On Becoming a Democrat (#3)

I don't know when or how it happened, but in the last 6 years or so, I've become a Democrat.  Officially.  In yesterday's election, I voted strictly down the party line, no Greens, no Peace and Freedom candidates, no Independents.  I remember a few years ago my friend Tarabu asking me who I voted for and I told him the Green Party candidate (whose name I can't remember) and he said, "Wow Jenni, you sure do go for the long shot."  I've been disdainful of the Democrats as well as Republicans and I've been proud of being a left-leaning progressive activist.  In my heart I am really a Green, but in this climate with all the backlash against Obama on both the right and the left, and those crazy Tea Partiers, I have become more cautious.

Anyways, I am pretty happy about Jerry Brown becoming Governor again.  The youngest, and now the oldest.  I remember liking him when I was a kid.  I loved in his speech last night how he held his victory party not in some meaningless corporate hotel, but in the theater that had been vacant for 30 years that he helped to reopen, and worked to create the Oakland School for the Arts.  Very cool.  To say that he is going to do his best to support education and the arts, now that goes a long way with me.

Maiya's first time voting at one-month old (March 2005)

I hated Arnold from the time he was elected (or even before) and every time I heard him speak, hold a stubborn line, threaten, bully,  or take services away from people who really really really needed them.  I hated feeling like he didn't care about poor people and immigrants.  The worst was when he completely eliminated state-subsidized center-based childcare in this year's budget (which is why I am an active early childhood education advocate)  I know I was feeling the same feeling of dread every time I heard Meg Whitman's voice, and I could not support anyone who didn't vote until she was 46 years old, the age I am now.

I know we have some pretty rough losses around the country, but aside from some of the state initiatives I voted for that didn't make it, I feel pretty good about California about now.  Almost, dare I say, I have a feeling of hope.  Anyways, like I always used to say:  Peace. Out.

She got her sticker, did you?  (November 2008)

NaBloPoMo#3.