I was on the ballot with Barack Obama.

[Ron Green]

About four or five rows down, after "U.S. President" and "U.S. Congress" (that was DeFazio) and a couple of statewide offices like Secretary of State and Labor Commissioner.

I knocked on 6,000 doors, and talked to many voters about Obama. Not because I wanted to, but because they wanted to: concerned that he's not really American, or that he's a Socialist (these from the Fox News audience), or that he's not standing up to the crazy Republicans in the House or delivering on the change he promised (fewer people in this group, but of course making more sense.)

I tried to defend the guy from both sides, because after all I was on the ballot with him, as a Democrat, and he was in the news and the campaign ads a lot more than I was, and people wanted to talk about him. I think I did a good job of smoothing things out, allaying fears on the Right that he's going to take away their guns and fears on the Left that he's just another corporate operator.

I was helping Barack Obama in my district, but he sure as hell wasn't helping me. I wanted to talk about things we could do at the State level to build enterprises and spaces that do not exploit people. Things we could do to to replace Capitalism. I wanted the Independents and Non-Affiliated Voters to cross over from the incumbent corporate soldier and vote for me, a person untainted by any business money and genuinely interested in what government can do to effect positive cultural change.

Of course I didn't win the election; this district is about a thousand registrations heavy toward Republicans, and I couldn't get the traction I needed with the swing, especially with the crazy shit going on at the top of the ticket.

Since the election I'm working with various groups around single-payer health care, corporate personhood, stopping coal exports through Oregon, and so on. I'm finding that President Obama is decreasingly relevant among these groups, and increasingly demonized in the local paper around the NSA and other issues.

I somewhat resent having to fight the President's battle in my own campaign: shredding my own coattails, as it were, for no benefit. And the more I read Richard Wolff, David Korten, Gar Alperovitz and others, the less I believe national parties and politics are going to respond to people's needs.

[pscot]

1. I hope you get a thousand reccs for this

[Autumn]

2. You are still fighting the good fight

and for that I thank you. We need more Democrats like you.

[liberal_at_heart]

3. "the less I believe national parties and politics are going to respond to people's needs."

It's becoming painfully obvious that is very true, but the good news is that I think people are beginning to realize that. Congress' approval rating is in the toilet. Many are disappointed in Obama. I do believe there will come a time when people will become more involved in local, grassroots politics than in DC. I think we all know DC is broken. We have to find other ways of representing ourselves since they are obviously not going to represent us. We will come to a point when people vote based on issues and not on who can beat the other party. In fact, I think we are very close to that point. Thank you for putting your hat in the ring and giving us choices, and thank you for continuing to fight for the people. We will get there. It will probably get a lot more ugly before we do, but it usually has to get pretty bad before people are willing to make such a drastic change.

[Harmony Blue]

4. Yes the renaissance of local government, local economies,

and democratic ownership of business as a collective is starting to take shape around the world.

[hfojvt]

5. I was on the Democratic ticket with him as well

but I never would have thought it was my job to defend him.

In fact, since I was in a County race, and I knew with almost absolute certainty that Obama would lose this county by at least 5,000 votes, I knew that I would have to distance myself from him in order to win.

I had no qualms about doing so, since I already thought he betrayed the working class in 2010 when he extended the Bush tax cuts and also created the accursed payroll tax cut and then promoted the Reaganomics idea that tax cuts for the rich is a good way to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

Given the numbers in your own race, you probably would have done better to follow your own conscience and to distance yourself from Obama. You were under no obligation to defend Obama from either side unless you wanted to.

As it turned out though, Obama got more votes in the County than I did, and I got more than the Democrat who was running for Congress. But all of us Democratic Candidates pretty much got shellacked as most people just seemed to vote Romney-Jenkins- and Republican straight down the line.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. "the less I believe national parties and politics are going to respond to people's needs."

+1

DC: owned by the 1%

[Skidmore]

7. Taking note of what you are so resentful about defending the President against in a district

"heavy towards Republicans."

"I knocked on 6,000 doors, and talked to many voters about Obama. Not because I wanted to, but because they wanted to: concerned that he's not really American, or that he's a Socialist (these from the Fox News audience), or that he's not standing up to the crazy Republicans in the House or delivering on the change he promised (fewer people in this group, but of course making more sense.)"

The "crazy shit" was coming from the top of the Republican ticket straight from Teabagger hell. Why should that make you resentful?

[Ron Green]

10. There was enough crazy shit to go around in the Presidential race.

Last edited Sun Jun 23, 2013, 10:11 PM - Edit history (1)

Do you recall that NO ONE was talking about the ongoing wars during this campaign?

[Recursion]

8. You ran on "replacing capitalism" and wanted independent support?

Really?

[Ron Green]

12. I didn't run on replacing capitalism.

It needs to be done, of course, but I was running on replacing the bought-and-paid-for guy that was their rep. Almost no one would sign on to the system of campaign contributions that runs our state government, but people continue to vote for candidates who are funded by that system.

As a politician, I had to keep within a somewhat mainstream message while explaining to voters how their interests are not being served.

[WillyT]

9. K & R !!!

[nyquil_man]

11. Do you think you would have had a better chance in 2004? nt

[Ron Green]

13. That's a good question. I didn't live in this district in 2004, but the Democrats who were running

during those years (2004 to 2010) were getting the same 34% that I got.

This is a tough district; working class, think government somehow killed their jobs, lots of fundie churches, etc.

[nyquil_man]

14. That's a problem which goes well beyond Obama.

The solution will have to go beyond him as well. Obama is, for those voters, simply the most visible symbol of what they already believe about the Democratic Party. Defending him (or attacking him) does nothing but play into those beliefs. Challenging and altering those beliefs is the key; that's what makes it so tough.

It probably didn't help, though, that you were running against an entrenched incumbent.

[tabbycat31]

15. I'm working on a campaign in such a district now

The districts I work in tend to be very conservative (my current one is R+30 in the state legislative district). Last year I worked in a district which Obama lost by 29 (he lost that district by 21 in 2008 so I was not expecting him to win it at all).

Last year's district was tough. It also has given me a newfound appreciation for Blue Dogs (the district was represented by a Blue Dog from 1982-2010)

[Hydra]

16. Good luck in future races, and keep up the good fight for the issues

It's too bad President Obama made your job harder- the nutbars on the Right don't want to believe that the problems he's causing are coming from their school of thought...after all, he's not an old White Bastard, so how could he be championing their values?