BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

After listening to all the analysts and pundits putting their spins on the Iowa caucus, I decided to get a good night’s sleep.  I wasn’t sure there had been any clear winners.  Obviously, there were some who made the decision to drop out of the race, but I wouldn’t count them as losers. 

When I got up this morning, having slept on the spin, I decided there is one clear winner…. The American People.  Oh, God!  I don’t want to sound like some liberal patriotic soap boxer and my apologies if I do.

But, the truth is that Iowans showed that apathy is dead or at the very least in a cyclical coma.  There is once again a burning desire to make this country as great as the one I grew up in.  There is a fire brewing in the hearts and minds of the people.  From the final statistics, it appears that we are ready for a change… all of us, Republicans and Democrats, alike.

The caucus turn-out was so overwhelmingly unexpected that as I sat before the television listening to totals I was most impressed by the stories of fire marshals telling potential caucus goers that there was no more room in the caucus room, of Republicans taking their tally and offering their space to the overrun of Democrats…. just so each and every person could be counted. 

My first voting experience was some forty years ago, another time of change.  Our country was deep in the quagmire of another war that shouldn’t have been.  Young people were in the streets protesting and making their voices heard.  And, when the opportunity rolled around for us to make a change, we did.  Young Americans worked for candidates night and day, skipped classes to fulfill their passions, flocked to the polls to vote and as a grand finale, we brought about change through those votes.  We ended a war that should have never begun.  We adknowledged that all people are created equal under the law.  My first college roommate was a black woman, something that would have been unheard of a few years earlier.  Women were given the opportunity to get more than a “MRS.” degree at the university.  I was among the first class of women freshman at UNC.  The times were changing.

Today, fewer of us look at a person’s race or gender than at any time in our American history.  After all, America is an equal opportunity employer.  We have come so far.  But, for the past few years we have begun to “back slide” (I think that’s a Baptist term).  Perhaps, all of the old hippies got tired of fighting the bureaucracy or maybe some of us sold out.  We dropped the ball as a progressive generation.  We rested on our laurels.  We sat back on our haunches and allowed our country to be dragged back into a war that matters only to a select few corporations.  We became apathetic and didn’t vote when we should have.  We allowed leaders to be elected that have stacked the Supreme Court with justices who want to reverse our hard fought history and take away a myriad of our freedoms, the ones my generation fought and died for.  (I pray every night that Ruth Bader Ginsberg is immortal.)

But, this morning I woke up with the knowledge that our young people are ready to speak up, to take to the podiums and make their voices heard.  They are ready to stand up and be counted.  They are listening.  They are thinking.  And, yesterday’s caucus showed that they are ready to mobilize for the hope of our futures. 

Now, it is with reservation that I quote Anderson Cooper (his commentary on FEMA’s actions following Katrina), “Hope is not a plan.”  While the fire is burning in our bellies, while we have the optimism of new hope, we must now prepare to vote for the candidate we support, not based on rhetoric, appearance, or charisma.  We must look at the issues.  We must know exactly where he/stands on all the issues, not just the one or two that impacts us most as individuals.  We… YOU… have the opportunity to change the face of the world with a ballot.  This is one opportunity we must consider carefully and not squander. 

Our next vote is the greatest responsibility we have to ourselves, our futures and the futures of our children.  The next President will possibly… no… probably nominate several Supreme Court Justices.  Those justices will determine our country’s direction for the next thirty to fifty years.  Our next presidential election won’t be one to set the National Agenda for four or eight years.  It will be one that carries America’s freedoms into the decades to come. 

We must decide our future with care and enthusiasm and intelligence.  And, when the time comes next November, we all must stand up and be counted.