Thursday, November 13, 2003
From last night, 11PM:

The last time I came through Tulsa I was biking across the country and I had to come to town reluctantly, only because my friend Ramsi Nasser made me promise I’d pick up a care package to the central post office. I remember it for the long, bumpy double-lanes into town, the rude trucks (it turns out Tulsa does, statistically, have the second worst drivers in the country), the lack of camping, and the wind that blew meanly at me from the west when I tried to leave the next morning. And then the care package had dice and broken cookies.

So I came with low expectations, but this Tulsa experience was just the opposite. This was 25 people transforming an empty condominium into a political meeting – the meeting just milled out, and its hard to believe that 20 minutes ago this blank tan carpet that I’m sitting on, and the flowered sofa and matching chair, the mottled yellow-white walls – were crowded with so much passion.

Ryan is sitting on the couch, drinking jug red wine out of a plastic cup, and he’s decided tonight that he wants to start to focus the video he’s taking on this trip on history:

“Over and over again, people bring up history – either they haven’t been so excited since the Kennedy’s, or the Civil Rights movement, or something else –.” One woman had been arrested twice during the Civil Rights movement, and once in South Africa protesting Apartheid. A public school secretary talked about not being so excited since Bobby Kennedy “he was this brief flame of hope – but I was not old enough to vote. I can’t wait to vote this time. I will do whatever I can.”

It struck me, too – when (as happens over and over) a life long republican talks about switching parties for Dean, right before a life-long progressive talks about the same thing -- and they don’t seem to be talking past eachother -- there is something so much deeper than regular politics going on. The partisan axis are outdated, and Dean speaks in the language that greens, republicans, independents and cynics all hear, because of his directness, his courage, and, as someone said tonight, his ability to talk about things smartly, passionately, and connect them to other issues. Its striking how when a political space opens up – as it has in this campaign -- people agree more than they would imagine about fundamental issues, like the way politics is structured.

“Sometimes I don’t know if I am living in America,” someone said tonight. “I want to work for the person who can beat Bush, but also the person who can bring us back our democracy.”

Vivek told a funny story about how he was living in Texas when Bush was elected Governor, and he moved to California. When Bush was elected President, he moved to Bombay. “Now I’m back, and I don’t want to run away from politicians any more. He has to run from us.”

Thank you Tulsa, and thank you Oklahoma for three inspiring days. Oklahoma's famous tall windy grey green grass is now matched by the tall, proud grassroots of the Dean campaign. Just make sure you keep growing! See you in Iowa --

Posted by Zephyr Teachout at 06:13 PM

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