Tig (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} regorfa) wrote,@ 2007-08-08 16:36:00 |
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Looking Forward: 1 Year Since Lamont's Victory
It was one year ago today that Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary for Lieberman's Senate seat. The victory forced the Senator's true pro-war colors to show. The victory also was a turning point in the progressive movement. I am really glad that I could be a teensy-tiny part of that movement for change. I was a part of Democracy for America national that summer and did field work for the Lamont campaign for 5 days leading up to the primary. I will always remember vividly the extreme euphoria at the victory party and the sincere belief that if we all worked hard and played smart, Lamont could even win in the general election.
Since then, the course of our nation's politics has dramatically changed. The Lamont campaign did help change the discourse on Iraq. It proved that Democrats needed to be stronger voices of opposition to the occupation of Iraq. With the sweeping elections just a few months later, it seemed like anything was possible.
But I also won't forget what I learned going door to door in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Most people didn't seem to care one way or another about the partisan politics that Lieberman claimed was ruining our country. Instead they asked me what Lamont was going to do about crime. Why is it, they asked, that their kids have to go to school with a 12 foot high gate in front of it? They asked me about health care. Why is it, they asked, that they are getting squeezed, month after month after month?
One woman I met had marched with Martin Luther King for civil rights--she had even gone to jail for it in the South. She wanted to know why it was that African-American voter disenfranchisement is still an issue today. Why haven't we lived up to Dr. King's dream?
2006 was just the beginning. It was the election to get us back on track. But back on track doesn't mean we've come close to our destination: a lasting progressive majority which can be responsive to these questions and more. So that's what this year has meant for me. It's been a time to learn, a time to sharpen skills, and a time to prepare to go back to the voters in 2008 and hear what they think, what they want to know.
Lamont's primary, to me, was all about standing up for what we believe in. Let's work for that in the next year.
It was one year ago today that Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary for Lieberman's Senate seat. The victory forced the Senator's true pro-war colors to show. The victory also was a turning point in the progressive movement. I am really glad that I could be a teensy-tiny part of that movement for change. I was a part of Democracy for America national that summer and did field work for the Lamont campaign for 5 days leading up to the primary. I will always remember vividly the extreme euphoria at the victory party and the sincere belief that if we all worked hard and played smart, Lamont could even win in the general election.
Since then, the course of our nation's politics has dramatically changed. The Lamont campaign did help change the discourse on Iraq. It proved that Democrats needed to be stronger voices of opposition to the occupation of Iraq. With the sweeping elections just a few months later, it seemed like anything was possible.
But I also won't forget what I learned going door to door in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Most people didn't seem to care one way or another about the partisan politics that Lieberman claimed was ruining our country. Instead they asked me what Lamont was going to do about crime. Why is it, they asked, that their kids have to go to school with a 12 foot high gate in front of it? They asked me about health care. Why is it, they asked, that they are getting squeezed, month after month after month?
One woman I met had marched with Martin Luther King for civil rights--she had even gone to jail for it in the South. She wanted to know why it was that African-American voter disenfranchisement is still an issue today. Why haven't we lived up to Dr. King's dream?
2006 was just the beginning. It was the election to get us back on track. But back on track doesn't mean we've come close to our destination: a lasting progressive majority which can be responsive to these questions and more. So that's what this year has meant for me. It's been a time to learn, a time to sharpen skills, and a time to prepare to go back to the voters in 2008 and hear what they think, what they want to know.
Lamont's primary, to me, was all about standing up for what we believe in. Let's work for that in the next year.
