We all have different perspectives and our perspectives have many layers. One of those layers is shaped by where one lives. I live in Fauquier County, Virginia –about 40 miles southwest of Washington D.C. It is a very red county. I don’t know when Fauquier last voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate. In the eleven years that we have lived in Fauquier, the county has always, always voted for the Republican candidate for every public office for which elections are held. Even Jim Webb did not win Fauquier County. But that changed this past February when Barack Obama won Fauquier County, getting the most votes of every candidate on the ballot, including John McCain. Where I live, and the fact that my very red county turned blue for the primary election, shapes my perspective on the various controversies rampant among progressives now.
Because there aren’t a lot of Democrats in Fauquier County, we have to work harder. Since the primary season ended, we have had a few campaign related events. The last one was a voter registration drive in which most people we spoke to said they had already registered. However, people were generally very positive about Senator Obama. Many of us in our little group, Fauquier For Obama, have noted that Republican leaning friends, acquaintances, and people we meet have been much more positive about Obama and much more negative about McCain than they have been about the previous candidates for President. In 2000, people jeered at the mention of Al Gore’s name. In 2004, people sneered at John Kerry’s war record.
So the atmosphere here in Fauquier is much more positive today than it has been in the past. The Democrats are having a picnic in Fauquier on July 4th. We are going to discuss plans for voter registration, GOTV canvassing, tabling, and phone banking. Currently, we have events scheduled at least every other week between now and the end of August, even if those events are just sitting at tables in front of the Giant Food Store or at the County Fair to hand out stickers and photocopies of position papers from the Obama website. We are trying to open an office here for when the campaign really heats up from August through Election Day. We are working hard to raise the money for that, and believe me, it’s not easy. It’s going to cost somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 dollars. Frankly, most of us don’t have that kind of money with gas prices, food prices, college tuition, and just the general expenses of life. But we are working on it.
There is a lot of hopeful talk that Virginia will turn blue for Obama in November. I hope this will happen. But it is going to take a lot of hard work and more money than I am able to donate. Sure, Northern Virginia will vote blue, but it has in the past and Gore and Kerry both lost Virginia. Jim Webb won Virginia by a very small margin if you recall. That’s why counties like Fauquier are so important. That’s why donations are important in Virginia and in other counties in other states where Barack Obama has a better chance to win this election than either Gore or Kerry did to win in 2000 or 2004.
Small counties in states like Virginia need help. We can’t do it alone. The effort being put into the Obama bashing on this site and among Democrats generally is not helping us. The Republican leaning population in our counties may be open to the idea of voting for Obama but until they cast their votes for him, we can’t take them for granted. In talking to Republican leaning friends and acquaintances, the controversy over Obama reaching out to more moderate voters as he has done in the past two weeks is being used by the Republican e-mail machine to cast doubts on whether or not Obama is genuine. They are getting e-mails about his character and the so-called "flip-flopping" that so many on this site and others are claiming. The broadcast media have picked it up, NPR has picked it up.
The moderate voters I know who are now voicing concerns about whether he can be trusted are not people who believe he may be a "secret Muslim" they know he is not. These people do not believe that McCain is automatically the best candidate simply by virtue of his wartime experiences. They may think that McCain has more foreign policy experience than does Obama, but that alone is insufficient to gain their votes this time. However, they are easily swayed to fear that Obama may not be trustworthy, because the new theme out there is that he has changed positions and therefore can’t be trusted. They do not see the nuances or the context of the debates raging among Obama supporters.
They do see that many Obama supporters believe that Obama has betrayed them because of his FISA statement, refusing public money, and the General Clark controversy. They hear that people want their donations back or that they are withholding donations. The fear that Obama may not be trustworthy is out there. Fear is the best weapon the Republicans have and they love to use it. Fear that Obama may not be trusted to do the things he says he will do is just as threatening to our candidate as is the fear that Obama won’t be as strong on security as McCain.
I am not trying to curb anyone’s freedom of speech. But we all need to understand that what we say about our candidate and the threats we make are heard by others who will use these statements to instill fear and mistrust among the voters we need.
If progressive and liberal voters had sufficient numbers to elect a Democratic candidate, Gore would have been President. Or Kerry. The reasons we lost those elections have much to do with the inability of Democrats to convince moderate voters to trust the Democratic nominee. Are we falling into that same trap now? Is the trap being baited by the Republicans this time, or by us?
Yes, the netroots has power. But doesn’t that also give us responsibility? Obama’s FISA vote is not going to gut the Constitution or damage it worse than it has been damaged by Bush and Cheney and their horrendous, fascist agenda. Obama’s faith-based initiative and national service proposal are not going to gut the 1st Amendment and require everybody to become a Christian. President Obama will have more regard for the Constitution and will do more to protect it than any Republican ever has.
Obama’s speech on patriotism is not going to hurt General Clark (who by the way is not running for office and who supported Senator Clinton’s "obliterate Iran" comments and her statements about being under sniper fire in Tuzla -- so he’s not a perfect spokesperson). There are plenty of people who thought the Move-On ad about General Petraeus was over the top (by the way, I was a member of Move-On when it was still "Censor and Move On"). Why should Obama want to get into an argument with Republicans over John McCain’s war record? Why should he defend the Move-On ad? Are those the issues over which this election will be decided or are those straw men that the Republicans will use to direct attention away from their own disastrous policies that include torture, un-provoked unilateral invasions and never ending wars for oil?
While people are tearing each other and our candidate apart over these issues, there are grass roots volunteers in small counties in swing states like mine who are trying to convince moderate voters that Obama is a candidate who can be trusted to do the things he promises. And I can tell you, it’s not easy and it’s going to get harder. These counties are the front lines of this battle. So go ahead, form groups, spend money and energy flexing netroots muscle. But let’s not forget that the energy, time, and money spent on these things are energy, time, and money that are not being spent on swaying voters in the places where we need them if we want Obama to be elected.
So that’s the view from Fauquier County. I’m not joining the new "Obama Change Your Vote on FISA" group or whatever it is called. I’ve got my hands full just trying to get people in my county to vote for Obama. I encourage other grass roots volunteers in other counties and states where Obama needs to win to get elected to share their stories about how their work is going. Our voices need to be heard. I’ll be watching for your diaries, recommending them, and daring to hope that this time we can have regime change. Yes. We. Can.