Obama's securing the delegates necessary for the Democratic nomination has unleashed a tide of unaccustomed emotion among bloggers on Daily Kos. It's been a while, but I think it might be...hard to say now, it's been so long... it it really? ...genuine Hope?
That's Hope, yes, with a capital H.
The kind that mobilizes the disenfranchised and energizes beyond the base to include damn near everyone who would welcome being talked to like they're sentient human beings. Adult ones, at that.
Obama gives me hope that we can take back both our country and our party.
For too long the United States has been hijacked by corporate interests. All Bush II did was cut out the middle man, welcoming legislation crafted by lobbyists, something that could never have happened without the complicity of too many in Congress.
The remedy for that is a Democratic Party whose most prominent member is willing to back Joe Lieberman up against the wall for a little talk, a party whose rules forbid lobbyist $, and whose chairman is Howard Dean, author of the fifty-state strategy because you can't win the lottery of you don't play and you can't win elections if you don't run.
For most of my adult life, the Democratic Party has sat by and let the opposition define it in the most extreme terms possible when in fact, the MAJORITY of the American public favor Democratic positions.
This is not a hard one, people. Here's a few suggestions:
Make an argument, backed up by facts.
Don't buy any frames with a big red "R" on them. Wanna know when I knew Chris Dodd's campaign was toast? When I heard him talking about health care and he said something to the effect of "I don't want Harry and Louise coming after me." Please note: Harry and Louise are fictional characters. If you are a U.S. Senator who is unable to carry an argument against people who don't even exist, you don't deserve to be that party's nominee for president.
Call out any of the chatterers who persist in asking bullshit questions. Call bullshit by its rightful name.
Tell the truth, even when it's not what we want to hear. The futures of my children and grandchildren are too important to me to allow me to fall for anything that will diminish their chances of achieving a standard of living at least as good as that my parents and I have enjoyed (and that's fairly modest, but still a LIVING - one that allows for "bread, and roses too.") Don't feel like you have to cut my taxes to save your phony-baloney jobs, not when it's my children and grandchildren who will see that debt come due. God knows we have saddled that generation with debt enough that we should all be humbly seeking Her forgiveness.
If anyone else has any suggestions for the DNC (who will receive a little remembrance from me, come next payday!), please feel free to add. These days, you just don't know, they might actually Get It.