Why We Decided to Restart a Blog that Nobody Read

by Andrew Brown, communcations@penndems.org

Last night, PennDems led its most successful bipartisan event yet, rallying around Obama and the State of the Union address. With over 100 in the room, we ran out of snacks and, in the words of Ludacris, “damn right the fire marshall wanna shut us down.”

But what does this mean? Is this all a show? Is bipartisanship really going to happen? Or is all this political discourse just for s***?

My answer is in a question appropriately posed last night by one of PennDems’ most enthusiastic board members, Political Director Troy Daly. Troy asked Republicans, “how can you argue with some of these things?” If Republicans continue to try to argue with things like clean energy, an end to oil subsidies, research investments, and other important initiatives Obama mentioned in his address last night that are undeniably benevolent, bipartisanship will not come to fruition and this country will barely function with a divided Congress.

But this blog is not a matter of whether bipartisanship is real. Anyone who was present for the discussion after the address last night knows firsthand that there will be moments of compromise that are inspiring and moments of obstinate rejection that make us want to forget politics is real.

But if we are committed to moving America forward, we have to talk about it - whether the proceedings in government are thrilling or disheartening. We have to understand our plans. We have to know about current events. We have to either respect - or label as truly ridiculous - those who oppose us.

After all, we love this! Or, as President Obama put it last night, “as contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be, I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth. ”

The reestablishment of this blog creates the battleground for political discourse in a time when, no doubt, political discourse will need to take place.  It’s our job to contribute: to write, to read, to comment, and to be inspired.

Email me your blog entries, and we’ll get this discussion started.