I was interested in politics the most from the ages of 12-17. In 7th grade I decided that someday I would run for president and Jesse Jackson would be my vice president. Then I went to college and started to care a lot less. It wasn’t until learning about the Green Party during the last presidential election that I became less appathetic and I finally voted for the first time at the age of 27.
Several months ago David Drucker asked me if I had heard of Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential candidate he was supporting. I wasn’t impressed with any of the Democrats from the last election and I assumed that theme would continue into the 2004 election. David insisted that Dean is a great guy so I figured I should investigate further. But laziness set in and I never got around to checking out the Dean website or even doing a search on Google. in April I stumbled across the Howard Dean in 2004 Meetup. I finally spent some time on the campaign website and discovered that David had good reason for having such enthusiasm amidst an otherwise uninteresting cast of characters. I’m doing freelance/contract work and don’t have health insurance right now so I was pleased to read about Dean’s support of Universal Health Care.
His team’s brilliant use of the Internet as a grassroots platform has been spectacular to watch and participate in, too. On the last day of the 2003 Q3 fundraising, I was glued to my computer monitor hitting refresh every 30 minutes watching the bat graphic on Dean’s Blog for America website change as the money kept coming in. This week Dean is even a guest blogger on Stanford Professor of Law Lawrence Lessig’s weblog.
I haven’t had a chance to attend a Dean Meetup yet but I’m looking forward to making it to the upcoming August 6th gathering in Boston.
I’ve read that Ralph Nader might join the race under the Green Party. I voted for Nader in the last election and don’t regret that vote at all (it helped the Green Party get established in Massachusetts on a local/state level). It would be such a stupid move this time around. Nader (and the rest of us) would be better off showing support for Dean. Another four years of George Bush? I’ll pass.