Excerpt from an editorial in USA Today:

"The first is that most people, even in relatively liberal California,
aren't yet ready to push the envelope all the way to same-sex
marriage. The bans won 52% of the vote in California, 56% in Arizona
and 62% in Florida.

The second lesson is that the better way to harness growing public
acceptance of homosexuality is to push harder for the kind of civil
unions and domestic partnerships still recognized in California and
seven other states. This lesson is particularly pertinent for the
states, including New York and New Jersey, that are considering ways
to expand recognition of same-sex couples.

What happened in California reflects the kind of backlash that can
occur when the courts get too far out ahead of public opinion on an
issue, particularly one fraught with cultural and religious
connotations. In May, the state Supreme Court opened the door to
same-sex marriage. Last Tuesday, California voters approved a
constitutional amendment (Proposition 8) slamming it shut."

I understand the call for society to apply the brakes, to hesitate on
this. Afterall, most Americans aren't ready to accept this so why
cram it down their throats?

If Proposition 8 were something more mundane, like funding for
regional transit in the greater Los Angeles area, maybe. Maybe then
let's apply the brakes and wait for the rest of the people to catch up.

But this is about something so much bigger than mundane politics.
This is about the effective creation of a caste of people in this
country. It is a modern day Jim Crow law. Unable to participate in
self determination in how they express their love and how to live
their lives, every gay person in California has been turned into a
contemporary Dredd Scott with the passage of this law.

We look back on the firehoses in Birmingham and the beatings in
Montgomery and reel in how unreal those scenes seem in our modern
world of broken down racial walls. What would the modern world be
like if Martin Luther King had preached to hold up, to hesitate and
let everyone catch up. What if he had preached to continue enduring
the drinking fountains, the dilapidated schools, and the lynchings?

The time must be now, not because I want there to be violence, not
because I want to upset people, but because it is the right thing to
do. Damn the consequences, damn the entrenched bigots and damn even
those who just want things to stay the same so they don't have to be
inconvenienced with a challenge to their ideas.

To say we are a free people while some can't visit someone they love
in a hospital because they aren't recognized as a legal spouse, to not
gain health benefits, to be barred from what is rightfully theirs in a
will because they aren't "family", to preach to the world that our
freedom is for all while this is happening in our own nation to our
own friends and neighbors is intolerable. And to say we should just
hold off on changing this for even one more day, for one more minute
is utterly unconscionable.

"Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not
free." -- John F. Kennedy

I just had an idea tonight for a series of self help audiobooks for the recovering Conservative.

Turning Blue: A Self Help Guide for the Recovering Republican

Book 1 - Out With the Old and in With the Blue: an Introduction to Life in Liberal America

Book 2 - Lattes and Sushi: a Culinary Guidebook

Book 3 - Hybridizing Your Pickup Truck

Book 4 - Affirmative Action to Zinfandel: A Guide to Speaking Liberal

Book 5 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Bringing His Life Partner: Making Gay Friends

Book 6 - Flipping Downtown Lofts for Fun and Profit

Book 7 - 12 Steps to Accepting Evolution

Bonuses included: A map of California wine country, an organic gardening tip sheet, and a coupon for $10 off your next purchase at Whole Foods Market.

Appearing on bookshelves and iTunes just in time for the winter holiday season.  The first 500 copies come with signed pictures of Keith Olbermann.

"All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."
--John F. Kennedy, Inauguration Speech, January 20, 1961

I am 28 years old.  I've never been a political activist.  I'm not even really an extrovert.  My humble and somewhat shy Midwestern upbringing is a creed with the motto "to each his own".  As a result, I'm not exactly the kind of person you'd usually see shaking hands and kissing babies trying to be elected.

But I've taken chances before.  I work in sales.  Not exactly the kind of profession for a shy introvert who thinks convincing people to do something is a little bit rude and intrusive.  I'm more the anti-salesman.  I keep the conversation going until people convince themselves that they need what I'm selling.  But would this sort of subversive style of persuasion translate in a campaign?  My gut answer is no. 

For some ridiculous reason, however, I've made it a goal to run for public office.  Maybe I just like to torment myself.  Maybe my subconscious likes to watch me twist in the wind until I come running back to my comfort zone with my tail between my legs.  Maybe, though, just maybe I've convinced myself it's an opportunity to do something bigger than who I currently am, to grow beyond myself and help change the world around me.

Regardless, one fact is very clear.  I am wholly inexperienced in political campaigns.  Don't get me wrong, this isn't some cockeyed ideal to get elected in a year, or even two or four or even more years from now.  This is a long term goal, not a Sarah Palin seat of my pants and in over my head style goal.  I'm deluded, yes, but not that deluded.  I know Africa is a continent and I can't even see Nebraska from my house.

Here's my initial groundwork in operation Moldy Squirrel (I checked and the DoD has yet to use this name for a field operation in either Iraq or Afghanistan):

1. Read.  Everything I can about organizing, recruiting, fundraising, and just getting my message out there.  Oh, and I'll probably want to read something about forming a good message too.
2. Volunteer.  You learn best by doing, right?  The City Commission elections here are in 2009.  Might as well hitch my cart to one of the candidates and get a firsthand education in the whole process.
3. Study.  Democracy for America Training Camp.  Camp Wellstone.  Take time off to study and learn with the best.
4. Talk.  I am an adequate speaker and have little trouble in front of crowds.  I am not a seasoned persuader nor do I argue well.  Again, the whole Midwestern "to each his own" mantra poisoning my work.  I need to learn to talk to people and communicate my message with them succinctly and effectively.
   

Of course, this is only the first four feet of a thousand mile journey I've made for myself.  These four bullet points alone will not get me anywhere until they all have been mastered from repeated trial and error until I have an effective system that works for me.

Only after I've put in hundreds of sleepless nights and countless hours of overtime, only after I've stuffed thousands of envelopes, dialed thousands of numbers, and knocked on every door in town twice, and only after I've gained the respect (and notoriety) of those around me, then and only then will I be ready for my own campaign.  Like I said, I'm in this for the long haul.  I'm in this for the endless hard work, for the marriage crushing nights away from home, and soul wrenching dirty work of political ground warfare.

But, most of all, I'm in this to do more than sit on the couch and yell at Fox News.  I'm in this to make a difference in my little corner of the world.  Afterall, isn't that how any good thing has ever been done ever?

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance."
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus

I don't want to be one to count the chickens, but if recent polls are any indication it seems very likely there will be a Democrat in the White House very soon.  It is also looking likely Democrats will expand their majorities in both houses of Congress.  Of course this is reason for celebration, but it will not be the end of adversity and opposition to the work we must do to bring the nation back from the brink 8 years of Republican rule have put it in.

The fact that we must do this is terribly important.  The earth is dying, the American middle class is on the ropes, and too many of our children have shed blood upon the sand in a war that should have never been waged.  Change must come and it must come soon.  This much is certain.

But just as important to what we must do is how we should do it.  Democratic control of the Legislative and Executive branches of the federal government is not carte blanche for Democrats to force an agenda on the American public.  It may give our side a mandate to govern, but it does not give Democrats a mandate to rule indefinitely and the sooner Democrats start acting like they have been endowed with the moral high ground to the nation, the sooner the Republicans will be able to make a push to take possession of that ground.

If history is to be our guide, we need look back just 14 short years.  In 1994 Newt Gingrich's so-called "Republican Revolution" swept the midterm elections to gain control of both the House and Senate.  Why?  We can't discount Gingrich and other party leaders as supreme strategists, but the finger can largely be pointed at a Democratic leadership that had lost touch with the people it represented and as a result, the conservative ideology was able to gain a foothold.

It is unlikely that the Republican party will simply fall back to lick their wounds in failure.  Almost immediately they will begin to look for weak spots, wedge issues, and corruptions in the Democrat forces to exploit.  It is always easier to be on the offensive than on the defensive, and after these elections Democrats will most likely have a great deal of territory to defend, taxing both the party's resolve and finances.

But if things are done responsibly, carefully, and with a defined purpose of service, the Republican offensive will be met with a defense so powerful, so complete, and so insurmountable they will simply dash themselves against it, instead of breaking through it.  If we are to guide this nation forward, we must take care not to alienate or tread upon the new relationships we have built during this election.  Relationships with independents, moderate Republicans, and even with the branches of our own party whom at times find it difficult to get along.  Just as these relationships have been a key to our success during this election year, they must be strengthened if they are to remain a key to our success in maintaining a progressive liberal leadership in this country.  The purpose of this election is not to simply propel one man to the highest office in the land, but to help each other move forward as one, to meet the future together, stronger and more resolute than we would seperately.

How do we do this, though?  So much will be working against us.  Not just the Republican war machine backed by the nearly unlimited cash of mega-corporations, not just the horrid state of our government and our nation Bush has left for us, but also the expectations of so many hoping for a better world.  We have set up the pins of hope, and if we do not follow through, the danger is very real that many will turn away in frustration if those expectations are not met.  We must have a plan to meet these obstacles head on.

1.  Meet victory with quiet humility.  There will be time to pat each other on the back and celebrate, but we must not act like Bush in 2004 and spend our political capital trying to further humiliate the opposition.  This will only further breed blowback and add to the bitter vitriol of the defeated.  Practice good sportsmanship, shake their hands, congratulate them on a game well played, and then move on to the work ahead of us.

2.  Do not under any circumstances attempt to force legislation on America.  Just as the Republican push to amend the Constitution to bar gay marriage contributed to their undoing, Democrats should not attempt to simply force the opposite on an unwilling populace.  We may know we are right about gay marriage, but forcing federal legislation on Utah or Alabama will only breed bitter backlash. 

The days of Governor Wallace and the national guard in Birmingham are thankfully behind us and there are better ways to change the minds of the nation.  This does not mean barring the use of federal power to push states to enact more liberal legislation, we must recognize that people in Kansas may be slower to accept it than people in Oregon.  We must be patient but we must be persistent.

However, this does not mean we must wait for 100% support to move forward, nor does it mean that opposition gets to drag its feet indefinitely.  To use the old cliche, both the carrot and the stick must be used.  If a state refuses to move forward, the full power of the federal government must be used in a reasonable and measured way to change peoples' minds in that state.  The same proactive use of incentives to convince states to accept progressive legislation must also be used in responsible and measured ways.

3.  Sunshine is the most effective disinfectant.  We are of course intolerant of corruption and the indiscretions of the Right.  But what about the corruptions of indiscretions of the Left?  We should not only be intolerant of this, we should be more intolerant of it.  To simply talk about change and restoration of the public trust and to not act on those ideals is a dead end road.  Republicans will watch dilligently for any trespass of these ideals and will not hesitate to pounce on these opportunities.  The utmost responsibility must be taken.  Ted Stevens' Bridge to Nowhere served to not only be his undoing, but largely contributed to his partys' undoing nationally.  To simply allow one of our own to fund a similar self serving project, no matter what it might be, is just as reprehensible.

If we forget these immense responsibilities, this will surely be the beginning of the end of all we have worked toward these past few years.  The Democratic Party cannot just be the party of change this year, they must continue to be the party of change well into the future and not succomb to the temptation of simply sitting back and accepting the mentatlity of the status quo.  Our work will not end on November 4th, it will only just be beginning.  We have the fantastic opportunity to meet this challenge together with hope and strength.

Yes we can!