2008 Election

Suck It Up, Obama Supporters!

By Maegan Carberry ⋅ August 13, 2008 ⋅   Email this post ⋅  Digg This ⋅  Share on Facebook ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

I must now admit one of my life’s guilty pleasures: Michelle Malkin. I read her blog every day, and today she makes an excellent point about Obama supporters complaining that they were asked to volunteer for the campaign in order to receive tickets to the big speech in Denver.

One would-be attendee complained to ABC7 in Denver:

“My whole reason why I’m so mad about it is because Democrats need to act like Democrats,” said Heather Kreider, a working mother from Centennial.

“Democrats work for a living, and they have to work and take care of their families. And they say these are open to those in the community, so they shouldn’t ask people to drop everything in their lives for this,” Kreider said Tuesday.

That’s just absolutely absurd. It is ridiculously easy to volunteer for field work. Pack up the kiddos and teach them how to stuff envelopes instead of some other personal activity. If you can’t afford to leave the house for four hours, you could swap out the gas money by making local phone calls from your home using MyBO. I have met single moms, impoverished couch-surfing college kids - and even a homeless guy! - who have traveled all over the country to show their support. If you’re not willing to sacrifice, stay home.

What troubles me more about this, though, is a broader fear I have about some of the senators lipservice supporters. His candidacy has been built on the shoulders of community organizing and grassroots activism. It’s because real people have physically worked their asses off to raise awareness about progressive causes. You don’t get one without the other. A gust of change winds is not going to knock us all over at the inauguration in January. Real change-agents take ownership of their activism beyond showing up at sexy events or casting (and promptly forgetting) a single vote every four years.