Can you FEEL THE LOVE oozing out of my brother, here!!
Posted on 12/20/2003 6:56:16 AM PST by Bug
Randy Mayeux: Here is why we Deaniacs love our fellow
12:01 AM CST on Saturday, December 20, 2003
The Howard Dean campaign revolutionizing presidential politics isn't just a political entity. It is a social phenomenon.
I went to my first Dean "Meet-Up" ; a monthly Web-enabled gathering run by volunteers ; at the beginning of the summer. The mix and excitement of the people got me hooked. The crowd quickly outgrew two early locations, and additional Meet-Up spots now are added almost every month.
I was there when Mr. Dean took the stage in front of Dallas City Hall on July 13. More than 1,000 people gathered in the scorching July heat to hear this man speak about the dangerous path taken by the current administration. "We can do better than that," he told the crowd. I believed him.
How committed am I to Dean for President? Later, I joined a planeload of other Deaniacs campaigning door to door in Iowa.
No doubt about it, this feels more like a movement than a conventional campaign. How else to explain so many citizens - many of us true political novices giving so much time, money and energy to the presidential effort of a candidate who was on practically nobody's radar a year ago?
For one thing, we want no more of the Bush presidency. There is a palpable anger, partly flowing from a feeling of betrayal at being misled over Iraq. Anger at President Bush was the catalyst that started many on the Dean path. Mr. Dean is unafraid to speak from the heart about what Mr. Bush has done to America. He has conviction.
For another, there is a true populist sensibility at work here. We, the people, want someone to hear us. Mr. Dean and his "official" staff actually listen to the grass roots.
Much has been written about the Dean campaign's Web log (www.blogforamerica.com). The blog has enabled a vast conversation among Dean people. Campaign manager Joe Trippi and other top staffers regularly write on it and read many of the comments left by supporters. Those who comment get to know each other by name and even travel in order to meet each other.
As Mr. Dean says, this campaign is in the process of creating community for a community-starved nation. One thing about us Dean backers: We don't go bowling or campaigning alone.
Look at the way Mr. Dean has raised campaign cash. Before Mr. Dean, people who could give only $10 or $20 felt invisible and insignificant in the face of the usual crowd of big-money donors.
No longer. Spend 10 minutes reading comments on the Dean blog, especially when the bats are up (the bats are the visual cues that document the progress of a Dean fund-raising challenge), and you will realize that Dean folks giving their "small" gifts feel a part of
something great. And because they are treated like they matter, they are part of something great.
We want to be part of a "we." With Dean folks, it isn't "he" (Mr. Dean) or "me" (the individual voter) but "we" all of us together. Mr. Dean knows there is power in unity. When he says, "We can do better than that," it isn't just empty rhetoric. He is talking to me and all who believe in him.
You ought to listen to what the Dean community says about our candidate when we get together. One Deaniac recently told me, "It is nice to have a candidate I can be enthusiastic about instead of holding my nose and voting for." Another said, "He is the only politician who ever has motivated me." And still another: "We aren't afraid to make fools of ourselves for our candidate. And we love that!"
As I said, it is a phenomenon! Who would want to miss out on being a part of something like that?
Randy Mayeux is a Dallas minister and speaker. His e-mail address is r.mayeux@airmail.net.
I know people who voted for clinton and who pretty much around the middle and normally slightly to the left, the dean lunatics make these people sound like right wing fanatics, I have one teacher who made a clinton supporter sound like a bush bot. Dean doesn't draw anyone but hard left, but he does force people into the right, and thats a recipe for a blowout.
One huge problem. So far, the genetic evidence (which the gay community has gone to the ends of the earth to suppress) suggests that if there is a genetic component, it exists in only a small percentage of the people who call themselves gay. So for the vast majority of gays, being gay is a matter of choice.
Maybe God did make some homosexuals that way. Maybe. He gave us all crosses to bear. The vast majority of gays are that way due to cultural and peer influences rather than genetics, so there is no basis to blame God for the affliction.
"I was in Nashville a few years ago for a meeting between liberals and conservatives. One of the speakers was from a big liberal church in Dallas named Randy Mayeux. He was like a fish out of water. He knew little or nothing about the issues. I tried to talk to him after he spoke. I referred to the scriptures, on the other hand, he kept responding over and over to me, "but I feel in my heart," "but I feel in my heart." Randy didn't have a scripture, but he "felt" in his heart that instrumental music in worship was okay. Randy even "felt" in his heart that baptism was not necessary for salvation. I cited the words of Jesus, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mk. 16:16)."
This sucker sure does "feel" a lot, huh? Wonder why he wasted a dime on getting an education?
As I said, it is a phenomenon! Who would want to miss out on being a part of something like that?
As if to say, the operable factor, the important thing, is that Dean is a "phenomenon". Geez, that's deep stuff, there.
Well, there have been others in history that could be classified as a "phenomenon" in their own right, that haven't worked out too well. People like Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Nero, Caligula, Rasputin, et al. Being a "phenomenon" is a poor criteria for selecting a leader.
All that is missing is: "Those who try to thwart the purposes of God shall be re-educated in special labor camps. Those who resist re-education shall be shot. God bless you."
Feelings, wo-o-o, feelings
Wo-o-o, feelings, reeling in my brain
Feelings, feelings........."
Leni
This is an interactive post...Fill in the blanks.
True. If I had a nickle for every time I heard "Our citizenship is in Heaven" I would be rich.
It's well and good to store up riches in Heaven, but "Faith without works is DEAD".
Um...that would be "...,jack-booted thugs...". :)
5.56mm
Can you FEEL THE LOVE oozing out of my brother, here!!
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