There have been various (too many) (waaaaaaaaaay too many) diaries going around about whether or not the party is united and how the party can be united and whose job it is to unite the party. Given all this talk about party unity, it seemed to me high time to have a discussion of what a political party really is.
Sure, part of what a political party is is the machinery. The guts. The rules committees, the fund raising apparatus, the political consultants, the offices, things like that. And part of what it is is the politicians, in any political office state or federal. But to me, what the party is is us. We're the ones who make the party mean something. Without us, the machinery has no purpose. Without us, the politicians are out of a job.
So what exactly is it that makes us a political party? It's certainly not that we agree on everything. People on this site are constantly in disagreement, and yet at the end of the day are still able to shake hands and walk away as democrats. The party isn't monolithic, and frankly I'm glad of that. But we are still able to call ourselves a party, to unite despite our differences, and I think that is because the what brings us together as a party is the fact that we share hopes, values, dreams, ideas. We share a vision for what this country is and what it could be. We share bedrock ideals that we believe should be protected above all else: freedom, compassion, honesty, wisdom.

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Forget the past,
Ignore the present,
Pretend to believe in the future.
      -- The Perfect Son

[This is a variation on something I posted months ago on Another Site that Shall (and Should) Remain (Forever) Nameless.]

Even though I supported [my candidate] for the nomination, I'm feeling pretty good about [your candidate].  I can certainly grasp why you prefered [your candidate] to [my candidate].  Now that [your candidate] has won, I thought it might be nice to take a few moments and jot down just a few of the things I like about [your candidate]:

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Yesterday I met with Congresswoman Lowey, who represents New York's 18th District.  Who am I?  I'm nobody.  I'm just a regular guy organizing a voter registration drive through Barack Obama's Vote For Change website.

But the day before I received an e-mail from Congresswoman Lowey's office inviting me to her neighborhood office hours (well, not me personally.  Presumably my e-mail address somehow found its way to her e-mailing list).  So I went, and met with her.  I mean, why not?  How often does a guy get the opportunity to meet his congressional representative?

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I was originally a Kucinich supporter since I felt he had the most progressive policies.  Then, when it appeared John Edwards was gaining more traction I planned on voting for him in New York in the hopes that he would get some delegates and fight for economic justice at the convention.  When he dropped out, I was left with Hillary and Obama.  I had problems with both of them.  I preferred her Health Plan but was still upset with her vote on the Iraq War and I had serious concerns that she would follow the triangulation policies of her husband in the white house (Welfare Reform, Defense of Marriage Act, expansion of the Death Penalty), so I voted for Obama with reservations.

I approach this election as a progressive.  I vote for the candidate I think offers the best hope of progressive change that will have the greatest effect on people's lives.  The racial and gender considerations are secondary at best.

Whatever happened, my intention has always been to support the nominee, no matter who I supported in the primary.  The issue differences between Obama and Clinton are miniscule when compared with McCain.  In all truth, this primary has been a personality contest between two center left politicians.

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I found this on a new site called Democratic Unity 08 http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php? forumid=154972&threadid=1833851. It makes a number of interesting points:

How do we bring the two sides together. For almost 6 months Obama's camp and Hillary's camp have been in an intense struggle, and on a less intense level it has been even longer. Accusations have been hurled, as harsh wounds have been inflicted. Jesse Jackson has said: "We can only hope that the wounds have not become so raw that they can't be healed."

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