Democrats: The speech I didn't give...

Written by: rich^kolker on Jul 3, 2006 8:56 AM EDT

...at the first Loudoun County (VA) Democratic Committee meeting after the November elections. There are some parts that are specific to Virginia, or even Loudoun County, but there are also some larger issues that effect everyone.

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Ed Murrow once told his fellow journalists "This just might do nobody any good. At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest, and your organization may be accused of having given hospitality to heretical and even dangerous thoughts." Here I go.

We meet tonight in the wake of celebrations of success. Loudoun County Democrats have helped elect a Delegate, a State Senator, a Governor. Why would I have any reason to be dissatisfied? We are winning!

But what are we winning?

Our Governor is ready to approve a change to Tom Jefferson's Constitution that would restrict the rights of the people, because he believes marriage is only between a man and a woman. We run candidates who talk of their business friendliness, but not their plans to protect the consumers, the regular taxpayers of Loudoun.

Don't get me wrong. Tim Kaine, Dave Poisson and Mark Herring are good men, much better than the Republicans they ran against, but merely being better than what the Virginia Republican Party has become is not good enough.

I was standing outside a campaign event for Mark Herring when one of the organizers said that if he had lived in Maine, he'd be a Republican. Well, I lived in Maine, and I was a Democrat then, and I was a Democrat when I lived in Tom DeLay's district in Texas. My question is, if we are going to run candidates whose positions sound more like New England Republicans then why am I a Democrat in Virginia?

I can hear the answer already...that's what we need to do to win in Virginia. If we run as DEMOCRATS, we will lose. That if we state our principles clearly and loudly, we will lose. That what we stand for as Democrats has to be hidden, or messaged or avoided, during a campaign. But don't worry, once we get Democrats in, they will govern as Democrats.

But why would that be so? If they can't get elected based on the principles and positions of the Democratic Party then why would they think they could get RE-elected on those principles.

If we win just by playing the game, then what is a Democrat except a person with a D next to their name on a ballot.

For the victory of the Democratic Party and of democratic ideas and the future of this nation we must reject the politics of depressing turnout. We must reject the politics of not standing for anything because of the risk of offense. We must reject the politics of playing the game and pandering to those who can afford to write the big checks and playing to people's fears instead of hopes. And we must not shrink from big ideas, because we are the party of big ideas.
Public Schools, Social Security, Equal Rights at the lunch counter and the hotel counter and the polling place, these were big ideas and they are part of America because Democrats lead and convinced the people they were worth having.

I joined the Loudoun County Democratic Committee because I believed in the principles and positions of the Democratic Party and I felt governing based on those principles and positions was best for Loudoun, best for Virginia, best for the United States. Today I see the party, at the national level, at the state level, and here, afraid of stating clearly and strongly the ideas that brought me to it. I don't think this is because those ideas are wrong, and I don't think it's because all Democrats have left behind the principles that built the party of Roosevelt, the party of the people.

Democrats are not the party of fancy dinners and candidacy announcements at country clubs, we are the party of pancake breakfasts and announcements in public parks. We should be the party of widening freedom, not restricting it. We should be the party working for reform and change of the political system for the benefit of the citizen voters, not learning to play the money game as well as the Republicans do. We shouldn't be hiding what we believe from the voters merely in the name of winning elections. Because if we can't win as Democrats, how can we govern as Democrats. And if we can't govern as Democrats, what have we won?

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