Reply #3: Thanks! [View All]

[no name no slogan]

As I've told too many people here :D at DU, I first got into party politics because of Paul Wellstone. I was in college in 1987 (not at Carleton where Paul taught, though) when Paul first came to our campus. He came there as a friend of one of my professors, who was running for state legislature against a man who can best be described as John Ashcroft with a beard. It was a fairly conservative, rural district, but we won by just a handful of votes in 1988.

At that time, Paul was also leading Jesse Jackson's 1988 run in Minnesota. Although I was supporting Dukakis then, I still kept track of Paul, and went to hear him speak on many occassions. When he decided to run for Senate in 1990, I (and many other members of my campus Democrats club) got behind him 100%: doorknocking, campaigning, and most importantly going to the precinct caucuses that cold February evening.

Needless to say, we overwhelmed Paul's primary opponent, who was the choice of the Modales and Humphreys. We outnumbered them at the precincts, and onward at the county, and onward at the Congressional District, all the way to the State convention. I had the honor to represent Paul as a Delegate to the DFL State convention in 1990, and was there on the floor when he made his acceptance speech. It was tremendous-- green was everywhere, everybody was clapping, yelling, crying, you name it.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

About a year ago, I was sitting at work when a coworker told me that Wellstone's plane had crashed and all aboard were killed. I was devastated. Although I'd not been active in national-level politics since the 90s (mostly did local stuff), it hit me hard. I literally broke down. I took the afternoon off and went home-- I was too shocked to do anything else.

I decided that, after the 2002 debacle, I wanted to get involved with the Dems again. I came back to the party, although with major trepidation (Gore was about as "inspiring" as he was in 1988). I never really liked Clinton, and wasn't especially impressed with the other contenders. Then I found Bob Harris's webpage comparing Dean (who reminds me of Dukakis, btw) and Kucinich. I didn't need much convincing to see that Dennis is fighting for the same things Paul fought for, and isn't afraid to take it to the street, just like Paul did for the farmers in the early 80s.

It's great to finally have a candidate who is worth voting for (I voted Nader in 1996 and 2000 (mainly so the Greens could get campaign matching funds in MN). Dennis CAN win this. He is PROVEN. He is ELECTABLE. He can LEAD. He is RIGHT on the issues.

What more needs to be said?