Okay, here goes...

I’m in need of some feedback from the John Kerry Group. This group has been critical to my sanity since November, 2004 and I want you to know how much I appreciate the positive support DU and this group have been for me.:grouphug:

My political history has been that up until the 2000 Presidential Election, I really believed in the system and trusted that if I voted, my vote would be counted. As a result, I thought my only political responsibilities were to educate myself on candidates and issues and register to vote. I did both of these things RELIGIOUSLY…but that’s all I did. After Al Gore won, but was not inaugurated in 2001, I became worried about my country. I felt that if votes did not protect us from a person like Bush, maybe I needed to do more. I knew I would not be able to get through another election like 2000 unless I felt I had done as much as I could to prevent it. I began to investigate politics. I learned more about the DNC and started to contribute. I connected to Move-On.Org. I started going to meet-ups (for Clark, not Kerry, at this point). I registered people to vote. When Kerry won the nomination, I immediately joined and donated to johnkerry.com and tried to support him here in California. There was little outreach here, so I drove to Las Vegas and volunteered in a swing state. I attended a rally for Kerry in Las Vegas, just before the election (Oct. 30th, I think) and waited around after and finally got to shake his hand. :-) I was devastated when he lost on November 2nd. And that’s when I started blogging and found DU. I was trying to make sense of why our country chose Bush again. I’m not sure what upset me most about our country: that more than half of the voters were this clueless or blinded by supposed ‘values’, or that (as I started reading ) the 2004 Election was, again, stolen from the Democratic Party. Through my quest for the truth, online and elsewhere, I came to believe that there WAS massive fraud, and this (still) frightens me for our country. Sometimes, I wonder if I came to believe in the fraud just because the other alternative (that so many Americans could think what Bush wants is right, or that they are so unaware what he really intended to do to this country) was too painful to believe.

So, now that I have bared my political soul to this group, here’s my question about which I would appreciate ANY and all feedback you want to provide:

At the end of Kerry’s campaign, the phrase “I’ve got your back” became his mantra. I first heard the story he tells when I saw him speak at that Las Vegas rally in October, 2004, two days before the election. I know now that he was telling that story at every stop toward the end of the campaign. When I first heard him tell this story, I thought it seemed rather strange, almost contrived. I wondered what the purpose was for taking such pains to tell this story over and over again. I know that supporters call out “I’ve got your back” to Kerry at rallies as a show of support. I saw John Kerry recently in Los Angeles (for Antonio Villaraigoso) and people in the crowd still say that to him. I also remember reading accounts of someone at his concession speech shouting it out and John Kerry responding, "And I'll have yours, too" (I don't know if this is true or not.) The question that keeps popping up for me now, is “ Did Kerry create that phrase/story as a way of deliberately telling his supporters what they should do if he lost (but really won)?” I believe that Kerry clearly knows now what happened in Ohio with both voter suppression and election fraud and he probably knew then (October, 2004) that there was a good chance we would be in this situation now. I think (by October, 2004) he probably knew he, Congress, and the American people were lied to about WMD and the run-up to the Iraq War. I also think he knows he must keep his credibility intact and not appear to support anything that even comes close to sounding like a conspiracy theory if he is ever to unite this country as our President (and I believe he wants to do that). While the story he told to support “I’ve got your back” seemed weird last fall, it says something different to me now. It says “To my supporters and those who voted for me and want me to be President, GET THE TRUTH/FACTS OUT THERE, and I WILL (DEFINITELY) come out publicly and back you up…I WILL have your back. He’s doing that right now.* Do you think that story was intended as more than just a show of support for us, the people? Do you think he knew, way back then, that this was the way we have to get the story out and that he was TELLING US WHAT HE WANTED US TO DO, so that he would be able to lead effectively, and not be dismissed by the media and those that did not vote for him? Am I nuts? Do I need a vacation? HELP…….
:patriot:




*Yesterday’s speech about the Iraq war on the same day as Bush’s speech was a blatant example. The people got out the truth and facts of Abu Ghraib, the Downing Street Memo, the failures in Iraq and then Kerry came out to point the direction forward, when Bush has no clue.

I think he was saying that he intended to continue to fight for the causes he's always fought for as senator, and wouldn't stop just because he didn't win the election. He wanted to assure people of that, and inspire them all to keep on fighting in whatever ways they could. He's an optimist and a natural leader who inspires people to believe in him.
I think the "got your back" story really did happen, and became a metaphor for all of us working together. I take it at face value and don't read anything more into it. I know he would like everyone to work to fix our elections. But if he wanted us to contest the last election he'd have done more talking about it himself. He'd know he'd have to step out in front first.

The person really did say it at the concession speech:



He really does want everyone to keep fighting for what is important, and at one point talked about how they took it to the streets back in the 70s, and that people should do the same, now. Not that he'll lead the march, but would support it, because, as he said, "that's where I came from." If he had become president he would have had a lot more options as far as making America better, but as it is he is a senator and can still do a lot. That he is still fighting shows us a lot about who he is and why he wanted to become president. He's a true statesman and public servant.

He wants those who supported him to keep on supporting him, and that's why he's still sending out emails and things. I'm sure he's going to try for another run for the nomination, because he's setting all the right things in place for it.

Does all this make sense?

Your political history could be mine, except for the fact that since I was raised in Massachusetts, I've known (and been a supporter of) John Kerry longer. I jumped into his campaign with both feet the minute he announced his candidacy, thrilled I'd finally get a chance to vote for him for president. It was a real roller coaster of a couple of years, but though he is human and does make the occasional mistake, he's never given me an instant's doubt about his integrity and honesty.

I don't think the mechanics of politics come particularly easily to him. Contrary to what you hear from the bashers, he's very consistent in his views, which are pretty much always in shades of gray, something most of us Karryfans feel pretty comfortable with.

I've always thought of his "I've got your back" as his way of including us in a kind of extended Band of Brothers. It's the way he expresses his loyalty to us. And his way of saying that he will do everything he can to take care of us. He's an intensely loyal person, and his friends are passionately loyal to him. I think he sees his supporters in the same way, as kind of a larger circle of his clan.

I think Kerry's known for a long time now about the lies that the administration has been telling all of us. I think the continued devotion of his supporters moves him deeply (if no other way, he can tell by this forum and his supporter websites and by the response he gets to his emails), and has encouraged him to keep speaking out for us. As TayTay has said many times, if there is one person in the country who is fully aware of what the Bush Crime Family will do to get what it wants, it is John Kerry.

One of the things that really upsets me about the chronic Kerry bashers is the way they imbue him with almost mystical powers and then bitch because he isn't moving mountains. He is just one man. He's a man with high energy and wonderful ideals, but there's only so much he can do alone. I'm not sure he's asking us the uncover evidence, but I'm certain he's got people working on it. I'm certain if/when the evidence is good enough he will move forward on it. Does that answer your question? I'm not sure it does, but let me know if not.

"The other day, after a rally in Ohio, a woman asked someone from our campaign to deliver a message to me. She said, “Senator Kerry, we’ve got your back.”

Today, I’ve got a message for that woman and every other middle-class American struggling to build a better life for their family: “I’ve got yours too.”

I’ve got your back because I know what you’re going through. For the last four years, George Bush has turned his back on you and your families with almost every choice he’s made. He’s given more to those with the most at the expense of middle-class working families who are struggling to get ahead. For them, four more years of Bush choices is four more years they just can’t afford."

Hopefully the link will work from Google Cache to get to the entire speech from Oct 2nd - http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:yhbSdcVpYk0J:www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_1002a.html+%22I%27ve+got+your+back%22+%2B+john+kerry&hl=en

I was watching that rally on C-Span. (It makes me so sad to think about that;( ) I remember Kerry telling the story. He said how a woman in the audience gave a folded piece of paper to someone in his crew. Kerry said he put the paper in his pocket, and read it later that nite. He went on and on to say how much that note meant to him, he was misty-eyed when he was telling the story. I was so touched! After that, he always used that phrase:hi:

You could be right on this.

Whometense mentioned in her post how intensely loyal JK is and too his friends. Whatever the outcome would have been, JK knew that his supporters would have his back, because no doubt if things had turned out differently he still would have needed us to fight the Repubs and their spin. And although things did not turn out as we had all hoped, he's still got our back and he's still in there fighting for us everyday.

I have both extremely discomforting things to tell you and comforting things. Sorry about that. I guess hard gray areas are just the order of the day. (I am not ranting about you. It's not personal.)

The Democrats have to get over the 2004 election. (Whew, there I said it.) They are turning the debacle in Ohio (and other states) into an excuse for crying into their oatmeal about how THEY were victimized and how THEY were cheated and defrauded out of the Presidency. GET OVER IT. It's not about you. It is never, ever, ever about you. (How many times does this have to be said? Not you Yvonne, but in general.) The election fraud problems are about the American people and the basic American right to vote being under assault. It's about a hard-working person in Ohio who got fired for waiting too long in line to vote. It's about the civil rights of Americans being violated because they had to wait in line ten hours to vote. It's about the people, it's not about the Democrats. Making it about the Democrats, or God-forbid, about John Kerry cheapens what happened and lessens it into a crappy inter-party fight that no one who isn't a political junkie cares about.

The Democrats will formulate a policy about what to do about fraudulent practices in elections because the Democratic Party believes that ALL Americans deserve the right to vote and have that vote be counted. People have died for that right, people join the military and fight in gawdawful places like Iraq because they believe in that right. American Heroes like Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr died to bring that right to Americans. The Democratic Party will fight to it's last breath to honor that because it is a basic part of what makes America a democracy. 'We The People' is not just a dead phrase on a parchment, it is a living testament to the vibrancy of American democracy and the Democratic Party knows that it should never be lessened by cheap tricks in any given election. So, in the name of the people of the United States, election fraud can not be tolerated.

Comforting stuff: At the recent meeting of the DNC, a pollster got up and gave a remarkable presentation. It turns out that John Kerry's campaign killed on domestic issues. In fact, on some issues like health care, the pollster doubted that any Democrat could have done better. (Once you hit 65-70%, you just not going to go any higher.) The election was lost on Iraq. The people had not yet fallen far enough away from * to reject him. The Democrats OWN the domestic agenda. But the country was still scared. (And * played the fear card all the time and he played the 9/11 card.) Kerry actually ran a good campaign and nearly threw out a sitting President in a time of war.

We have to start facing reality as Dems at some point in time. We have to honestly look at ourselves and see our strengths as well as our weaknesses. We have to start intensive dialogs with the voters so that our messages get out. I am very hopeful about this. That essential message is getting through. (I have waited 30 years as a Democrat to write that sentence, I really mean it. It is so blazingly hopeful it almost makes me cry.) Rome wasn't built in a day and the Dems are going to stumble a lot on this road. But there are a tremendous amount of people who are ready to work to reconnect the Party of the People with the actual People. This is great news.

Senator Kerry is doing what he has always done. He is thinking through the issues and trying to come up with solutions that work. Iraq is a mess not of his making. He is a Senator and that is a 'thinking and pondering' job, not a Commander-in-Chief job. (It is reactive, not proactive by design.) He was letter-perfect yesterday, let's see what happens tomorrow. He's doing fine and I think he still 'has my back.' Look at his voting pattern this year. He's a very, very good Democrat.

:hi: