Giving Thanks

We asked some of the people who have been kind enough to contribute to the Texas Blue over our first year to share some stories about why they are glad to be involved in Democratic politics, and over this holiday weekend, we'll be sharing them with you. Mine is below the fold. From everyone here at the Texas Blue: have a great Thanksgiving.

---

On a cold November night in 2004, I stood on the cobblestones in Copley Square in Boston and watched the dream fall apart, bit by bit, as George Bush was all but re-elected President. At about 2 AM, with the crowd thinned to just a handful of true believers, I stood in the sleet and snow and started wondering if there was maybe something I could do about it all.

I didn't sleep. I stayed up all night and watched the news until 11:00 AM, when I then watched Kerry concede. I went to work at the paper I wrote for in Boston and observed that everyone felt much as I did: whipped and defeated. That part of the story is part of a long continuum which has brought me to write this for you today, but the part of the story that we concern ourselves with now — the assigned Why I Am Thankful part — happened that night, while I had my head down, as I halfheartedly tried to detangle my press pass from my scarf, dwarfed as I was by the Trinity Church to the east and the Boston Public Library to the west, with (by this late hour, anyways) very, very few people in between to fill up the spaces.

They started dismantling the stage where a full-on riotous party had been underway just a few short hours ago, and I looked up at Diana, and I said something. I can't remember precisely what it was, but I'm pretty sure it was along the lines of "I can't believe this is really happening. This is real." I am not a man who has gone through life without taking a few healthy kicks in the slats, and I know the story rarely ends the way we'd really like it to. Real life, they say, has a flat head and a mean mouth full of teeth. Real life will bite you at the first opportunity. In this case, though, I truly felt floored by the enormity of it all — a win for John Kerry wasn't just what I wanted to happen, it was what had to happen. As far I knew, it would be close but there was little chance the free world would be ruled for another four years by some half bright kid from Connecticut. Right?

That night taught me, more than any other experience has, that politics is a zero sum game. That night taught me that what we have undertaken as politically active people is a serious pursuit, and there are very few pursuits as serious as this. Who governs matters, and the work that that goes in to bringing those people to office is arguably just as important. That night in Copley Square, I learned definitively that nothing can ever be taken for granted, and that there are no half measures when it comes to choosing leaders.

So, it seems strange that I would cite a cold night, suffered in defeat, as one of my favorite political memories, and a reason I am thankful to be involved in politics, but call it a learning experience. That was the night I got it; it was a turning point in my life that has been rarely rivaled, and I am thankful for the insight that experience granted me into why we all do what we do, and how important what we do can be.