Why I am no longer an independent

Most of my adult life I've voted Democrat, but much of that time I've been a registered independent. Heck, when I was in Chapel Hill, I was registered as a Republican so I could vote against Jesse Helms twice.

But this year has been different. First, about a year ago, I got involved in the Dean campaign here in Portland, Oregon. Then I got involved in the Democratic Party of Multnomah County (basically, Portland).

Now, many of you may imagine that a county political party is a closed set -- and in a few places, maybe it is. But most places I've lived, the county Democrats are nearly indistinguishable from any enthusiastic nonprofit, at the grassroots level.

There are no fat white guys chomping cigars in smoke-filled back rooms here. There are a bunch of overworked volunteers wishing that the nation didn't think that there was something inherently ikky about political work.

Of course, most of us think that because there is. Face it, if you want to save the rainforest, it's ALWAYS going to be easier to make that issue black and white. The rainforest will hardly ever talk back. It will not get on TV and show that it's motivations don't match yours, that it's grammar is poor, that it's smearing the cattlemen and the slash and burn farmers, or that it has poor hygiene.

Candidates will always disappoint you. But that's only because you can imagine that issues are clean and neat.

Let me tell you, it's time to GET OVER IT.

Do you want to see another four years of Bush in office? No? Then consider that if you don't want peace and foreign relations and environmental policy and jobs to get totally flushed down the tubes, you need to work for Kerry.