Good morning to you all, my indomitable insurgents, my irascible extremists, my blogofascist brethren.
I am sitting here in the middle of the night typing in a dark room in my West Coast abode. But even as I type this, the polls have just opened in Communecticut, and at last--after so many months of campaigning, angling, blogging, and pure pounding the pavement--the decision is finally where it belongs: in the hands of the Democratic voters.
Whatever happens, let me be clear. We are just now waking up. This is merely the opening salvo in the war to promote democracy with a little d here at home.
We use the term "we" a lot here in the blogosphere, so I want to be precise. When I use the term "we" henceforth, I am not referring merely to us bloggers on this forum. No, I'm talking about the progressive movement. The citizen activists. The media watchdogs. Everyone who has contributed to the rise of the new movement here. That's what I mean.
We all have made it clear that there are things we will no longer abide.
We will no longer abide being called the antisecurity wing for opposing a failed occupation that has made us weaker, not stronger.
We will no longer abide the conventional wisdom that bipartisanship and compromise is the obligation of our party alone.
We will no longer abide the idea that Republicans have credibility monopoly when it comes to national security and "American Values."
We will no longer abide the DC insider pundits who perpetuate these ideas, nor will be abide the career politicians in our party who are eager to confirm these ideas for the sake of their latest Sunday morning appearance.
We will no longer abide being called "extremists" and "insurgents" for standing up for values, policies and ideas that are shared by a majority of this nation's voters.
We will no longer abide being told that supporting candidates who actually represent the values and beliefs of their states constitutes severe damage to our party.
We will no longer abide being told that when we play to our base, we are engaging in dangerous extremism; but that when they play to theirs, it's just shrewd electioneering.
We will no longer abide being told that we must not run on our beliefs, but rather hope for their failures.
We will not abide being subordinate. And whatever the result is today, the fact that this day is even being circled on the calendar proves it.
In closing, I would like to name a few personal heroes.
Tim Tagaris. You've run an awesome internet outreach campaign. Thanks.
The local CT bloggers, especially Scarce and Spazeboy.
PsiFighter37. Your reports from the ground are inspirational, and have made me jealous that I wasn't able to fly to Connecticut myself for this campaign. I will hope to follow in your footsteps on my Crashing the States trip.
I can't wait for the next 13-some odd hours to be over so I can watch the results come in.