Rahm and the Big Boy Blahhhggss can bleat all they want, pounding their chests (and looking for checks to cash), but these are the people who made this past Tuesday possible:
Those who considered themselves to live in “Pombo Country” included a woman who traveled all the way from the Artic Wilderness with caribou hairs and soil from the tundra in her pockets, said Mary McAllister, who helped coordinate volunteers for McNerney. Other precinct walkers included a woman on crutches and two older men who worked as a team, she said, the one who could barely hear leading around the one who could barely see so he could talk to voters.
Me, I’m just a loudmouthed cheerleader and polemicist (you people read my rants … does anybody think having me knock on nice blinkered American’s doors woud be a good idea?) … I make no claim to having anything to do with what happened Tuesday, unlike kos and his merry band of would-be Schrums. If any bloggers did have an impact, it was local bloggers (like Milwaukee’s own Folkbum, for example) who helped drive local messages and do oppo research for true insurgent candidates. It certainly wasn’t the breathless blogheelers looking to do Reid’s, Emmanuel’s, Schumer’s or Clinton’s dirty work.
Nope, the real heroes were folks like argghh:
Spent all day today working out in Tracy at the Mcnerney campaign to unseat Richard Pombo (with my cousin Katie and friend Eric!) and I must say this was one of the more wonderful days of my life. It’s hard to describe the feeling of tromping around all day in the beautiful weather, surrounded by SUVs, quiet neighborhoods, streets that are all named either Sycamore Way or Weeping Willow Lane, huge lines at the polling station, the ragtag band of rebels gathering at the home of Martha Gamez, perhaps my greatest hero of all time–a woman in her sixties who hasn’t slept more than 2 hours a night for a week organizing this vast army of eager but entirely clueless Bay Areans into an eager, happy bunch of door-knockers and still managing to give out hugs and laughs and wow Americans sure can be decent wonderful people sometimes. Today was the day the last smoldering coals of cynicism died in my Election-2000-encrusted-heart. As the sun went down on the vast flat aquamarine skies of the valley, and we stood at the poll watching a huge line of happy, talkative voters wait patiently for their turn and a little posse of sleazy-looking Republicans started snooping around and looking ominous and I thought “No, today, you are not going to do anything. Because we are here. For the first time, I am not watching you fuck this up on the news afterwards anymore. I am here, and so are thousands upon thousands like me. There’s Jeb who sat (mostly stood) all day at the poll, that’s 12 hours if you’re counting, watching for problems. There’s Lee who I became best friends with for a day as we got lost in the spiraling suburbs over and over, there’s Carolyn who’s been traveling across the country with her husband in their RV and they decided to stop here in Tracy for a month and get this election won. And more…”
Blogs are corner bars. Blogs are virtual picket fences to hash out issues with your neighbors. They aren’t going to save the world. They are places to learn, places to bitch, places to connect … but that’s all. Citizens who educate themselves, talk to each other, contribute what they can or even just turn out to vote are the real change agents. I love this medium, but the over-inflation of blogs as something more than what they are is serving only to ruin them and lower their real power and effectiveness. Blogs are important only because they get people back into the habit of being engaged. No more, but that is certainly important enough.
Today’s tunes after you click “more”.
- “What I Deserve” – Kelly Willis
- “Reason to Believe” – Rod Stewart
- “The Bookhouse Boys” – Angelo Badalamenti
- “Change (in the House of Flies)” – Deftones
- “I Lost It” – Lucinda Williams
- “You Don’t Have a Heart” – Shelby Lynne
- “What God Wants, Part II” – Roger Waters
- “Tough on Me, Tough on You” – Lonnie Mack
- “Mack the Knife” – Nick Cave
- “Can’t Let Go” – Lucinda Williams