If I were a public speaker, if I didn't have the organizational mind of a writer (that ultimately goes to shit when put upon the spot to vocalize those thoughts in a coherent fashion), this is what I would've said at the Washington State Democratic Caucus today inside the shared lunchroom for Skyline Elementary and the old Truman Middle School:
I'm not as old as most of you here, but every time I've had a say in a presidential election, I've seen my candidate lose. I can remember back in 2nd grade when we had a schoolwide "election" to see who the REAL youth of America wanted in the White House, George Bush or Michael Dukakis; I voted for the loser then and every time since I turned 18. I'm TIRED of voting for the loser!
Now, it's great that we've got these record turnouts all across America. It's a shame it's taken this long to do it. It took eight years under a tyrant; it took a complete lack of foresight to see the true power one man could wield. After those Clinton years, when we had a chance to keep the momentum going, to have true representation on the Supreme Court, to have a national surplus unlike we've ever seen, to have widespread economic growth, environmental stability, and an optimistic vision for the future, what did we do with that opportunity? We sat back on our haunches and squandered everything.
Four years later, mired in an unwinnable war, on the verge of losing two Justices to the religious right, on the verge of complete economic meltdown, on the verge of catastrophe after catastrophe, what did we do? We nominated the so-called candidate who was "most electable" as opposed to the candidate who'd actually be worth our nomination. Instead of voting for the man who we thought would get the job done, we voted for the next best thing because we all agreed The Next Best Thing would be infinitely better than the man we had in there then.
Now, eight years after all of this started, what do we have to show for it? We're the party that caves. We caved in Florida, we caved in to Karl Rove, we caved in to the Swift Boat Veterans, we've caved since regaining Congress, we've caved in to the war effort, we've caved in to the troop surge, we've caved in to a president with a sub-30 approval rating. But, we're also the party that can change things IF we get the right person into the White House this year. IF we show a united front and continue voting in record numbers.
But, that won't matter one lick if we elect Hillary Clinton as our nominee, because for as well as we're doing this primary season, the Republicans and the Conservatives have ALWAYS proven that they're capable of voting in record numbers. They mobilize their base unlike we could ever do. Should their will be crossed, they'll bite back with all the vengeance of an entity we have no hopes of containing. Our only real hope is apathy. Hillary Clinton doesn't inspire apathy within the Republican party. She inspires rage.
Barack Obama has all those things we saw in John Kerry four years ago: electability, the "look" of a president, he's NOT what's in the White House now. But, he's so much more than John Kerry in that he has charisma, he inspires people, he has convictions that don't simply kowtow to what's popular or what's leading in the polls. He's in nobody's pocket. He's young and eager and energetic and ready to take on all the challenges of a job that's too much for the older generation.
It's time to stop bowing down to the elderly. It's time to think of the future. It's time to vote for somebody who's TRULY not the same old thing.