Just a Little Bit
by ChrisJuly 1st, 2005 12:41 am
I had a wonderful conversation with a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives last weekend. The coversation spanned a number of topics, but focused in large part on the present and the future of the Democratic party in Pennsylvania. I won’t get into the details, as it was a perfectly casual, off-record conversation, and I have no notes on which to rely. I do want to focus on one point the representative made which had particular resonance with me. He mentioned that he has run across a number of Democrats and Democratic activists who are waiting around for the perfect Democrat; one who speaks to their particular set of issues perfectly and without fail. His concern, which is mine as well with regards to the 2006 Senatorial campaign, is that they will not vote or advocate for any Democratic candidate who differs from them on one or two key issues. I’ll admit to being afflicted with this malady myself, to some extent.
Whenever I’m in a discussion about the party, I usually say something along the lines of “I’m a lot of things before I’m a Democrat,” and this much is true. I support the party because its candidates’ views most closely align with my own, though I am significantly to the left of the party’s mainstream. If you were to scratch my surface you would find something akin to a libertarian socialist, if that makes any sense at all. That said, you would also find a pragmatist who knew that his ideas are not politically palpable and quite unfeasible in a very real sense. We all have our ideals, but some of them are simply unrealistic.
I bring this up because I’m planning to advocate for the candidate who most closely represents my own views in the upcoming Pennsylvania senatorial primary, though at this time, I don’t expect him to win. I bring this up because the man I expect to win the primary doesn’t represent my views on a number of issues, and that’s everything but an easy reality.
Regardless of the outcome, I will work to help make the Democratic nominee the next Senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, by defeating Rick Santorum. I believe that moving the barometer a little in the right direction - just an inch if need be - is always better than hoping that the perfect candidate lurks somewhere around the corner and doing nothing. That said, until such time as I need to start worrying about barometers, I’ll advocate for the candidate whose views I tend to agree with.
Update: I didn’t mean to sound like some sort of insider, as I’m certainly not, with the opening paragraph, or sound weird by not saying who it was I spoke to. I just happened to run across the representative at an informal gathering and, being the political junky I am, decided to ask him a whole pile of questions in order to try and get a better understanding of what is going on in the commonwealth. While talking to him, I said to him that everything he said to me was off-record, not that any of what he said would constitute the sort of thing one might need to say off-record. I do need to respect that promise and I think I have, but I couldn’t resist talking a little about the observation he made - hence the weirdness. Sorry.
