If you're a Daily Kossack, you're probably an awful lot like Alvin Greene. You're just some guy. You have a regular job or you're a servicewoman or you're in school or you're unemployed. You live your life and you go about your business. You're talked at. Handled. Dealt with. And it's okay for a while. You're feeling free. Hopeful. Everything's tolerable. Until it's not.
Things start to bug you. And boy do they bug. You are legitimately bugged. There is plenty to gripe about. And you gripe and gripe and nothing gets better. In fact, it seems to get worse. You have three choices:
- Keep griping 'til you die.
- Kill yourself.
- Try something else.
If you're annoying the crap out of your elected officials with regular emails and phone calls, if you're knocking on strangers' doors and calling voters in states you've never stepped foot in, bringing your kids to peace vigils and anti-Iraq war marches, sending money to candidates you never heard of, considering running for office yourself, attending rallies and picnics and town halls, getting yourself on the local news, putting yourself out there in places you never thought you'd be, well, you've got a bit of Alvin Greene in your veins. That's my story, anyway. Some people are a bit more focused.
Markos is Alvin Greene. He's just some guy. Yeah, pretty well educated, obviously talented, but it's a right place, right time kinda story, Daily Kos was
Opportunism, mixed in with blind luck and a dose of branding. The secret of my success.
Michael Moore is Alvin Greene. He's just some guy. Did you know he was elected to his local school board when he was just 18?
I was a slightly ticked off teenager (this was before the era of school shootings and Ritalin). I decided the best way to fight the high school principal was to become his boss -- while I was still a student. So, I ran for the school board on the platform of firing him. Remarkably, I won.
Digby is Alvin Greene. She's just some guy. Got her start on usenet.
I started writing on usenet and political boards back in the 90's during the Great Republican Panty Raid. At the time I considered it a healthy new alternative to drunkenly sitting at the end of the bar pontificating to the ashtray, and certainly an improvement over banging my head repeatedly against a wall.
The internet became available just as American politics turned batshit crazy. When blogs emerged as the next big thing it seemed a natural fit for me --- my own little soap box where nobody could tell me to shut up. It quickly evolved into an obsession. I've barely left the house in three years.
Why is it so hard to believe that Alvin Greene got fed up with griping and decided to do something different?
Here is the simplest and most likely political scenario: There was no apparent good challenger for DeMint. The South Carolina Democratic Party put up Rawls as their sacrificial lamb. The whole purpose was to get DeMint to spend some of his money. Because otherwise he'd use some of that money to continue to strengthen republicans at the state level.
Hardly anyone knew Rawls and most of those who knew him didn't like him. Don't tell me you've never voted for a democrat whom you've never heard of. That you've never voted for someone just because they were a woman or their name sounded Black or Italian or reminded you of your favorite great aunt or had a nice ring to it. There's all kinds of stuff to vote for at the state level!
And Alvin Greene actually had $10,000 saved up -- really, that's not so impossible to imagine, he could've cashed in a retirement fund or an annuity or sold his truck.
And Alvin Greene caught a bad break -- he flashed porn that was on the public computer he was using to a young woman and that turns out to be a felony. In my book that's merely obnoxious. Still not in the same ballpark with the immoral behaviors of many past and present elected officials.
And Alvin Greene was a little bit nuts, but it's totally understandable. Griping about the intolerable a good part of your adult life can really drive you 'round the bend. But Alvin Greene decided the time to gripe has come to an end and he's going to do something different. Can you think of a better way to invest that money? It seems odd to many of us but these are odd times.
I'm going to celebrate my inner Alvin Greene today. And as soon as someone can provide a link to donate to his campaign, I'll update this diary.