CT Blue

The Groton Democrats have a headquarters! It opened on Monday. We’re located at 303 Route 12 in the same building as Geico Insurance. We’re going to try to keep it open on a regular basis.

If you’re from Groton, or would like to have the pleasure of being in Groton, drop by the headquarters on Thursday night to watch Obama’s acceptance speech. We’re renting a big screen television and we’re hoping for a crowd. The big screen is temporary, but the Wi-Fi will be permanent. I’m informed that more than 20 people have signed up on Move-On or Barack Obama’s site to come, and they’re all people new to Groton politics, which is just a great thing to see. If that kind of enthusiasm is happening around the country we’re in great shape.

By the way, if my posting is a little sparse in the next few days, it’s because I’m incapable of watching TV (the convention) and writing at the same time. And speaking of conventions, Lon Seidman is in Denver blogging the convention from a Connecticut perspective. You can check it out here.

And speaking more about conventions, I thought Michelle Obama was great last night. It amazes me that anyone who is human could possibly prefer a robot like Cindy McCain to a real human being like Michelle.

My current recorded book is Walden, and yesterday morning, as I listened, I was struck by this quote:

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

The Bush Administration has proven that Thoreau was right, except it was aiming low, but they’ve gotten almost everything they’ve aimed at: corrupt bargains for their corporate friends, war, torture, an elected dictatorship, enfeebled and corrupted government agencies, politicization of science, more religious and racial intolerance, more income inequality, etc. ad infinitum, all of which will continue unabated if McCain is elected.

Thoreau’s quote was on my mind when I listened to Michelle’s speech, and I think she echoed his thoughts:

All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

And in the end, isn’t that the difference between our national parties at this juncture? The mass of Democrats including elected Democrats, and the mass of the American people want to aim high. The Republicans, at least the ones in power, want to aim low.