season of the bitch

I’ve been contemplating just why Obama’s victory seems to have had such an effect on my mood, my cynicism, my outlook on life.

I’ve been political for a while now–I can’t tell you really how it started. I took poli sci classes for fun in college, and always had a vague distaste for Bill Clinton that might’ve been shaped by my parents but came around to the other side of it, critiquing him from the left before I was even conscious of it.

I suppose that I didn’t just take the system–and especially violence–for granted.

In any case, I voted for Nader in the first presidential election I was eligible to vote in. That was 2000. I lived in New Orleans but voted in South Carolina. I didn’t like Al Gore, was an angry punk rock chick, and so screw it, I’m voting for the guy who says things I agree with instead of one of the two guys onstage who’re basically agreeing with each other.

Flash to 2004. Colorado. We’ve all learned from 2000, and I’m sure I’m voting Democrat. But which one? I was a Deanie, traveled to New Mexico to attend Dean parties, stood on a corner in the snow holding up a Dean sign.

We lost.

I went to Philly to volunteer for John Kerry. At the end of an endless election day, we heard the news that Pennsylvania went blue and I left happy, only to get more and more miserable as the rest of the results came rolling in.

And so, 2008. Well, 2007 really. I wanted Russ Feingold to run, but one day I got a call from my friend Jill telling me that Obama had declared his candidacy. She was determined to–and succeeded in–get a job with his campaign.

I did my research. I watched the debates. And over my Christmas break I went to Charleston to volunteer with Jill.

When we started winning states–well, it really felt like WE were winning.

When we won the nomination, it was amazing. And then FISA. Combined with an internship in New York and a need to relax after a hellish year, it meant I didn’t do much all summer.

A couple of guys came to my door one day and very sweetly tried to get me to come volunteer. I should’ve, but I put it off. And worked. And wrote.

And I think it was partly out of fear. If I wasn’t so involved, it couldn’t hurt so much if we lost, right?

But of course the opposite is true, too. So I gave up my Halloween and got out the vote all weekend. And monday. And E-day. And we won.

Which is why I get a bit annoyed with people who tell me they know how I feel now.

No, most of them don’t. And there are others who have far more right to this than I do–Jill and countless organizers who gave up their lives for over a year to do this full-time.

Yes, he is the first African-american president and that is amazing.

But my feelings are about more than that.

They’re about finally having the right guy win. About all those hours and days and people I met along the way.

In a way I envy the younger organizers, the ones who don’t know how badly 2004 hurt and who barely remember the cynicism of the Clinton years.
I didn’t have a lot go right for me, personally, between graduating college and starting grad school. I’d gotten so much more cynical and yes, scared to invest myself in anything because it always seemed to blow up in my face or fall apart.

I kept working, kept writing, kept fighting. But I always felt that it’d be for nothing.
But this is different. And yes, it is personal. I helped do this. People like me and yet so different. Hundreds of people I’d never have spoken to otherwise.

It means something.

It’s not just a moment that I’ll remember seeing on TV like my parents remember Kennedy.

I remember working for it.

And that work finally paying off.

Pass it on. (via bastard.logic via shakesville)

Say NO to Larry Summers as Treasury Secretary.

This was my note:

I, along with thousands of American women, worked tirelessly to elect Senator Obama. I campaigned against the possible first woman president because I did not want a return to Clinton-era policies that contributed to our current economic crisis.

To appoint Larry Summers to the treasury would be a slap in my face and a slap in the face of all the women who campaigned for Senator Obama. Not only a return to Clinton-era economic policy, but a man who thinks that women are inherently less gifted than men.

There’s got to be somebody better.

Via hilzoy at Obsidian Wings:

“Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.” (from WashPost)

The specific changes said to be under consideration include lifting limits on embryonic stem cell research, lifting the ban on international family planning groups counseling women on abortion, “the Bush administration’s decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles”, and “declaring that carbon dioxide emissions are endangering human welfare, following an EPA task force recommendation last December that Bush and his aides shunned in order to protect the utility and auto industries.”

These are wonderful changes. After the last eight years, the very idea that they might occur not as the result of a long drawn-out battle, but just like that, is amazing.

Just yesterday I read this post at Hoyden About Town about the One Thing that Obama should do right away. Yep, the Global Gag Rule. And to think that they’re already preparing to do that.

I don’t think it’s a small thing to say that every bit of time I spent volunteering on this campaign will be worth it for just that one thing. Throwing in more?

This cartoon may just be right:

I don’t mind Obama choosing Cabinet members who will argue and disagree with him; I do hope that he chooses people who will challenge him from the left as well as the right.

inside fishtown Obama office

Originally uploaded by Amanda Jaffe

My sister took this, and I love it. the back of the window. beautiful.

This is how democracy works. When the people come out in overwhelming numbers and demand their rights. When the pollworker follows people out and makes sure that she’s done everything to ensure that every single person who walks through the polling location door gets to cast their ballot. When people stand in line for three hours and instead of complaining, sing.

Read the rest at GlobalComment.

Hi guys. I’ve been up for 23 hours now, and I’m going to get a tiny bit of sleep before work tomorrow morning.

I am delirious, but more importantly, insanely happy and proud of all of us. We did it.

Now the real work begins.

(I can’t even type President Barack Obama without my face breaking into a grin. I love this night.)