TO THE HEROES OF THE DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN OF 2018

Rose of all Roses, Rose of all the World!
You, too, have come where the dim tides are hurled
Upon the wharves of sorrow, and heard ring
The bell that calls us on; the sweet far thing.-the Rose of Battle, By Wm. B. Yeats

My friends, my fellow democrats, bear up, take heart.   And if this little love letter to the Cast and Crew of Campaign 2018 sounds romantic, don’t be afraid to tug at your heart strings.  Be glad, ye heroes, you live in a time of political romance!

 Last night, as we watched our hopes and hard fought efforts apparently go down the drain in the GA 47 Dawn Johnson for State Senate campaign, dawn gave me a gift with the following quote from JFK:  “Life is never easy, there is work to be done and obligations to be met.  Obligations to truth, to justice, and to liberty.”

We must bear up and soldier on because we are obliged to, by our sacred honor and commitment, and faith to our human family and our world.  That is what we do.  That is what is meant by the word democrat and democracy.   These things are sacred to us, and like our forefathers in World War II and the Civil War, who fought for justice, truth, and the human family, THAT IS WHY WE FIGHT.

We are found on the battleground of a longer struggle than a single election cycle, my friends.   Do not be confused, the troubles we face are the troubles which have formulated over at least the past 30 years in US politics, and they won’t likely be erased in any one election cycle.  This is hard because in my 30 years of political activism, I have never once seen such a lively, progressive, fighting, smart, kind hearted and dedicated bunch of candidates and activists.  I mean, not even close, nothing like it.  It is a bitter pill to see such gifted heroes like Dawn Johnson, Deborah Gonzalez, Josh McCall, Tabitha Johnson Green, Bill Nelson,  and fill in the blank, fine , fine candidates, from left to center right, who , regardless of political differences within our big tent, stood against tyranny and fell after a bracing and spirited fight. 

But we are in the struggle of 20 or 30 years.

That is the battle we must begin to fight, to see that it will take time and dedication, and enduring bitter losses as well as celebrating our heroes and victories.   The GOP crept in like a sneak thief in the night over a long period of time and pierced the soft underbelly of the country and took over the vast majority of state legislatures, and from there they rule the roost.  They control education and environment and police funding .  Possibly worst of all is the decay and lack of progressive vision for education, our criminal justice system, and the ecology.    We are devastated as democrats especially by the decay in our education system because education is a required component for democracy to work.  Our system’s decay from a democracy into an oligarchy dominated by an aristocratic elite is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE LACK OF COMMITMENT OF HANDINGTHE REINS OF GOVERNMENT TO THE YOUNG THROUGH AN EFFECTIVE EDUCATION SYSTEM.   The anarchic and polarizing and class and race-baiting warfare springing from dysfunction in our police and our criminal justice system with generations of poor Americans behind bars is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO A LACK OF VISION FROM THE STATE GOVERNMENT LEVEL.   And as we see in this election in Georgia, when the forces of aristocracy and oligarchy dominate the state house and the other levers of government, there is no progress and backwards movement into voter suppression and voter intimidation, and really, just as bad, a lack of VOTER PROMOTION.   PROMOTING VOTING IS NECESSARY FOR DEMOCRACY.  With promoting voting, a democracy decays into an oligarchy, and worse, a stifling aristocracy.

So there is our work.   We must soldier on and continue to devise ways to communicate with greater strength, organize more effectively, and come up with the most effective strategies to win very close elections and overwhelm the party in power with 1000 cuts and fight them on every seat in the state legislature.  We must improve our organization at the county , district, and state level, because as activists, we can have the greatest impact on this level.  The national democratic party still pays very little interest in the minute details that keep us moving forward in our county parties, so it is us who must tend to these details, communicating in all earnestness with our fellow democrats, to prepare for the next election, but not just that one, the next 10 elections.

Because we are in a long, protracted fight, and we must have no illusions about that.

Bear up, ye heroes, bear up and rest.   Dream.   Be among friends.   Get some R&R, and we will come back soon and join together for the next push.  It is an honor to be among heroes like you.