Jim Dean wants us to listen, empathize, and try to help them move past the pain and think of the good of the country. This is bigger than an alliance to one candidate...
He encourages us to convince them that if they are thinking of voting for McCain, then they are not choosing the same values and goals of their original candidate. McCain is for the same things as Clinton or Edwards or Richards, and definitely not Biden or Kucinich!
I had a fellow democrat email me last week to tell me that while she and her family have been staunch democrats [she] can not support Obama. While curious if this means that she merely won't be publicly promoting Obama or if she really will not vote for our presumptive democratic nominee, I can't yet bring myself to ask.
People need time to heal. Our fellow democrats have been going through the stages of grief. We can reach out and let them know that we are here. However, until they embrace acceptance, we should not rain upon them neither reason nor rhetoric.
I will reach out and say to the Clinton supporters I know,
The democratic values you believe in have not been lost.
They are embodied in Obama.
The major difference between Obama and Clinton was not policy or democratic values, but rather the way they went about living those values. Clinton wants to restore jobs and rebuild the middle class. She wants to help make health care and education rights and not privileges....
But when Clinton talked about making change, it was about what SHE would do for US.
When Obama talks about making change, it is about what WE can do TOGETHER.
Keep your not-yet-Obama-supporters away from the strange delusion that McCain is a better choice because of his experience...Clinton really did not help herself or the party by pursuing that line of reasoning.
McCain is to Hillary as Bush is to Bill.
Let's try to keep that thought in mind.
Obama is to Hillary as Richardson is to Edwards...
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been stressing party unity through the month of May. At the Jefferson-Jackson dinner this year, Clinton even said,
If [Obama] is the nominee, I'll work my heart out for him."
If Clinton is offering to promote Obama as the candidate as well as hold the Vice President position, then why should her supporters do anything besides vote for Obama?
Take the UNITY PLEDGE and reach out to your fellow democrats to unify our party, but please use caution. They may need time to heal.
Pundits liked to spin a drawn out primary as bad for the party, but more people have been fired up by it across our nation than have been in 30 years! More people are interested and engaged!!! This primary has helped us to see the real stakes of the election.
To safeguard our future, democrats must stand together.
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