I keep thinking that one day the Dems will wake up, but every time I turn
on the news and hear them talking, the words coming out of their mouths
convince me otherwise. It's hard not to feel a sense of despair about
all of this.
The only way I can think of to move the Dems is to convince them that
they could win power by appealing to the folks who were not voting this
past election. The only way to convince them of that is to convince the
nonvoters that it is worthwhile making the Dems think they damn well will
vote next time.
Otherwise, the Dems are jsut going to keep scrabbling after the same
folks the Reps are, and the Reps are so much better at being Republicans
and appealing to those folks. How do you make people shake of cynicism
and despair and get active? I do not support the value of the
immiseration of the masses, but it may be that the Reps will gore enough
oxes (a la the reaction to Prop.187 by those potentially harmed by it
here in California) that they will decide to act.
Having lots of school kids rise up and protest is heartening. They've
been willing to be outraged once and to dream of better things - maybe
there is a chance.
It would also be awfully nice to have someone in the Democratic party who
has vision and can communicate a vision of society to the US. That would
take imagination, guts, "a song to sing," etc. etc. Yeah, there's no hope.
Ellen J. Dannin
California Western School of Law
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: 619-525-1449
Fax: 619-696-9999
