I've been immersed for the past couple of months in a whirlwind romance grassroots political campaign to get Randy Parraz the AZ democratic nomination for US senate. We thought we had a real shot. We could not have been more wrong. Randy not only lost the race, which we knew could happen; he came in last - a gut punch that many of us who supported him are still reeling from.
The defeat was a rough day in the school of hard knocks. I take some solace in remembering that Barack Obama also suffered a harsh defeat on his first foray into electoral politics from the position of outsider candidate and community organizer. I know Randy is the real deal, and he will not give up his fight for the people of Arizona. I am grateful to Randy for the campaign he ran and for taking a stand and speaking out on behalf of the disenfranchised in Arizona.
We obviously still have a huge amount of work to do. The fight here, against SB1070, against Sheriff Arpaio and his abusive practices, against the hateful atmosphere that has been created here, is not over for those of us who live here. It has only just begun. And Randy Parraz will continue to be a hero of that fight and a loved and respected leader who will help us organize and fight back.
Randy told a story in an early speech about a white sheriff in the south during Jim Crow, who just sat quietly and didn't take any action to stop blacks from registering to vote and showing up at the polls, and when the bigots demanded to know what he was doing about this problem, his reply was that he was using "mind over matter. I don't mind, because they don't matter."
That is exactly what the Arpaio/Brewer/Pearce axis of evil is doing here in Arizona. They don't mind what we do, because we don't matter. We are too small a contingency, and too many were either too afraid or too apathetic to get out the vote we needed. We also had no help from anyone, no coverage in the media, not even noticed in the progressive blogosphere except for a very few, very late endorsements ... but it all turned out to be far too little, far too late. So Randy's fight will go on, and ours with him, but his campaign for the senate is over. So now comes the decision on what to do with my vote.
I am not going to rehash all the reasons I despise Rodney Glassman. I've said it all before. He's now the anointed one, he spent money and had the right connections, he sent his bus around for a few months and blanketed the airwaves with ads while keeping the MSM quiet about any of his problems, and now he's the nominee. And in my opinion he has zero chance of beating McCain anyway. So I am not going to be voting for or supporting Glassmam.
I'm saying that now, this one time, and don't plan to bring it up again. I'm not gong to actively argue the points about him or try to convince anyone else not to support him or vote for him if that's what you want to do. But I'm not going to vote for the "Democrat" just because he has a D after his name, and I'm thoroughly disgusted with the Democratic party establishment in Arizona who allowed this poseur to win the nomination.
I was actually planning to register as a Democrat if Randy won, because he did such an outstanding job of articulating democratic values and principles. But unfortunately it seems that many in the party don't know those, or remember them. I want to be 100% clear that this has nothing -- nothing -- to do with what the Democrats in Washington DC are doing. Not Obama, or Gibbs, or Rahm, or any of them. Politics is local when you get down to what matters, and it was Arizona Democrats who blew it. They didn't select a candidate worth voting for, and they revealed a deeply disturbing problem in endorsing him, for no apparent reason... well, the apparent reason is money and influence. Not working for me, sorry. There's noting anyone in DC can do to change my mind one way or the other. It's the candidate, and the fact that the party is failing to represent us and our issues.
So, I've been reading the Jerry Joslyn website (Green Party candidate for US Senate in Arizona), and would like to say thank you to Dave in AZ for pointing me in his direction after the devastating defeat on Tuesday night.
I've never heard of him before. I have to say that his site needs a makeover so you can find information by topic or issue, but I was interested enough that I just read through most of his postings on his blog, which is where he stakes out his positions and gives his ideas on a wide variety of subjects. I did like most of what I read, and overall I would say he is far more qualified and would be a far better senator that either McCain or Glassman.
He does not have position statements on several of the things I care about, at least not yet, but on what he does have, I do like most of it. And I like how straightforward he is.
On immigration reform, no one can accuse him of not stating his plans clearly and having a very clear and complete idea of what comprehensive immigration reform would probably look like, if such a thing ever passed in real life. (yeah, I know.) Some of it was a bit tough to take in... but overall he makes sense and certainly doesn't skirt the issue or BS about it. I don't agree with biometric ID cards for all students and tourists, but that was probably the only really eyebrow raising idea in his mix. The "fines for illegals" was hair-raising at first, until he goes into detail on how that would work! Genius. If only something like that really could happen. He does tell the truth about the border security issue, which I like. He should dial it back on using the term 'illegals' but if we're going to discuss real immigration reform it's a word we're going to hear, so I try not to write him off because of that.
I don't know how much I would promote him, but right now I can't see any reason not to give him my vote in November, and a small donation to help him along. He certainly has a valid point about how neither the parties are able to offer us a good candidate and overall are not able to deliver on the fundamental changes we need. I am still a loyal supporter of Obama and have taken certain disappointments with him in stride, and I know we have made significant progress, and I will absolutely be supporting his re-election. Rodney Glassman is a whole different story. Arizona does not need our own Blanche Lincoln or Ben Nelson.
My God. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone... has this former "Obamabot" (I use the term in jest) turned progressive purist? Bizarre. I was always on the side of this argument that said you have to vote for Dems, no matter what, because the other option is republicans and they are too scary to contemplate. Well, in some races that is valid and I will still vote for Dems in almost all cases I'm sure.
But I've decided not to change my registration now, and for senate I plan to vote for Joslyn, unless I find out something about him between now and then that changes my mind, of course. But I do like what I see so far. Good find. Sadly he can't win, but so what? I do not want Rodney Glassman as my senator any more than I want McCain, which is to say not at all.