters. I'd seen some stories on the news about Dean Meet-ups in various states writing letters to Iowa Democratic caucus goers, and I thought that was pretty neat so I volunteered for this project. Yesterday I got my list of 14 North Dakotans to email. A moment of truth had arrived: was I ready to declare myself for Gov. Dean and state my reasons? Was I ready to tell complete strangers about it? I thought hard about meeting Dean at the Falls Church event, watching the debates, watching all of Dean's interviews on TV and the way I've watched him evolve and mature as a candidate over the last couple of months. I sat down and wrote my letter to North Dakota and emailed it yesterday afternoon. It's a pretty long letter, but I want to include a little bit of it here:
"I am writing to you today from my home in the State of Virginia to ask you to consider Howard Dean in North Dakota's primary election on Feb. 3, 2004. My name is Melanie Mattson, I'm nobody special, just an ordinary Democratic voter, but I had a chance to meet Gov. Dean at a campaign rally in August here in Falls Church, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. I have to say that this is the first time in 30 years that I have been excited enough by a candidate that I have volunteered to work for one. There are many others who feel the same way, and the grass-roots organization which has gathered around Howard Dean is remarkable to behold.
"This election cycle is the first time that the State of Virginia will hold a presidential primary election, so I started paying attention to the Democratic presidential candidates a little earlier than I normally would. I will vote for whomever the eventual Democratic nominee turns out to be, but I'm supporting Howard Dean now and hope to be able to vote for him again in November of 2004. Why? I think he is the best candidate for the job and has the best chance of defeating George W. Bush. As Governor of Vermont, he has an admirable record of economic development (brought good jobs to the state,) fiscal discipline (consistently balanced state budgets) and brought health care insurance to the children of his state while cutting child abuse in half by providing services to the families who need them most. As I'm sure you also know, Gov. Dean also opposed the war in Iraq and this position of his is personally important to me.... No, I don't agree with all of [his positions], but I agree with enough of them that Gov. Dean will be my candidate in the primary election.
"If Gov. Dean campaigns anywhere near you this season, make the effort to try to see him in person, if you can. The power of the Dean campaign is in returning the power of the American electorate back to us, the voters. "People-Powered Howard" is the real thing, and it is this attitude which impresses me at least as much as his policy positions."
It is that last element that made me commit to him. At last I've found a political candidate who has returned to me at least some of my idealism, someone that I don't have to second guess or parse every statement for spin, half-truths or outright lies. I believe in Howard Dean because he lets me believe, for the first time in a long time, that what I think and care about and believe to be true about both myself and our country actually matters.
I wrote to Julie last night about the way I felt after I sent those 14 emails. I was a little uncomfortable with this exercise, I'm from the same part of the world and those high plains people are private people. After I clicked "Send" on the last one, however, I felt exhilerated. I told Julie that, for the first time, I'd actually done something constructive to send the Mayberry Machiavellis back to Crawford, instead of just yelling at my TV or grousing to my friends. And I asked her for more work. She asked me to write this to you. This, I've found, is the Dean campaign, one voter talking to another.
If you, like me, are finding satisfaction in the volunteer scutwork it is going to take to beat George W. Bush and his gazillions of campaign bucks, tell your friends, your family (mine is still horrified) and your co-workers about how good it makes you feel to help take our country back. We aren't "angry Dean voters," we are happy Dean volunteers.