Inspiration is a potent force.

[cali]

You can scoff at it. You can say it's irrelevant. You can dismiss it entirely.

But that won't change the fact that inspiration is powerful and meaningful in its own right.

In political life the ability to inspire is the single most powerful element a politician can posess.

It gets people out to caucuses and to the polls.

It engages people and makes them part of something.

It is not a substitute for policy, but implementing policy is light years easier if you can inspire.

It changes the political landscape everytime.

It is far more effective in a campaign than policy specifics.

All great efforts start with inspiration.


It does not mean that the person doing the inspiriring has nothing else to recommed them.

It does not mean that the person doing the inspiring is a cult figure.


Belittle it all you want, but it's a driving force. There is no substitute for it.

It's what great campaigns and movements are built on.

[H2O Man]

1. Very good.

Things such as Hope, Compassion, Courage, and the Power of Ideas are what makes the democratic party different than the republican party. Our most inspired public servants are those who have have not simply talked about these things, but who have channeled them.

[cali]

3. Thank you, H20 Man.

I agree. It seems you have to go back quite a ways to find the republicans speaking to such things- and speaking to that which is best in us. And one of the things I like about Obama is how well he has channeled those things; years as a community activist and lawyer representing the issues confronted by the disenfranchised embody those principles.

[H2O Man]

4. Right.

I'm also reminded of RFK's decision to get into the '68 primaries, in large part because of his concern that forces in this country were appealing to "the darker impulses of human nature." Surely we have witnessed those same appeals to hatred, fear, anxiety and violence .... those are the bricks that the Bush administration built its foundation from. What is of concern today is that we see these same things, in the form pf the various "-isms", being expressed in the media and on the internet -- even on DU. It is an unhealthy reaction to the positive message that the democratic party needs to deliver.

[babylonsister]

2. Excellent; and we know who inspires. Just note the turnout in Iowa. nt

[Nick_Irving]

5. Kucinich = Inspirational

This video makes it pretty plain and obvious:

Attention Democrat Voters: Who's Electable?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNdQUVA5JHs

[cali]

6. It would be nice if that was so, but it's not.

Kucinich has not been able to inspire many people, and quite honestly, anyone who refuses to run in Iowa is not running a serious campaign- particularly a candidate who has little money. I've long thought that Kucinich is running to push important issues and ideas. That's admirable, but he's not about a serious candidacy.

[NoBorders]

7. Thanks Cali

Many folks around here seem to have disdain for his ability to inspire people.

[PATRICK]

8. And though

the other side seeks to even ban inspiration because it empowers their man beyond the cliquish agenda and gets people a little TOO awake and involved, we face the ever present threat of them somewhere finding another empty demagogue or "popular" celebrity for whatever gloss they need.

We have such people, real people with real hearts, in abundance and not all of them get even a glimmer of a look see in the money corrupted GOP game board that we think are still elections. The flame is in each of us. One party wants it extinguished and the other has unwisely come to fear it as well since the system has struck down heart with a deadly fist.

It is there among the people and the force is their as much as the facts and truths the media suppresses and abandons.

One single advantage the GOP cannot match is that people force, that true heart, that common value. Put it supreme over the money and the falseness when the demagoguery is NOT from the "mob" but the rampant entrenched evils of the mindless, despotic status quo.

[bananas]

9. Inspiration from "in spiritos" the breathe of life

inspire = to breathe in (come to life)
expire = to breathe out (die)
respire = to breathe in and out again
aspire = to breathe toward
perspire = by the breathe
etc...

[cali]

10. shameless kick.