LECHTANSKI.NET

I’m standing a little taller tonight. Our guy has won it. As this night has been wrapping up, a few concepts have gotten clearer in my mind. Here are some of them.

50 State Strategy

I want to give a shout out to Howard Dean for making the decision four years ago to spend money and time in all fifty states. The winner of this election is the President of the nation and all of its people. Getting 50% +1 is not enough. It is not a mandate. It is a cheap way to get a win. Getting the message out to all 50 states, rather than just the states already leaning your way, allows the whole nation to get behind you. It is an upward spiral. There are liberals everywhere. If you can reach out and speak to them, you can build the energy necessary to gain a few votes and build a movement. Writing off a whole state from the beginning hurts, because as I’ve seen tonight even the reddest states have hundreds of thousands of people voting for the democrat. If you don’t give the population the opportunity to hear something different directed at them, you give those red state democrats less hope and fewer liberal friends.

Career Politicians

With the constitution created by business people, teachers, blacksmiths and other lay people, not career politicians, I like the idea of term limits. And besides, no politician who took more than 14 years to rise to the office has been elected President or Vice-President since Teddy Roosevelt. This tells me that the general public agrees without necessarily realizing it. I don’t mind a candidate not having decades of national and international political experience.

This is almost a defense of Palin, but not really. If you don’t know, you don’t know. Sadly you will get skewered for saying that to Katie Couric; the modern media will not accept that answer. But Palin’s display of hubris and bravado in the place of knowledge and experience excited her base and annoyed everyone else.

Obama’s ascension to the highest office in the land was fast. His years as a community organizer encompass the best of what we should want from our politicians. Talking, organizing, listening, solving and working.

Urban Archipelagism

I love cities. After the 2004 election, I became an Urban Archipelagist. I was deflated, wondering how it was that so much of my country disagreed with me; wondering whether I was wrong; or wondering what it was that I had missed. But then I read the Urban Archipelago article from the Stranger. Bush had won office by getting people to vote for him regardless of the fact that his policies would not be helpful to them; in fact, that his policies proved harmful to their livelihood. They had a guy who condescended to them so much that he pretended he wasn’t Ivy League educated, treated us all like children and would enact policy on the basis that he and his cronies knew best.

I’ve heard enough about small towns. Small towns are fine. But they are not better than big cities. The issue is the size of the community. Smaller communities might breed good people, due to close support, but the size of a community has nothing to do with the size of its town or city. As John Stewart said to Peggy Noonan, New York City is nothing but a bunch of small towns in one building. Cities breed tolerance, understanding and concern, as you are surrounded by people less like you.

The Moment I keep Coming Back To

The speech that makes me tingle was given at the Democratic Convention in 2004 by our new President-elect.

It is that fundamental belief — I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper — that makes this country work.  It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: “E pluribus unum,” out of many, one.

This is how the American society should work. We are a better nation when our weakest people are able to start caring about more than the basic necessities of life. When they can move up the ladder of Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs. When our population is able to worry about more than their next meal, medication or bed, they can focus on solutions, businesses, ideas and innovations. We increase our base of knowledge and opportunity.

Switching Roles

Back in the day (1996), it used to be said that in American politics there is a Mother Party and a Father party and the Republicans are your Daddy. In other words, Democrats want to take care of everybody and discipline with a reasoned care. And with a down home twang, Republicans take the We-Know-Best mentality to Politics. The Newt standard and the Contract with America club did an incredible job of making any aggressive Democrat look like a blathering, angry, bleeding-heart democrat. That era is over. Obama brought the right amount of aggressiveness and confidence to successfully make the point that liberal politics is good for America.

As Andrew Sullivan said: Obama has the ability to grin like Reagan and brawl like Nixon. The man is just cool.

A Few Problems With Our New Guy

While it takes money to run a 50 state campaign, I was disappointed when Obama passed on public financing in order to raise $500 million from his huge support base. I said it before, and I really think this lead to more credit card debt. Second, I was upset about Obama’s Telecom Immunity vote. “Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I’ve chosen to support the current compromise.” Paraphrasing, I’ll fix it if/when I’m elected. But what if he didn’t win. You can’t take that vote back. You can’t speak as effectively for change when you were on board with the status quo. Well, I guess you have your chance.

So…

Please, Mr. President (chills). You got my vote. You got some of my money. You got some of my time. I ask you sir, please: make me proud.