The sidewalks are wet from the rain that fell over night. I am exhausted and must have slept through the rain. It has cut down some of the heat and humidity that was so oppressive last night which makes the walk to the Metro station a little more tolerable, however my backpack and the blister that has formed on my foot slows me down.

I had an interesting talk with one friend yesterday. She asked if I had seen anything interesting, new or exciting. I mentioned Elandria from the Highlander Research and Education Center as being the best that I heard. My friend observed that there wasn’t much new in her speech. I noted that for me, finding out about Highlander was new, but I had to agree. At all of the conferences like this there needs to be someone to bring up the issues of the poverty, race, gender, sexual orientation, and so on, in a personal and meaningful way. Elandria is the one who did that here. Perhaps others did as well, but I didn’t hear them, or they did it in a session where their comments were so impersonalized that it faded into the background political rhetoric.

I explored this in more detail over drinks last night. The guy I was talking with spoke about the decline in trust in the public discourse and the increased focus on the private discourse. It was all well and good, but it sounded a bit impersonal, part of the failing public discourse.

How do I explain to the people here why Faith’s story is so important, why so many of the ‘Mommy bloggers’ that I read are so much more important than all these progressive blogs? We talk about authenticity. It is a loaded term. All the politicians try to sound more authentic. However, our political discourse discourages real authenticity. Heaven forbid that a candidate should show real tears for the oppressed.

I stumble around the web to try and find quotes to capture what I mean. My mind wanders to authenticity as described in philosophy and psychology. Heidegger and Thoreau come to mind, as does Buber. “The masses of men…”, “I and Thou”.

Is there something about group dynamics and the public persona that makes it impossible to remain authentic when one climbs on the stage or stands behind the bully pulpit?

This morning, I got going late. I’m tired. I ache. I didn’t get here in time to hear Sen. Clinton, yet I hear people walking out talking about how she was on fire. This is a good venue for that. Obama gave a lot of people goosebumps yesterday. There is something very important about being on fire and giving people goosebumps. You need to inspire people and move them to action. I’ve spoken with others that are here to hear Howard. For many of them, it is Gov. Dean that gave them goosebumps and still inspires them to remain active today. Will Obama supporters be leading the charge four years from now to get progressive Democrats elected not only to the presidency, and congress, but also to state legislatures and municipal offices? I hope so, but I have my doubts.

I have to say that the candidate that came closest to giving me goosebumps here was Dennis Kucinich. His message came across as authentic pure idealism. He painted a vision of an America that I would love to live in. He tied together issues of peace, health care, education, the environment, clean energy and energy independence into a call for an America of our dreams. His entrance song was “Welcome to America” as he talked about how many of us came here seeking a land of hope and opportunity.

Yes, Dennis is the true visionary in this race and I would love to see his vision come about. Yet the pragmatist in me believes that the best way to bring about that vision is to support Sen. Edwards, is to encourage people to become more involved with nonprofits, and to take up service politics projects like DeanCorps, OneCorps, etc.

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its life’s illusions I recall

(Technorati tags: tba2007, takebackamerica)