Reply #23: At this point, [View All]

I'll lead my own ass to victory.

And if victory is not READILY forthcoming, I'll lead my own ass over to the Green Party.

I'd rather be a loser WITH integrity than a loser WITHOUT integrity.

Fuck fundraising. The money's spent on crappy, ineffective TV ads. One person with the aforementioned elusive integrity talking honestly about what they think and believe is worth millions of dollars of crappy ads.

Do you decide who to vote for based on ads?

Me either.

This is how I decided this year:

Early on, I thought I would be an Edwards supporter. Then, a girl in my Environmental Ethics class had a Dean button. I'd heard the name somewhere, and I asked her about him. I have no recollection of what she said, other than the fact that she was very enthusiastic, but I got on his website and read his policy papers. I LOVED what I saw. To be fair, I went to all the other websites and read their papers, and most of their papers seemed like shallow campaign rhetoric. Like someone at the last minute decided they needed a farm policy, so they got an intern to whip one up. Each of the other candidates had an area or two that he really liked and spent time on, and the rest of it was a place holder.

So Dean became my first choice.

I heard him speak on the radio for the first time in late December, and I was a little alienated by the hoarse sound of his voice. He sounds like a yankee Clinton. I kinda had to overcome some hesitation about his speaking style. He's very blunt about things, and he just comes right out there. I'm not used to that from politicians; I'm more used to lots of numbers and plans and nitty gritty, not the RED MEAT style than Dean favors.

Somewhere in there I became a TRUE BELIEVER.

I had graduated college, I didn't have a job, and I decided to devote some time to ousting Bush. I figured going to Iowa and volunteering for Dean for a few weeks was the ticket.

Later, of course, I voted for Kerry in the general election.

But how much ad money was spent on getting my support?

None.

One two dollar button, an enthusiastic Deaniac, and a comprehensive energy/defense/environment/farm policy, and I was there.

I saw some of his ads in Iowa, and they were really uninspiring. I thought his campaign literature was cookie-cutter. I think phoning voters is a terrible idea.

Basically, I would not have been wooed to this man via standard campaign advertising.

(I have learned to love his speeches, but they're an acquired taste.)

So yeah, treating us as ATM machines is missing the WHOLE picture. And if the DLC/DNC is too stupid to notice, they deserve to be obsolete.