Don't get all Excited. I'm with Dean until he (as someone else says) wins, quits or dies.
I'm a pragmatist. Honest. I'm also a creature of habit. I have the same primary email address I had 10 years ago. The same Internet provider. I've used the same long distance/local phone service for the last 25 years. I rarely redecorate. I paint my house routinely about once every 5 years and shop at the same grocery store regardless of who has what specials that week. I've worked for the same company for 13 years.
I've been comfortably ensconced in my obligations as a citizen for the last twenty five years and vote in every election. I routinely donate to every law enforcement and firefighting association that solicits me for donations. I buy girl scout cookies and wrapping paper (I draw the line at magazine subscriptions). I donate to my church, am never late on my taxes and drive cars until they fall apart beneath me. I've never put a bumper sticker on my car.
Until this (last) year.
Pleas aside, I'm voting for Dean in the primaries. If he's on the ticket in my state in November, I'll vote for him. If he's not, I'll vote for whatever Democratic nominee is there and here's why:
- This year I have a Dean bumper sticker on my 13 year old Trooper. This year, I have a yard sign.
- This year I went out into my community and handed out flyers and called my friends and sent them emails and argued with my relatives about candidates. This year I got four people who have never voted to register.
- This year I wrote my congressmen, my senators, my state representatives, and my governor every time they did something that I disagreed with or were about to do something that I disagreed with. This year I wrote letters to editors, to heads of corporations, to op-ed authors. This year I wrote to total strangers in Iowa.
- This year I went down to the state capitol on a Friday morning while the assembly was in session, sent a note into my senator and talked to him when he came out to see me.
- This year I donated money not only to Dean but to democratic contenders in states I've never been to. This year I sent money to Moveon, to the DNC (for kos), and to HRC.
- This year, I had something to believe in. This year, I learned (again) how easily hope can be shattered and how bitterly I can resent it.
- Viability: I live in Georgia. Even without Kerry's dismissal of the south, I'd feel the same way. In any discussion of the south I've had here over the last few months, if it wasn't "Fuck the South", it was some variation of it. In discussion where people were open to the possibility of one or two southern states swinging, Georgia isn't on the short list. It's unlikely Georgia would be carried without someone truly dynamic rattling the cages here.
We vote on March 2nd -- it will be pretty much decided by then, one way or the other.
- Vision: I value vision over vanity. That's not a slam against any candidate, it's simply the way I process what's valuable to me in the political process. Dean has vision. The longer he's around, the more likely people are to open their eyes.
- Loyalty: I value loyalty over liability. People and ideas should be fought for. Who Howard Dean is and what he stands for is worth my loyalty. In my circumstances, my loyalty, be it true or blind or stupid (pick as you will) costs nothing to anyone else, hurts no on, and means something to me.
- Pride: Standing up for what we believe in is often disappointing, frequently difficult and incredibly rare among the great masses. It's one thing to stand up to injustice on street corner when your back's to the wall. It's another to stand up in front of a crowd of people who disapprove of everything you believe, everything you are. Sometimes it's foolish to do so on principle alone -- and yet, its something that nearly all of us value in one way or another. In my part of the country, sometimes pride is all you have. It's caused a lot of problems over the years for this part of the country, for the people in my state, but whether you agree with me or not, believe me when I say that while that pride may often be misplaced on some issues, it's also the reason why so many people in this state continue to fight the good fight year after year in the face of overwhelming losses to both their economics and social issues. The real answer to change down here would to transplant a couple of million more liberal minded people to upset the status quo. (Come on down! It's cheap to live here!) Maybe another Great Migration is the answer to the Democrats need to retake some of the red state.
This year, I am not the same person I was last year. This year I am older, but maybe not yet wiser.
This year I didn't just see something amazing, I feel like I did something amazing.
I've heard Dean speak about three times now, always on TV. I've listened to the other candidates as well. I've read their platforms, I've listened to their supporters. I'm willing to agree that they are all good men (and women!) who could do better than George Bush at guiding this country, or at the very least, do no worse. What I haven't gotten is inspired, excited, felt obligated, or been otherwise engaged.
If you can show me another candidate who can give me all that...we'll talk about the vote thing.