For the People that are BEING THERE (The ramblings of a tired Activist)

asdjrocky

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Sun Jan-13-08 05:20 PM
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For the People that are BEING THERE (The ramblings of a tired Activist)

I haven�t done a major post in a few days. I�ve checked in at a thread here and there, came to the defense of my candidate, and I�ve given some encouragement, when I felt it was needed.

Have I been on vacation? Hardly. Am I perhaps taking a little sabbatical from the campaign? From what has become my passion? Not a chance. I�m working, and I�m working everyday to help John Edwards become President.

I sometimes wonder at the group of regulars that I see here. Attack, attack, attack seems to be the constant motto. I guess that�s okay, people gotta be who they are, after all. What I�ve noticed, in the last few days, as I�ve played the role of the a �watcher�, is some people seem to have a little too much time on their hands. Another thing I've noticed? Some of these people actually believe they are helping their chosen candidate. Here�s a subtle hint for you all: Your not helping.

By all means, have fun with your attacks, and enjoy the venom you put out there into the world. No one who is doing the real work for the American people is paying any substantive attention. Sometimes, as a simple reader, I have to admit I get some great laughs, because let�s face it, a lot of this crap is funny. Weather it be about race, gender, or haircuts. Now I really want you to know this: None of what you are doing is making any difference at all. Your attack efforts, while passionate, are fruitless. I can leave for a week, come back, and the same arguments are right here where I left them, and nothing has changed. Of course there�s a new wrinkle or two; election fraud, and voter repression, and always the opinions, lots of opinions, and little if any, in the way of facts.

I love it. Way to go people! The M$M would be proud of the way you people here on DU are ignoring the real issues that affect American people everyday. Keep swallowing that sugar water they keep pouring down your throats.

What is John Edwards talking about?

1. 47 million people live everyday in fear because they have no health insurance.
2. 37 million Americans going to bed every night in poverty. How many are children?
3. Record profits by the corporate elite.
4. An ongoing war, with no real end in sight.
5. Homeless veterans. No one seemed to know we had them, until John Edwards, as he's done throughout this election, re-focused our attention.

But why should these things matter? Are you your brother/sisters keeper? Hell no, we�re Americans, right? As long as we know the winner of American Idol, and all of the RW talking points, we�re fine, right? Right?

I wonder about the fact that I see very few posts on JRE at the top of the page in GDP. I�ve been thinking about it for the few days that I�ve be mostly just been a reader here, and I do find it epically perplexing when I see him winning every poll by a margin of sometimes 3 to 1. It's hard to know what to make of it. I thought about this for a long time. Maybe there's one person out there with 50 DU accounts, and he's the deciding factor, every single time. Perhaps it's all part of John's diabolical plot. None of that clicked with me though.

Now I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, But after some deep thought, I figured it out. Edwards supporters are smart, informed people. We're busy. We click, vote, then go back to work. We know how little we�ll accomplish here in DU by attacking other candidates, and taking part in the Obama, or Hillary bashing. We know that the real work is done out there, on the ground, and in the trenches. We know that our voice will be heard, if we just yell loud enough.

This realization leads me to one inevitable conclusion; the people who support John Edwards are activists. We�re busy people, on the move, and we�re doing all we can out in our own communities, with our friends, and business associates, to make our support of John Edwards known. We love the information that DU brings us, but we�re far too busy to spend time arguing silly arguments with silly faceless opponents.

We�re working.

I point to Binka, who is out there doing the work of an Edwards Activist.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2669158

I�m talking about Saracat, and others who are out giving speeches for John Edwards. Sara is another Edwards Activist.

I�m speaking of bobbolink, trying as hard as a person can, to form an Edwards Grassroots organization in the state of Colorado. An Edwards Activist for the Poor.

I�m waving a hand to Plucketeer, who took the road trip to Iowa, and wrote �This Land is Our Land�, Edwards style. There's a good ol' Edwards Activist.

I�m looking at myself, building a coalition of Edwards supporters to take his message beyond the election, with the Edwards Morning Mail. (Just pm me, or any of us, if you�re interested in getting off your ass, and getting something done.) I'm proud to be an Edwards Activist.

This is stuff you can�t do sitting at your desk. This is in-your-face politics. We�re not foolish, we�re a smart bunch, us well informed Edwards Supporters. We know the M$M has no interest in a candidate who threatens the status quo, a system that has let them grow fat, rich and lazy, as the citizenry has grown dimmer and duller. The Forth Estate, my ass.

I�ve been told I�m deluded for believing Edwards. I�ve been called na�ve, and trust me, anyone who has ever known me would never use the word na�ve to describe one of my character traits. But that�s okay, I�m sure John Edwards could have an elaborate, and evil plan to fool all of us with his words, so when he gets in the White House, he can put his real evil plan into practice. Now stop for a second, and ask yourself, does that make any sense at all? If he so badly wanted to be President, if that was all he cared about, as I�ve often been told here, then wouldn�t he have picked an easier path to the office? Why didn�t he just stay in the Senate? Or stay with the DLC? Is this all an elaborate plan to screw the American people?

Now go look in the mirror, who is really uninformed and na�ve?

Would you call these people na�ve?

Tell these people they�re working for nothing.

You'd never say the things you say here on DU, if you were face to face with any of these Activists.

I�ve talked to over 300 primary voters so far, either over the phone, or face to face. To a person, I find the Edwards supporters the most informed, most savvy and the most passionate. These are not hoodwinked people. These are not dumb people. These are not �wide eyed believers� as a few posters here have said. We are real people. We are out here in the real world fighting. We understand, the future of our country depends on our efforts, and putting the right person in the chair behind the desk in the Oval office is the most important thing we will ever do. It will have an effect on lives beyond ours, you see, for some of us, it really is about a better life for our children.

So if you don�t see us Edwards Supporters here on DU as much, slugging it out with the Supporters and attack dogs of other candidates, there is a simple reason for this; we are busy getting John Edwards the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. We show up in the polls here on DU, and we�re showing up on the streets, and phones, and fund raising, doing everything we can, for our candidate. Most of the posts I see from Edwards Supporters are about being there. And if you haven�t been there, what have you really done?

There is a real movement on the way here in the world oldest Democracy, and Edwards Supporters, are part of that movement. I�m inviting the rest of you to join us. If you support someone else, then I will applaud you for your activism. Let us know your there. Go be there.

And in that spirit, I beg you, post positive information about your candidate that we can use, not attacks on other candidates that we will mostly disregard. We�re all members of the same party right? Don�t let the few asinine posts lead the way for the rest of us good, fair-minded people.

If you don�t get what I�m saying, it�s okay. It�s okay if you�re not interested in joining the movement; you just sit there and keep typing. But while your typing, try to stay out of the way of the people who are really fighting for real change in America.

Join the movement.