There’s definitely a buzz these days over Al Gore and the possibility of another Presidential run for the former VP. But buzz alone won’t get Gore elected, or even nominated. It will take work, hard work, on the net, over the phone, but most of all, through contacts with friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances, new and old alike.
A few days ago, I ran across an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, comparing Al Gore’s past, present and potential future political life with that of Richard Nixon. Nixon, after eight years as VP to a popular Dwight Eisenhower, lost a close, and controversial bid for the Oval Office against John Kennedy, Jr., left politics to go back into private law practice, and then made a surprise comeback, claiming the Presidency eight years later against Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
Featured in the piece was Richard Lerner, director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University, where he and Al Gore have worked closely together on family issues, partnering in particular on the Tipper and Al Gore Family Reunion conferences, held for the past fifteen years at Vanderbilt University. Lerner, aware from his own personal experience with Gore that he was truly the best hope for the country, and planet, took action:
Lerner…sent an e-mail message to more than 1,000 people around the country; his plea for “Al Gore in 2008” is spreading like a meme (Gore’s enemies would liken it to a virus) across the medium that Gore never did actually say he invented. Lerner reports that response has been “overwhelming, incredibly positive – well, mostly positive; say, 90 percent.”
I spoke with Dr. Lerner a two days ago. He said that he received responses from people to whom he never sent the email. One such man wrote, “I read about your e-mail message requesting that folks back Al Gore in 2008. I have had a “ReElect Gore 2008″ sticker on the back of my hybrid for months now… If you have Mr. Gore’s ear, please let him know that there’s a guy in Huntersville, NC who is depending on him to light the way.”
I wrote to Richard Lerner after reading the article, and assured him he “was not alone.” When he called the next day, he said that one sentence moved him to join our effort at DG08. Dr. Lerner now heads the DraftGore2008 advisory board, but it is his actions, not connections, which placed him in that position. Richard Lerner, as one man, touched thousands of people, let them know that they too were not alone; that joining their voices together, they could energize a nation to offer the man best qualified to pull us back from the disastrous brink of eight years of Bush’s incompetence and malfeasance the office he promised in 2000 he would serve with honor, competence and integrity. As a respected academic and friend of Al Gore, it was potential quite risky for Lerner to undertake his email campaign; but it was a chance he was willing to take, fulling understanding the consequences of inaction. I can’t think of a better role model for our movement.
I urge all supporters of Al Gore to follow Richard Lerner’s lead, and do whatever you can, today, to make Al Gore the next President of the United States. Email your friends, call your family, join your local Democratic party, or pick one of the growing list of projects we have begun at DG08 or any of the other fine organizations now advocating a “draft” of Al Gore.
(Note: I’ve posted this at Daily Kos and probably will as well at some other community sites to which I belong. I’m curious as to whether there’s a difference in actual activism between the various sites.)
