Today's epiphany: We Matter

I surf The Huffington Post and Mike's occasional blogs on Open Left primarily as a way to procrastinate when faced with another pile of tedious medical records involving a client's L4-5 spondylosis and/or fibromyalgia and depression. (After 22 years of this, if you've read one, you've read them all.) So I don't claim to be an expert, or a pundit, or anything other than a casual observer, but this morning I was reading a Washington Post story and had a revelation about why this election has grabbed the country by the throat.

It is, simply, that formerly disenfranchised people suddenly realized that they matter, and they have some control and thus, some power. And they don't want to give it up, now that they've tasted it.

Majority Whip James Clyburn, a representative from South Carolina, points out that Hillary argues that she wins the white vote in PA, but only 8% of the black vote, and Obama can only win 35% of the white vote, and that's supposed to make everyone support Hillary, because Obama can't win without the white vote. I.E., the black vote doesn't matter. And Rep. Clyburn, who is African-American says, "I matter."

Hillary and her people say, look, she can win the big states, and frankly, "we're not going to win Wyoming anyway" (where Obama took 2/3 of the vote, which was, let's face it, mostly white). Well excuse us, say the Wyoming Democrats, but we matter.

Standing on the shoulders of Howard Dean's 50-State Strategy, Obama has inspired millions of formerly disenfranchised voters of all races and ages to get out and make a difference. The Wyoming Democrats were thrilled to be able to make a difference in their caucuses, as we lonely Arapahoe County Dems were here in the increasingly "purple" State of Colorado. And what do you mean you can't win in Wyoming? Wyoming has a Democratic governor, which belies the argument that a Democrat cannot win a majority of the Wyoming general election vote. (Same for Montana and Colorado.)

And not only does writing off the "small states" offend those who came out to make a difference in their caucuses this year, it ignores the fact that the races "down ticket" matter, and for the person on the top of the ticket to disregard that state is just bad politics. He/she is going to need those "down ticket" office holders in order to function effectively once in office. Why offend those you will need to do your job?

So what we have here is a common sentiment brewing among such diverse people as an African American representative from South Carolina and the good-ol-boy rancher in Wyoming. They say, "we matter, and you ignore us at your political peril."

Okay, back to the medical records!