Beltane Emergence Moon
Met Becky Rothmeier Loewen of America Votes at the MIA today. We talked politics, what the Sierra Club wanted of America Votes and what I wanted. It was fun. Both of us shared an occasional desire to set politics aside, but as she said, “When you know you have the power to do something…” Yes, that’s the rub all right. I sit on the sidelines, then, “Oh, come on.” returns to my vocabulary and I find myself pushed and pulled right back.
From a political junkies perspective America Votes is a candy store. Great data about all the races (at least in Minnesota), in depth. People to talk to about the minutiae of segmenting demographics, messaging on mailers, which races can be swayed. Most folks don’t care about these things, but there is a coterie of folks for whom these kind of matters are their Daily Racing News. And I’m one of them.
As I said after attending the last meeting of America Votes, it’s good to see the young guns out there, eager for the next campaign. In a democracy it is apathy and indifference that spell certain defeat no matter what your political perspective. This group of folks are necessary for the full functionality of an often torpid electorate.
At 67 I realize that I’m not likely to stay on the sidelines for long, no matter where I live. It hasn’t happened yet. As I told Becky the first live election returns I recall caring about were the results of Adlai Stevenson versus Dwight Eisenhower. Those my dad and I saw, until 3 in the morning in black and white on a still uncommon consumer product called television. That was 1952.
A digression: I’ve long felt that Adlai Stevenson was the best president we never had. Put another way, had it not been for the overwhelming juggernaut of the Eisenhower popularity, I think that Stevenson would have set the bar of statesmanship as president very high indeed. Just a thought….