This is probably a ramble, and I know that my English teacher would kill me if she read it, but I think this is something that needs to be said.
So as we all know, the good doctor's campaign has come and gone. We are all still in a state of shock, sorrow, powerlessness, and more importantly, uncertainty. It seems like Even Dean and Trippi are playing it by ear. I think that a little reflection is in order.
There are so many things that this campaign has done, and I cold spend all day naming them. Giving the party a spine (for now), energizing the base, raising more money than any other Democrat in history (while not being a sitting president at the time), bringing young people, like myself, into the process, bringing older jaded people back into the process, raising awareness about core progressive issues, shredding the aura of invincibility of King George W Bush, and the list goes on. But I think that these things are not the most important things that the Dean campaign has given us.
There were two things that Dean said in pretty much every single speech that he ever gave. He said that the power to change this country was in our hands. It was not about Dean; it was about us. This is now more important then ever, because Dean is no longer in the race. We are still here, and we are more eager than ever to change this country. It is just that we don't now how we are going to do it. In time, this will fall together. He also said that the biggest thing that we lost in America was our sense of community. This was the sense that we were all in this together. Well, I will tell you that we all here, weather Deaniacs or Clarkies, Edwards supporters or Kerry supporters, Democrats or even Republicans, believe that we are in this together. We believe that it is possible to take our country back for ordinary Americans, no matter what political persuasion they are, and yes this includes conservatives too. This is everyone's country, or at least it should be, and I think that it is time that every American had a voice in their democracy.
This community has done a lot for me. As I have said before in many comments, I have always been interested in politics, its history, the process, and the issues. I never knew what I should do or could do. Politicians wrote young people off for dead. Dean asked me to help him out, and thus I joined a community. I have learned many things from this community. I am a programmer who didn't know what an A-1 visa was before, and now I know. I am a liberal who didn't know who Paul Wellstone was, and now I know, and he is one of my heroes. I never knew what a PAC really was or what the heck a 527 was, and now I know. I never knew what canvassing was, or how the candidates get voter files, and now I know. I never really knew how expensive running a campaign really is, and now I know.
This community has done more for me than I could imagine outside the political realm as well. I was on a bus for over 20 hours to Iowa, and that gives you a lot of time to talk to people. It is an instant bonding experience, if you will. I learned that I was not as weird as I thought. I learned that there were more people who shared my values than I could imagine. I met amazing people with amazing stories and lives. I met people who were into the kind of things that I was into. For example, most people do not know who the playwright August Wilson is. I was talking to a guy who teaches English, and I asked him about existentialism in Wilson's plays, and we had a great conversation about it. I also had great run ins with people in Iowa. Imagine how powerful it is that a movement can force me to get off of my ass and do something, in the cold tundra of Iowa, no less. This is a place were I met so many interesting and good people, and many of these people didn't even support my candidate, but they welcomed me into their homes, and that is such a great feeling.
This community is strong, and no one knows what is next for us. All that we can do is stick together. We will at least have the friendships that we have created, if nothing else. The other stuff will fall into place. I know that I will run to be a committeeman in 2006. My fellow Philly4Dean people are going to help me. Much more, they inspired me to inquire about it in the first place. I know that we all, together, will do something, and we will continue to change out country. We just have to stick together, and we will inspire each other to do great things.
We have made history, and I hope we can make ourselves a future as well.
