Out of the echo chamber

Don't get me wrong, I love this place.

I've been here for more than four years, I've probably written 300 diaries, and Buddha knows how many comments.  But, as much as I love Daily Kos, I love the real world even more.

And I absolutely have loved participating in the real world the last two weekends.  Last weekend, I took the family out to a festival, and we registered voters.  This weekend, we went to a Democratic picnic to support the local party and sign up as volunteers for neighboring swing states Virginia and Pennsylvania.

After a 4th of July vacation, we'll be hitting both states frequently, taking our toddler and infant along on neighborhood walks, to fairs and festivals, getting out the vote for Barack Obama.

Spending all day here can create some weird impressions about reality, the FISA debate being one of them.  The general sentiment seems to be that the US Constitution is some fragile document that will be irrevocably destroyed by one act or another.  This just doesn't jibe with reality.  The US Constitution has survived a Civil War, it's survived two World Wars.  It sanctioned slavery - and then destroyed it.  It sanctioned the disenfranchisement of women - and then destroyed that, too.

The Constitution is constantly evolving into a more perfect document.  And yes, there are plenty of bumps along the way.  We didn't start out as a perfect country, and we're not going to morph into one tomorrow.

The Constitution is a hell of a lot tougher than you, me, or any one of us.  In fact, it's stronger than all of us put together.

When we were out at our picnic yesterday, I was just stunned by the beauty that is a Democratic party gathering.  There were teens there, college students, young families like mine, middle-aged folks, and seniors.  There were more black folks out than usual at one of these events (which is why I won't fully trust any poll to tell the truth about turnout) but there were also East Asians, Hispanics, South Asians, and all the other colors that people come in.  The parking lot had pickups, sedans, old beaters, Lexuses, our Chrysler, and bicycles.

There were folks with Hillary shirts wearing Obama stickers.  And there were folks with Republicans for Obama buttons.  All were welcome.

Nobody that I know expects their Presidential candidate to behave exactly like themselves.  I know I don't want Barack to act like me - I wouldn't last a week as an elected official.  That's the way the world works.

If you spent your weekend online, battling about FISA, you missed out - whichever side of the issue you fall on.  This fall, we have the opportunity to take back the White House, to reclaim this country from the party of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove.  We have the opportunity to earn respect again in the world.  This is probably the most important election of my life.

And I'll be goddamned if I let the echo chamber distract me from real action - registering voters, getting volunteers on-board, and building a GOTV operation that will win in the states that matter.

If you want to tell me that I don't care about the Constitution - that's your problem.  I know what my feelings are about that document, about my country.  You go ahead with that talk, I can take it - and so can the Constitution.

The rest of us will be going to My.BarackObama.Com so that we can get out of the echo chamber and onto the pavement, working for a victory that will be remembered as long as they keep history books.  If you don't want to be a part of that, I'll never understand why.