MB Civic

Go to Article
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1116-32.htm

Piece by Ted Daley who works with the great Dennis Kucinich –

On a day of record turnouts nationwide, Sherrod Brown garnered 56% of the vote in Ohio, Amy Klobuchar secured 58% in Minnesota, and Bernie Sanders (actually not a Democrat but a socialist!) pulled a full 65% in Vermont. None of these three candidates apologized for their unabashedly progressive principles. None of them pandered to people who voted Republican in the last election to convince them to come over to the other side. Instead, all of them fired up the Democratic base, put forth big uncompromising liberal ideas, and inspired thousands of citizens who otherwise might not have cast a ballot to show up on Tuesday at the polls…

Perhaps the biggest untold story of Election Day 2006 is not just the ascendancy of Democrats, but the triumph of these intrepid new progressives. The resounding victories by Brown, Klobuchar, and Sanders may mean that the salvation of the Democratic Party – perhaps not only in traditional bastions of liberalism like Minnesota and Vermont but also in critical swing states like Ohio — is to go after our base. To be not timid Democrats, but bad-ass Democrats. To give the millions of Americans who previously did not show up the kind of vision and boldness and hope that will move them next time to turn out, and perhaps even to devote some of their treasure and toil to our collective struggle. To stand by our beliefs, with a bedrock confidence that no matter how far out of the mainstream they may appear today, eventually those beliefs will prevail. “First, they ignore you,” said Mahatma Gandhi. “Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”

Amen to that.
-MAB