The Olive Branch

listen to the song here in my heart
A melody I start but can't complete

Listen to the sound from deep within
Its only beginning to find release

Ohh the time has come for my dreams to be heard
They will not be pushed aside and turned
Into your own, all 'cause you won't listen

I have to admit I was really excited about this campaign season. In late January, there were two, almost equal, history making front runners. A woman, and a minority man. This is the stuff we only read about in the movies. Policy wise equal, both exciting. I was for Obama before it became cool to be for Obama, but I could live with the Senator from New York as President.

Oh how things changed. And that was then.

It only took 3 weeks for the ugly to get unleashed.

And now I'm told I simply imagined it and dog whistles are real.

Since late January I've learned that not only are the dog whistles imagined and a calculated stunt but they're acceptable. I've also learned that 9.2% rounds up to 10. I've learned that guilt by association is good. I've learned that white preachers saying god damn America (although they don't explicitly say it, they do mean it) is ok but a black preacher saying it explicitly is evil. (and let me just say, I'm not that big a fan of Rev. Wright, but he's far more progressive on gay issues then Hillary's wackadoodle Douglas Coe or the McCain's insane Revs. Hagee and Parsley, the other hateful preachers no one is talking about.) I've learned that a fair amount of the Democratic electorate has a problem with the color line, when the colored base of the Democratic electorate has crossed the color line since the 1930s almost religiously. I've learned more then a few of my "brothers*" here in the midstate, while I do not begrudge their support of Clinton and I am happy they are involved for a change, will use all the ugly racist rhetoric and dog whistles to prove their point and then expect me to go on dates with them. Who the eff do they think they are? I've learned a lot and I am angry.

I imagined it? No, I did not. That makes me angry.

I am angry my experience gets invalidated.  Very angry. I haven't been this angry since the 2002 Resolution to start this war. I'm so angry I might have a stroke.

I just can't begin to fathom it but when are we going to be listened to? We say "you are not listening to us" and you say you are. We say "We know a dog whistle when we hear one" (after all, we've been hearing it for almost half a millennium) and you say "you're being oversensitive." No wonder we're pissed off. The man makes a speech about race and tells both parties it's time to grow up and move forward and we're still at each others throats. WTF?

I hold no doubt that eventually the Democratic Party will heal itself, but shit, we have work to do at mending fences, especially to the base that has supported the party religiously since the 1960s. Newsflash too, we're still Americans and we're 13% of the population. We're not irrelevant yet. And we're angry, and we wish people would actually listen!

It would be very, exceedingly difficult for me to vote for that Senator from New York should she get the nomination. I'll focus my GOTV and other volunteer efforts and time on downticket races as there are a ton of exciting and worthy downticket races to phonebank for and donate money to, but I suspect they'll suffer.

If only she'd chosen a different path at the end of January. We'd be in a different place now. Perhaps the primaries would have ended ages ago.

But I've also learned it's not about me. It's more then me. It's time to beat the fuck out of McCain because that mean, nasty, idiotic senile old man cannot be President. It's for all of us.

It's more than you, it is more than me
No matter what we are, we are a family
This dream is for all of us, this one can be real,
and you cant stop us now because of how you feel..

It is over, more or less. We know it. Everyone knows it. We ALL know it. It is over. It is time to extend the olive branch.

We ARE a family. The family of the Democratic Party.

This is a party that 45 years ago made my whole existence as a human being, a middle class college graduate, the son of two Ivy League college graduates, possible.

As I've said above, certain members of this party have chosen to not believe this. At various stages of the game, we've been told we don't count. I'm young, college educated, and black. I don't count. I live in Dauphin County, PA. I don't count despite Dauphin County (and myself) being the base of the civil service union's (hardcore Hillary fans) support. The only thing that'd make me count is my homosexuality. They love their diva. I don't begrudge that support. But hey, it's nice to count on at least one metric.

We need to extend the olive branch. Despite the upcoming Clinton wins in Kentucky and West Virginia, they will not be enough for her to capture the support of the superdelegates, unless they want to split the party.

And let's be honest, we have not been nice to Clinton supporters. Most of them are not racist toadstools. Most of them think she's a good person. Most of them are not the BarryinMIAs and GregNYCs or other trolls of the Dkos World and it's unfair of us to assume the same of millions of our fellow Americans.

It's time ladies and gentlemen.

Can we attempt to be nice? I'm a royal asshole and frankly, that's not ever going to change. I like being a douchebag. It gets me laid but I digress. But even I know when to extend the olive branch when my opponent is beaten.

Lemme tell you a story. My very good gay friend who I work with and drink with and hang out with (we've just become great, great friends and if it weren't for him I'd be 100% insane by now because of the insanity that is Harrisburg), he's been one of the few in the midstate 'community' in the midstate who did not bully me based on my support. He voted for Hillary , something he told me after the fact, and told me honestly that he supported her because he felt she was better on social issues. There is no fucking way I can begrudge this man's support of Hillary Clinton, especially when he was more then fair to me knowing where I sat and who my unwavering support was for. How can I be mean to this man who is my friend, even when I absolutely loathe who he supported in our primary? I cannot. You cannot. It is not fair and if you want me to believe in the Democratic Party, we cannot.

Yes, we will need to have a serious thinkthrough about what the Democratic Party actually is. As much as Clintonistas refuse to hear it, her campaign tolerated and pandered to the past. They pandered to votes using code words and dog whistles. There's no forgiving that and I shall not forget, for a very, very long time. I don't care if people think I'm oversensitive and offended--believe me I'm a guy who can have an intellectual conversation about a fart, so I'm not on either account. let's be real.

But we have to, HAVE to rethink what the Democratic Party is all about.

We cannot Can NOT pander to racists anymore. I will not accept it. We Shall NOT accept it.  We Can NOT use dogwhistles to beat our opponents in primaries. Tonya Hardinging the 50 State Strategy is NOT acceptable. The Emergent Democratic Majority talks about a growing majority. And indeed, the Republicans have fucked this nation up the ass without KY Jelly and a condom. We've all been exposed to a disease---the disease of the Republicans. It's time, and the Democratic Party is the cure.

Democrats cannot act like THEM. It is NOT acceptable. It is the antithesis of everything that my party, the party I was born into, the party that guaranteed that my Southern-born dad and Northern-born mom could even freaking vote. It is NOT acceptable. Folks, it's not allowed. Parse what you want, but I didn't imagine those dog whistles. They were real, they happened, she used them and they're not what MY party, OUR party, the DEMOCRATIC party is about.  Have we forgotten? Let's not forget my mom and dad ladies and gentlemen. They would not have their rights if it weren't for a Democratic Party that rejected the Southern Dixiecrats and told them to fuck the fuck off. They would not have gone to Ivy League schools. They would not have gotten jobs at top private sector corporations. They would not have been able to create their own companies. They would not have been able to provide the same for their children to go to and FINISH at excellent schools. We would not have lived in the suburbs of a city that desperately wanted to (and still does )remain in the past. It wouldn't have happened if it were not for the Democratic Party. And it would not have happened if the Democratic Party had pandered for the base emotions of white working class people only in the way that Clinton's campaign has pandered for these votes across the Rust Belt states.

But at the same time, we cannot assume all of her supporters are like as described. The majority of them are like my friend: intelligent human beings without a racist toadstool bone in their body, unlike her paid surrogates. It is not fair. It's beyond unfair. They are NOT the enemy. They are our family. Their dreams are big enough for all of us to share.

Extend the olive branch. Do it. Fixing and mending the party starts this moment, folks. I'm a Partybuilder. Are you? Will you join me?

Barack Obama, who will be President, is about this. Talking to people we perceive as our enemies some of whom are the most evil people on this third rock from our Sun. I can do it. Will you join me?

These people are Democrats and we need them. They are Family. Will you join me?

I am extending the olive branch.

Will you join me?

We are a family like a giant tree branching out towards the sky,
we are a family we are so much more than just you and I
we are a family like a giant tree,
growing stronger, growing wiser,
we are growing free..
we need you..
we are a family..