I think I have found a good analogy for the political fervor of the Democratic Party. I live in the Northeast and we have a beltway around the city. When the traffic starts to build, but before it gets jammed, cars will group up by the dozens with stretches of almost open road between them.
Within a group, the cars jockey mightily for position, showing amazing assertion of position with each other, anticipation of each other’s “moves”, manipulation of each other’s itinerary, and outright aggression when all else fails.
Now, this whole process happens pretty quickly, rarely lasting more than a few minutes. Eventually, the most talented driver (sometimes myself) will fight his way to the head of the pack and will be poised to break free of the herd and “explore” the open road. And, you know what happens? – Most of the time, they stop pushing. They are so cowardly comfortable that they refuse to break from the herd and just end up blocking almost everyone else. Meet John Kerry and the Democratic Leadership.
Do you know who doesn’t stop, who blasts away and goes boldly into the “abyss”? The young drivers, the ones who “don’t know better”, who “have no sense”, no experience and no fear. Meet John Edwards, Dennis Kucinic, Al Sharpton, and the one and only Howard Dean.
It is true: Our future and our hope lie with the “young”.