Kerry and Gore tried to remake themselves into approximations of the Marlboro versions of the regular guy, rather than be proud of who they are and call the little guy from Andover, Yale and Harvard on his phony remake as a Texas rancher (indeed!). They left themselves vulnerable to the pandering tag – neither seemed comfortable in his own skin vs those like McCain, Edwards, President Bubba, Barack Obama. If you are comforable in your own skin, if someone spits on you, you don’t lose you ability to respond authentically – ignore, spit back, give ‘em hug, bring in a mariachi band to stand across the street and make a party, whatever.

Dem politicians need to realize that being different does not have to be a liability. We should be able to bridge what divides us as a country, because the truth is, on a daily basis, in our everyday lives, we all do. And every citizen who is a woman, non-white, not straight, not rich, not educated, not Christian has already figured out how to vote for someone not like us for President.

As I understand it, all Al Gore had to do to carry BOTH West Virginia and Tennessee — was to come out for the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.

For a variety of reasons, this was a monumental miscalculation.

Couching a vocal and determined pro-2nd Amendment position as one of 10 inviolable components of the Bill of Rights would have been a strong point of differentiation.

Specifically because it’s a real and coherent adherence to a conservative Constitutional approach and the American social contract. Compare that to Bush’s legal tactics in relation to the rule of law. Bush’s attitude that ANY RHETORICAL PLOY is available or justified in the AMerican legal system is utterly bankrupt — AND IT IS THE SAME attitude that encourages lawyers to disingenuously misread a comma in the Second Amendment, irresponsibly — and ineffectively — attempting to interpret gun rights out of existence.

I was raised in a liberal, religious, gun-hating, pacifist, feminist household during the Vietnam War. Even so, I can stay awake during history class. I can read.

Truth is, anyone –even any lawyer, even any liberal — can read the plain truth. It’s there in black and white. The handwriting is on the historical wall — and on the cultural wall.

Those are inalienable rights.

The idea that anything some judge says goes, or that the Executive branch is empowered to do anything it can get away with, is utterly without merit. It’s more than half the problem we face today.

Think about it: Gore stands up for the Second Amendment — and wins the election. NO BUSH. Of course, he wouldn’t be the man he is today, so THAT would be a BIG loss.

Inaline

Gaventa gave the keynote speech at the first “Who Owns America?” Conference. One book I’ve found useful is “Communities in Economic Crisis: Appalachia and the South.”

(The Highlander Center “trained” — worked with — John Lewis and Rosa PArks.)

The Highlander Center

I was born and lived for a few years in (almost Heaven) and the poor folk there thought of FDR as a god and Jesus was a distant second.

George W Bush has brought out the very worst in what had been a backward but sane population.

Someday I pray W Va will start moving foward again in the traditional progressive way it had been moving. John Denver had it right, there was plenty of room for improvement but it is almost Heaven.

Historically, W. VA has been the most Democratic-voting state in the nation in terms of presidential elections. It’s really sad that Gore could not win W. VA or his home state of Tennessee.

I wonder, though, if for W. VA a lot of the issue is the decline of unions and union power, since traditionally, it’s been one of the strong union states.

An additional problem is that constituencies that had been economically progressive in the past are voting along socially conservative lines. Until the Democratic party cracks that one, I’m not sure things are going to change. But it’s one reason I’m in favor of Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy.

And Allison Krauss and Union Station are amazing.

So why not more about the Phillipi races and how West (By GOD) Virginia ran Robert E Lee and his Aristocrats out of the state for the duration of the Civil War. What about the WV answer to racism? Ex Slaves married into mountain families as my own family did. What about the mine wars? Matewan? Even modern day “Dump your coal on the entrance ramp” activism? We have a gas war, every bit as important as the mine wars.

Why can’t Democrats run as the party of Mine safety against the NY mine owners? This is the time to go negative on Republicans in a big way and make them pay for all the bad they have inflicted on WV and elsewhere in the last decade. The list is long and difficult to refute. Air it out. Tora Tora Tora!!

I was a good old boy that wouldn’t grow up
Thought I was a rebel ’cause I bought a big truck
my papa said son it’s time to be a man
but I was just another damn republican

She said saying “bring it on” don’t make you tough
and cheering bombs on the TV don’t mean you’re strong
She said waving the flag just wasn’t good enough
and the war in Iraq was evil and wrong

I was a good old boy that wouldn’t grow up
Thought I was a rebel ’cause I bought a big truck
kept on cheering those rich guys on Fox
and now cousin Billy came home in a box

She said Jesus told us to take care of the poor
and Preachers with silk suits don’t know wrong from right
She said America don’t need a king any more
so stop praying to the President every night

I’m sitting in the honkey tonk feeling like a fool
shoulda learned my lesson during Vietnam
in America the beautiful we got a rule
a working man’s a sucker if he’s republican