An effort to get Maryland DKos readers together for socializing and activism.
My name is Bruce Godfrey and I blog at the Baltimore Examiner as the Baltimore County Liberal Examiner. I live in Reisterstown and work in Pikesville, Towson and to some extent wherever I can get clear and private internet access.
I am concerned about a level of complacency in Maryland among liberal and Democratic activists. While we are a pretty blue state, we have been underperforming in terms of delivering effective, progressive leaders to Annapolis. We have been humiliated by other states in their progressive success on same-sex marriage while we have a coward of a governor, content seemingly to feed his ambition on any grain of the day without regard to liberal, progressive values and a Senate president longer in the tooth, it seems, than Strom Thurmond was, who works in a building named after himself and care not one bit about the realities of gay and lesbian peoples' lives. We have our Madalenos, our Raskins, our Pinskys, but dismally they seem to fall behind the Mooneys, the Smigiels and the odious Don Dwyers, a wingnut tightened too far to the right even for the Republican Caucus, which he has departed.
In the liberal blogosphere we are little better. While there have been some journeymen liberal bloggers of mighty effort over the years, great ones like Isaac Smith of Free State Politics and mouthy opinionated bastards like myself have come and gone, we find outself grossly underperforming in the local political blogosphere. We should not be lagging behind other purple states in political blogging, but leading them and setting the example.
I suspect that a lot of the challenge of our state politically comes from the fact that there are few Marylanders, only Washingtonians, Baltimoreans, Shoresmen, Annapolitans, folks from Columbia, etc. Perhaps it is a curse of the piedmont topography of our state that few of us can either see beyond the next hill or climb a mountain to see the surrounding vastness either geographically or politically. Maybe it's our state's (and many of our regions') legacies of corruption that leads us to a mix of complacency and despondency about setting a higher standard. Maybe it's because so many of us are not locals that we lack local wisdom, that we progressives have been trying to win Maryland the way that we won a State Assembly race in Brooklyn when we were 23.
I am a son of the soil here. Leaving aside a few years in college and one year a few hundred yards below Eastern Avenue in DC's Fort Totten neighborhood near Hyattsville, I am a 40 year resident of the state. I am not going anywhere; my law practice, parents, children and their special ed services are all here. I am committed to making our state a successful, progressive beacon and to stopping the better-organized Republican bloggers and activists from turning us into Mississippi North.
I have attended previous Drinking Liberally meetings in DC and was disgusted by what I saw. A more insufferable, unfriendly and cliquish group was difficult to imaginable based on the poor reception that my friend and I received - twice - at an over-priced bar in Dupont Circle - perhaps the worst possible place to reach new Democrats and liberals imaginable. I want to organize socially and politically in an effective way in Maryland, not through preaching-to-the-choir venues in snotty high-income liberal ghettoes but where most of us actually live.
I want us to be able to reach the evangelical Christian who knows that only Christ is Lord (for her) but is starting to vote progressive.
I want us to reach parents with children who cannot accord 8 dollars for a beer.
I want us to get the lawnmower brigade in Maryland's suburban vastness, including in culturally conservative places like Baltimore County's east side and north Arundel, even in Harford County and (heaven forbid) Carroll County, which has gone Republican for almost all of the last 20 elections for President. We can crash the gate state-wide, upending not only counter-progressive blue dogs but also erstwhile allies too arrogant in their role as gate-keepers and dues collectors. And if not now, when? The General Assembly races are already shaping up for 2010.
I want Maryland progressive politics to start backing winners outside of liberal ghettoes like Silver Spring and Chevy Chase. Mind you, I love those towns and their solid progressive legislators and culture, but they are the low-hanging fruit. Those areas are represented in Congress by the likes of Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen; we in the slightly purpler parts of the state have to deal with John Sarbanes (might be good, but is not out front on much) and Dutch Ruppersburger (blue-dog and not often a friend of progressive priorities) and, by the skin of his teeth, Frank Kratovil Jr., who will rarely vote progressive in order to protect his magenta district from guaranteed Republican attack in a few months.
So, who's with me for brainstorming over cheap beer to get better progressives and progressive advocacy state-wide in Maryland? Let me know what you think!