Let me begin by saying that I am an 8th generation NH native who was raised as a Republican. The phrase I was taught and have enjoyed repeating to many NH republican “leaders” is “fiscally conservative, socially responsible, protectors of the environment, party of Lincoln” then as they are shaking their heads in agreement I add “and that’s why I’m now a Democrat”. When I did this to Bill O’Brian (former crazy speaker of the NH house) he started yelling at me that my family would be ashamed of me. Very funny…
On a political involvement scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being, only vote in presidential years and 10 politics is your life’s work, I am between a 7.5 and 8. Many of my friends are my political comrade in arms who have called and campaigned and hosted parties and raised money and written personal notes together to get democrats elected for NH state and national posts and to turn NH blue in the presidential.
Because NH is “first” there is an additional layer of complexity. There are always people working in the state who are learning the ropes and making the contacts for the next presidential race with an eye to a career in DC. Because of the long build up to the primary there are a class of “very important people” who are catered to by potential candidates. It makes for a top heavy Democratic party and it pollutes the smaller downstream groups. Or for another analogy it’s like the unnatural high of a drug fix rather than the natural high of exercising. I imagine the same is true in Iowa.
We have gotten through the many years of primary battles and come back together as friends to fight for more, better democrats. Although I live in a very rural red part of the state we have made progress.
This time is different. This whole inevitable, competent woman thing was deeply embedded during the last competitive primary when Obama was the “insurgent”. The build up to this year has been going on ever since. There is so much energy in the Clinton camp from people who are 8 to 10’s on the political involvement scale that the next level down has been silenced. If we’re not full throat-ed Clinton supporters many of us are keeping our mouths shut. Because, these are the people we will be working with to get rid of Kelly Ayotte and Frank Guinta and the republican state house…
What started me on this rant was a conversation I had with a political friend I hadn’t seen in a while. I asked if she was involved in the primaries. She said no because she “kinda liked” Bernie and didn’t want our Clinton friends mad at her. This group of people I am talking about are mostly like me professional women in their 60’s. I can’t wait for this primary to be over so I can look my friends in the eye again. We have a lot of work to do in this state that has nothing to do with the national elections. The time, money attention and influence that is peddled in the state has created an unhealthy environment and is distracting us from this mission. We will need to spend valuable time and energy healing the breaches which this process creates.
As a side note I don’t think that Bernie will get the tremendous win that is projected. Too many game players in NH when it comes to answering poll calls. Also, the roads go north and south in Northern New England so there is little commonality from east to west. NH has no natural affinity for Vermont and few knew much about Bernie.
Finally – I miss the orange squiggle. That pale gray line just does not do the job.