John Kerry wrote to me last month. "Dear James Hightower," the letter began (OK, it wasn't that personal of a letter. I would've preferred "Dear Jim" or "Hey Jimbo", or "Yo Hightower"but, then, as we know, Kerry's not that loose of a guy. He is what he is.)
"We're going for it!" was the opening exclamation of John's letter, and I thought, well, gee, I would hope so, since you're going to be the Democratic nominee and all. Then he added: "People all across the country are lining up to support our campaign, committing their time, energy, and financial support to help end the Bush presidency…As a party, we're more united than we have ever been."
Now he's absolutely right about that. In my years in the political vineyards, I've never seen such unity, energy, and determination behind an effort to bring regime change to the Homeland. Everywhere I've been lately—from cities like Houston and St. Louis to places like Wausau, Wisconsin, and Ithaca, New York—big crowds are turning out, people are rallying and organizing, and there's a level of activity you normally don't see until the last month of the election (if at all). There's a sense of urgency to this effort, most commonly expressed in such words as these: "We simply have got to get these fools out of the White House—they're ruining our country."
The spreading "Re-defeat Bush" movement even extends beyond our borders to Americans living overseas. I was recently in France on a speaking tour and got to know a wonderful and wildly enthusiastic group of Democrats who live there, but are still politically connected and vote here. They're organizing under the proud flag of "Democrats Abroad" (which has affiliates in 60 countries and, as a group, will send nine delegates to the Democratic convention in Boston). In France, they had expected about 100 activists to attend their Democratic caucus meeting this spring, but more than 700 showed up. You would expect these to be mostly professors or college students doing a semester or so abroad, but the group was far more diverse than that, particularly including a large percentage of people working for U.S. companies and banks. Many of these corporate employees were appalled at Bush's policies at home—ranging from defoliating our environmental protections to assaulting our Bill of Rights—but they unanimously bemoaned the extensive damage that the Bushites' "Bully America" approach to the world is doing to international business relationships and to the larger image of America as a trusted beacon of peace, justice, and global sanity. The work of Democrats Abroad is a sign of our times. Just as I find people all across our country doing an uncommon amount of political organizing these days, so are these expatriates reaching out aggressively and enthusiastically to get thousands of foreign-based American citizens registered and voting to send W. back to Crawford, so he can devote himself full-time to brush-clearing on that ranchette of his. Because of the energy of Democrats Abroad (and also because Bush has alienated so many soldiers and military families serving abroad), there's a chance that the foreignbased vote in this election could go against the Republicans for the first time in many years. ... [ read more ]
What the hell's happening here? Why is my bank in the tank? And my house and job? And my retirement money? Even my state's teetering on the brink of broke! Who did this to us? Fair questions, but we're not getting honest answers. 
