Convention Kickoff

I'm actually kind of excited about this week's Democratic Convention. In the past I haven't paid that much attention to the party conventions, except to listen to Jesse Jackson speak in '88 and '92. I feel that there's some good energy heading into this year's convention. My dear friend Lori is there as a volunteer, so I'll be checking out her blog and others for a from-the-floor vantage point.

In a fantastic interview re-printed in the Utne Reader, Tony Kushner suggests that working for the Democratic Party might be the most powerful leftist thing that anyone concerned can do right now. "...I also believe that there's immense importance in American political traditions, like a centralized federal government that protects minorities from tyranny, that we just can't sneer at and turn our back on because we read...that Columbus deliberately gave Native Americans smallpox...

It's not enough to express your outrage at how badly people behave - you also have to get power."

Having said all this, I have to remember not to get all wrapped up in the day-to-day race. There's still a lot of time between now and November.