Black Mountain, North Carolina, is a small town that rests in the heart of a horseshoe-shaped valley in the middle of the Blue Ridge Moutnains.
On Monday the 19th, 25 members of the "Democrats on the Move" held a pretend caucus. Howard Dean won 13 votes. John Kerry had four votes. John Edwards had three votes. And five people stayed undecided.
How could Howard Dean win in the rural south, in John Edwards home state?
We all wanted to get rid of Bush. We were all friends, and we were all respectful of each other's candidate. We did not want to burn down the Democratic establishment, as it has brought this country back from the Great Depression, fought for Civil Rights and Women's Rights, and won two World Wars.
Most importantly, these 25 people, the majority over 50, were all liberal activists. These are people who follow cable news and search out opnions and different angles on the internet. With this amount of news, how can these 25 people not be concerned with the state of the country.
But if you went to a local Friday night High School basketball game, the majority of people love America and would agree that only a little tinkering is needed.
To win an election Howard Dean needs to aknowledge the goodness of the Democratic party and the greatness of America, as he fights against the neo-cons' world policy, the special interest groups, and a Democratic Party which lost it's vision and heart during the mid-term elections.
Do we give up on Dean?
Then we are the greater cowards, and the conservative critics are right that the keyboard army does not have the heart to fight for every square inch of land. We should not quit because we have been mocked for our activism and optimism.
We were not wrong, as each candidate now does his best Dean impersonation to drum up supporters.
We should sit down with Democrats who support other candidates, and sit down and watch a high school basketball games, and convert people with kindness and respect. That is the really radical way to win an election.