I love DKos. This site gives me inspiration, hope, a sense of community, a lot of healthy laughter, and a lot of practical and specific action items.
But I also know how hypnotizing it can be to become so engaged in the give and take of our community here that you fail to actually go out and do something to help win the elections.
So join me for yet another diary nagging you to step away from the computer and put in some work for a candidate. And believe me, this is directed not only at all of you, but also at myself. I've been here before, back in 2004, succumbing to the diary hypnosis. I would hope that I had learned my lesson back then, but there are times when I fear I did not.
Back in 2004, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that we were going to win the presidential election and be rid of George W. Bush forever. What gave me that certainty? The hours I spent here, reading DKos.
Oh, every day brought a new tide of diaries filled with elation over some clever campaign ad our side had put up, or some idiotic thing done by one Republican or another. I would sit at my computer and chortle over every Gotcha! There was no way we could lose...everything was going our way.
We lost, and in the ensuing 2 years our country has lost so much more.
Once again, I find myself lulled by the dozens of diaries trumpeting how this Republican candidate said some stupid thing that will surely peel 5% of the vote away, how this candidate is 'toast' for some new revelation brought by the day's news cycle. And oh how I revel in every diary, whether substantive or snarkish.
But I have to say, I also feel very uneasy. This feeling is too similar to that false sense of hope I felt in 2004. I know that this time I have to do more, we all have to do more. I know that all the chortling over every mishap befalling the Republicans doesn't mean one goddamn thing without us working to get out the vote.
In some ways, I have already done more. DailyKos has made it very easy to contribute to candidates, and I have scattered modest amounts to many campaigns around the country, whereas in 2004 I think I made only one small contribution (and I can't even remember to whom.) I've also made a lot more calls, sent a lot more emails to politicians and news media this time.
But I know that isn't enough. I live in Philadelphia, where a large democratic majority for Casey is a foregone conclusion, with or without my help. But that is no excuse. Every vote matters, as the turnout in Philadelphia is the counterbalance to the conservative rest of the state.
Or there are plenty of races in the nearby suburbs that could use my help...Joe Sestak, Lois Murphy, Patrick Murphy...vital races, each of them.
I'm generally a shy person, and the idea of telephone or door-to-door canvassing makes me queasy...but that is no excuse. Sometimes you need to push yourself to do things that make you uncomfortable...or there is just plenty of other work that needs to be done to help run a campaign.
Kos implores us to each devote a few hours helping out a campaign. That's just a few hours, period. Not a few hours a day, or a week. Just a few hours between now and election day, because even that would mean several hundred thousand hours given to the cause of a Democratic majority in Congress.
I admire those many of you who do so much and work so hard on behalf of one or several candidates. I want to give at least my few hours, and I really want to do more. But somehow, it's so damn hard to break the inertia.
I feel so fired up and committed...yet have not yet volunteered. I've taken off election day from work...yet have not yet signed up for something to actually do on that day.
As I said at the outset, this diary is directed at myself as much as it is directed at the community. Still, I suspect that there are many of you out there riding the tide of DKos diaries, expecting that tide to carry us to victory.
Well, it won't. We all have to get out there and swim. Because if you don't, well...you know that vague, gnawing sense of guilt you feel now because you haven't volunteered yet? It's nothing compared to the shitload of guilt, shame and anger you'll feel if we lose in November.
Trust me. I've felt it before, back in 2004