What She Said

This is exactly how I feel.

I remember, like it was yesterday, that cold Wednesday morning in November of 2004. I remember watching Kerry concede and crying uncontrollably. There were no longer specific atrocities that I feared, in losing that election (or having it again stolen from us,) it was just this overwhelming feeling of sadness that our Country might not survive another four years of Republican rule.

I had never been involved in electoral politics and other than some cause specific organizations or fights for specific policies that I believed in, I had never really paid much attention to what elections, or Party, meant to me. I knew that I was a Democrat and had always been one, but my eyes had yet to be opened to what was really at stake.

When Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, all of that changed and it changed in big ways. It was then that the specific atrocities that I could not name that November morning came into full view and played out before me in vivid color on my TV screen.

I began to pay attention and began to read as much as I could. CSPAN played 24/7 in the background of my existence. I found the liberal blogs, the “reality based community,” and felt right at home.

I believe(d) that this new medium was my chance to experience the momentum of the sixties and really fight for the kind of change that I believed in. I thought that this medium and all of the organizations that were at my fingertips could gather together and fight to take back our country from the people and the policies that I found so dangerous.

2006 brought this vision into a reality and I could not wait for 2008. The expectations that I had of some liberal utopia where we actually worked together to take back this country, both houses of congress and the presidency were grand.

I was originally an Edwards supporter. I believe in his populace message and I felt that he would be our best bet to win in November. When he left the race I made my decision to support Obama. Funny that one of the things that I like most about him is that he envisions a country that rises above our old divisions and that the power of the presidency comes from the bottom up, it is a people oriented campaign and a people oriented way to govern.

Now, the division in our Party, the division between the Clinton and Obama supporters, threatens to bring our Party and our country down.

I don’t believe that it is too late – but I am deeply disappointed in the way that this has played out. I never thought that I would see the left in this country so petty, and so whiny, and so devoted to their particular candidate that they are willing to lose the General Election just to get their candidate to win the primary.

We need each other. We need to come together and focus on what is truly important. I hope that we can stop this division and come together. There is too much to fight for, too much that requires our energy and our unity.

A Unified Democratic Party is necessary. I hope that we can all wake up to this truth, before it is too late.