Yes We Can!
Change We Can Believe In!
Great slogans, and the idea for winning this election is change and saving our country's future. Every decent candidate, on either side of the political divide, makes this claim. Some state they should be elected to preserve what's going well, and others claim they should be elected to move the country back on the right track.
But there's another thing that needs to be pointed out here. When we say this election is for the future, we're thinking about the future of the country. That's good. But there's another future to consider here.
more after the jump
What we're looking at is a chance for a full-scale political realignment here. (Ironically, just a few scant years after giddy Republicans were talking about a Permanent Republican Majority. I'm looking at you, Tom DeLay, FORMER Congressman under indictment.) Not only can we win this election cycle and set ourselves up for more in 2010 and beyond, and also work on "more and better Democrats", but we can also lock down a generation of new and young voters.
I teach a politics and government class at a high school. I've been trying to bring in speakers from both parties for a variety of offices. I've had a guy from the Obama campaign; the kids loved him. But my white whale? The McCain campaign can't send me anyone. They won't even return my calls. Why? All hands are on deck trying to win New Hampshire. They can't spare anyone from Massachusetts.
Obviously, not hearing one speaker isn't going to make the whole generation into Democrats, but throw in the Obama excitement, frustration over Iraq/Katrina/gas prices/the economy/culture war overreaching, and this is an election that can be a repudiation of the last eight years. More importantly, we can bring the 18-30 year olds in for good, in much larger numbers than before, and also formulate the political identity for the teenagers and the tweenagers, those who can't vote yet but are becoming politically aware. These are young Democrats, and if we can keep them, they'll be ours for the next 50+ years. This is the future. Let's win them and keep them.
So keep up the good work. Keep throwing the Republican anchors. Keep showing the failures of Republican Conservatism. And win the future as well as the present.