Chapter 10 Kerry supporters gathering

It was my first meeting of Kerry supporters at a nearby pub.The party was supposed to start at 7:00 pm. According to my experience of participating in Liberal Party activities, I arrived at the bar at 7:30, and found that the place was full of people, divided into several tables, and there were at least 40 people.I was taken aback by this formation. As expected of a big party, it gathered so many people so easily. I signed in, took a sticker and wrote my name on it, pasted it on my chest, and found a table to sit down.The people at the table were discussing vigorously. I first asked the person next to me about the situation. She told me that the people on this table were all from the fundraising group, and they mainly discussed fundraising. In addition, there were publicity groups, Media group, volunteer group.I decided to join the volunteer group.

The table for the volunteer group is the longest one, with more than 20 people sitting there. It seems that most of them are just like me, with no special skills, only a little silly energy to sell.The organizer of the volunteer group was a very young guy, Matthew, who found a seat for me, and I squeezed in.That place happened to be the dividing line between the two groups of people discussing. Everyone turned their backs to me and spoke in the other direction.I had to order a drink first and listen to what they were talking about. Sitting on my left is a lady in her thirties named Laura with a pretty face.She belongs to the "media response group".This is different from the media group. The media group is in charge of reporting everyone's activities in the media. The main job of this group is to pay attention to media trends, pay attention to whether the media has negative or inaccurate reports on Kerry, and then fight back.Laura asked if I was interested in this.I said: "I like paying attention to media trends and writing articles to clarify things. But reading and writing in English really bothers me, so I'd better join that volunteer group." She said, in fact, she was also careless Sitting in this place and being pulled in, she is also more interested in doing volunteer work.

To Laura's left, at the end of the table, is a boy who looks like a college student.He set up his own website ( Sitting across from me was a lady named Will.I asked her if it was her first time here.She said: "Yes, but I have participated in several Dean supporters' activities before." Weil believes that Dean is the real representative of the Democratic Party and the candidate she supports wholeheartedly, but now that he has withdrawn from the primary If she chooses, she will support Kerry instead, and Dean has officially supported Kerry anyway. This reminds me of another question.I asked everyone: "Do you support Kerry because of his ideas, or because he opposes Bush?" They said together almost without hesitation: "Both."

This answer was a bit unexpected to me.For a long time, the media has given me the impression that most of the people who support Kerry are just because he has a relatively high possibility of being elected, and all those who hate Bush, no matter what differences they have with Kerry’s views, all come to support Kerry. support him.This is the so-called ABBA (AnyoneButBushAgain, anyone but Bush), I am such a person (I still have an ABBA CD at home, I can play it next time), so I support it as a Liberal Democratic candidate. At this time, Sue, a woman diagonally opposite, interjected, "It's nothing, I'm still a registered Republican." Everyone was taken aback.I said, "Then you must be really pissed off by Bush." ​​She smiled and said, "That's not true. I've always voted Democrat. But I'm registered as a Republican so when they get the primaries, I can go Vote against the Republicans I hate the most. Like this time, I'm not going to vote for Bush, I'm going to vote for someone else."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.I've heard of cases where someone registers as a party member of the opposing party and then deliberately votes for the least likely candidates in the primaries in order to help the party win the official general election.Anyway, in the United States, registering as a party member is a coveted thing for political parties, and it is free (only small parties like the Liberal Party charge, otherwise they cannot maintain it).I often suspect that Bush's 2000 Republican presidential nomination was voted for by moles in this way. Sue used to live in New Jersey, where the primaries were open, and non-Party members could vote in the primary, so she was already familiar with this trick in New Jersey.After moving to Pennsylvania, where only party members could vote in the party's primary election, she had to go out of her way to register as a Republican and continue her underground struggle.Her husband still registered as a Democrat so that messages from both sides would not be missed. "In addition, if there is anything, we can appeal to people from both parties at the same time." Of course, in this way, she often receives Republican propaganda materials and letters asking for donations."I've always thrown them straight into the bin," she laughs.

During the chat, I found that Weier also lives in Puwang City.She introduced me again to Linda and Diane—the two ladies sitting to my right, her neighbors.The four of us came from Puwang City tonight. Among them, Diane is an active member of the Democratic Party and has campaigned for other candidates, so he is very familiar with volunteer activities.Basically, the job of the volunteers is to mobilize people to vote.According to her, only about half of the citizens will vote.If you can mobilize the masses, you can gain an overwhelming advantage. But the problem is that the Republican Party is also taking action. This is an area where the Republican Party is dominant, and Bush attaches great importance to Pennsylvania. Since taking office, he has visited Pennsylvania 28 times, the most among all states in the United States. "He's literally living in Pennsylvania," one said bitterly.Needless to say, people here have a deep hatred for Bush.Many people don't even want to mention his name, just say "he".As long as you open your mouth and hear criticism, it must be aimed at Bush.

They were also interested in my identity as a Liberal and a fighter for internationalism.Weir asked me why I became a Liberal.I said that as far as personal affairs are concerned, the views of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party are basically similar, that is, they oppose state interference in personal life, and that individuals, regardless of gender, race, nationality, or sexual orientation, should enjoy completely equal rights.As far as economic matters go, I think state intervention in the economy is often counterproductive.In this regard, they clearly disagree.So I resorted to a magic weapon: I am from China, and I grew up in the era of transformation from a planned economy to a market economy. I have witnessed the constraints and damage caused by state intervention to the economy, and I have also witnessed individuals fighting for their own interests. The huge potential that can be burst out when the economic future is struggling.Therefore, I advocate a market-led economy with as little state intervention as possible.As for social welfare, medical insurance, etc., it is probably because I am from China. No matter how I look at it, I feel that the United States has done a very good job (Which Democrat is not convinced, please sponsor me a ticket to Sweden, maybe I will go to Sweden) After visiting and studying, I converted to leftism again), especially in the media, it is almost two-thirds of the world, so I don’t think equality is an urgent topic.

At around 8:45, Kelly, the host of the event, stood up and said: "It's getting late, I would like to invite the coordinators of each group to summarize the results of the discussion tonight, and then everyone can continue to discuss here, or go home." The first to speak was the advocacy group.The English name is propagandateam, I was a bit surprised by the name, because I remember seeing it on the Internet before, propaganda is a bad word in English, mainly used to refer to propaganda with ulterior motives and often distorting facts, often used in Nazi Germany , the former Soviet Union, etc.This is also the first sentence the coordinator of this group stood up to

Tiaotiao: "Perception is reality." Immediately, I had a bad impression of them.Fortunately, their proposition is not so unscrupulous. The main one is to create an impression on the local people: the Democrats are still active, and Kerry can win the election!Because this is an area dominated by Republicans, in order to prevent some voters from habitually voting for Republicans, they require everyone to conduct extensive activities, appear more in public, make their voices heard in the media, and wear Kerry’s promotional badges more. , car stickers and the like, making people believe that the Democrats will overwhelm the Republicans in this area.In addition, they encouraged everyone to read more books, and listed some big books that even I have never heard of. They hope that everyone can communicate with each other after reading and arm themselves with theories.

The next speaker was our volunteer group.Matthew, who looked very young, stood up and said: "I am only 16 years old this year, but I have been a loyal Democrat since I was a child. I can't vote yet, but I can do volunteer work. Four years ago, Bush was replaced by Al Gore. You stole the election, and this year, it's time for him to pay back! We have to work hard for it, get your friends, your neighbors to come out and register, come out and vote. We can send emails to everyone around us, everyone to 30 people, each of these 30 people will be distributed to 30 people, and after 4 rounds, there will be 80,000 people! Don't underestimate your own strength, each of us can make a contribution!"

He didn't seem to be summarizing his work, but he seemed to be giving a speech. Not only did he have a sonorous and passionate voice, but he also made firm gestures. When he said "you", he stretched out his right index finger and pointed vigorously at the audience.Now is the time for the movie "The Alamo", a patriotic film about a bloody battle between Americans and Mexicans at the Alamo in the 19th century, which is probably equivalent to the Battle of Taierzhuang in China.Matthew continued: "Now, people are saying: Remember the Alamo. So, I would say, Remember Florida. Four years ago, Bush made us remember Florida. This year, we will not let Florida It will happen again!" Everyone applauded and said to each other, it is really amazing for a 16-year-old child to perform like this.Someone shouted: "You should run for president!" Matthew said excitedly: "Yeah! Maybe in 2024, I will run for president of the United States!" But I don't like his performance.Maybe it has something to do with my Chinese background, I don't appreciate radical speech and behavior.I have seen many of these.Politics is not lofty, it is just the best solution for the basic necessities of the people.Setting up a lofty purpose, giving impassioned speeches, and calling on the people to fight for a great goal all make me stay away.This is probably the main psychological reason why I became a Liberal.In my opinion, politics should be peaceful, compromise, and practical. Laura also spoke on behalf of the media response team, but their group is very weak, only "two and a half to three and a half" people, "half of them" is herself, because she is actually more interested in volunteering.She is more about introducing the work of this group, hoping to recruit a few people from other groups.Unfortunately, there was no response.Kelly said, it seems that our group must be merged with other groups. What followed was a statement from the media group and the fundraising group, which quickly turned into a chat between the two groups, and I didn't get the gist of it. After summing up, Will, Linda, and Diane and I left phone calls and emails with each other, briefly talked about future plans, and then went home. In general, the feeling of participating in this event is very different from that of the Liberal Party.First of all, there are so many of them, which opened my eyes for someone who is used to small party activities. Now I can see the scene of a big party.Secondly, their demographic composition is completely different from that of the Liberal Party. Most of them are women, accounting for more than two-thirds, and more than half of them are elderly retired women or housewives. It seems that not many are still working.Among men, there are also small ones (except for Matthew, there is an 18-year-old child), old ones, and there are not many men my age.Every time the Liberal Party holds a meeting, it is all young and middle-aged working men, and most of them are engaged in engineering or other jobs that require higher education.The only similarity between the two parties is that they are full of white people, not a single black or Hispanic, and I am the only non-white person in both places, probably because the residents of this place are mainly white people. Therefore, when the Liberal Party holds a meeting, there is a feeling of small-scale communication. I know all the people, and I feel relatively relaxed, and most of them are logical and well-planned.I think the gathering of the Democratic Party this time is a bit noisy, maybe there are too many people, and many people can't say the main point, so I don't know what to say for a long time.I hope that everyone will become more familiar in the future and will be better. November 14th Note "Why did you become a Liberal?" This question is not only you want to know, but it was also asked me repeatedly during my campaign on the Kerry campaign.I think many readers probably also have this question. Here I will briefly talk about the process of becoming a Liberal, that is, the process of how to emancipate myself. The English of the Liberal Party is Libertarian, and the root word is Liberty (freedom).When I first saw the word, my first reaction was "Liberation Party" because one of the first words I learned in junior high was "Liberation".Obviously, "liberation" and "freedom" are closely related, especially in terms of thought, a person can only achieve freedom when he is freed from all kinds of shackles.Americans have a half-joking saying: the misconceptions learned in college will take five years to completely eliminate after graduation.From birth, we are surrounded by overwhelming mainstream public opinion and traditional ideas.As a child, I believed everything my books and teachers said.I still remember that when I was in junior high school, international news was broadcast on the radio. After listening to it, I was worried that the socialist movement around the world was in a low ebb. In the third year of high school, a classmate in my class was about to go abroad. He took a classmate list and asked everyone to leave a message. One of them was idol.The person in front of me filled in Rijkaard. I thought for a long time, not knowing who my idol was, and finally filled in "Mao Zedong" with a swipe of the pen.During the summer vacation after graduating from high school, I went to a relative's house as a guest, and saw a copy of "Marxist Philosophy" on the bookcase of his house, picked it up, flipped through it, and actually finished it with relish.At that time, I had made progress compared to junior high school and knew the shortcomings of the social science part, but the natural philosophy part still impressed me a lot.When I was a freshman in college, I wrote in my diary: My goal in this life is the motherland, the truth, and me in turn. By the time you graduate from college, the motherland is already ranked second to the truth.This change was easy. On the one hand, as I saw more and more, I naturally saw that the patriotic education I received in the past was suspected of fooling the people.I am still patriotic, but not for the ridiculous patriotic reasons in the textbooks, but for the conviction of personal worth.Obviously, if a person loves himself, he will also be patriotic. Such a natural emotion can be used to make a big fuss. I can't help but turn my stomach. On the other hand, if a person's patriotism is not based on narrow national demands, but on the basis of personal values, then a logical conclusion is that the well-being of human beings all over the world is connected, and the national interests of all countries are, in the final analysis, consistent.Anyone who wants to seek benefits for their own country by expanding abroad and attacking other countries will eventually suffer from it.Germany, which seized living space, the Soviet Union, which exported revolutions, and the United States, which turned upside down in the Middle East, are all proofs.The German officers who plotted to assassinate Hitler during World War II knew the true meaning of patriotism better than the SS soldiers who died on the battlefield.The goal of the motherland can be accommodated by the truth—this truth not only refers to the objective laws of the world, but also includes the general term of social justice. The wavering of the view of truth happened after going abroad.There are many Chinese Christians in the United States, and I have been drawn to their meetings many times.As soon as I came into contact with Jesus, I was overwhelmed: unexpectedly there are such people in the world!Immediately became a "cultural Christian", that is, agreed with Christian thought, but did not accept the part about God.In my opinion, atheism can be justified by itself, and whatever cannot be explained now can be pushed to the development of science in the future.Christianity can also justify itself, everything that we cannot understand can be inferred to God's unfathomable.It takes a considerable amount of faith to be a Christian or an atheist.The question of whether there is a God is obviously beyond the range of my intelligence and courage, and I have changed from an atheist to an atheist. Of course, my view of truth has also changed.Religious belief is the basis of human morality. If I cannot even confirm whether there is a God, then all truths are doubtful.The position of agnosticism allows me to no longer look up to the truths that I used to think are unquestionable, but I can calmly speculate how this truth is derived from the worship of God, and whether it can still be established without God. The evolution of morality in history has made it very clear that morality is not a commandment issued by God, nor is it the "law of heaven" as Song Confucianism called it, but a rule agreed by people when they form a society.Because they do help to maintain social stability, they are given noble reasons and glamorous veneers, but they are never taken for granted and, in many cases, do more harm to individuals than good.If you look carefully, there are many moral concepts that are self-contradictory and unexplainable, because they are not rigorously deduced from "God" or an absolute concept, but artificially summarized, and are often used by powerful people. Dressing up casually will naturally be full of loopholes.For example, the Chinese tradition of loyalty and filial piety is difficult to achieve both. If it is not bluffed by morality, it is not a problem at all. Therefore, I do not believe in moral judgment, and even oppose all moral evaluations, advocating that as long as it does not violate the law, it can be done.Of course, the premise is your own satisfaction.Due to the influence of the environment, a large part of the satisfaction of many people actually comes from the moral evaluation of the self. Then, in order to make yourself happier, you abide by morality, and even sacrifice some lesser happiness, which is completely in line with human nature. After joining the Liberal Party, the position of the Liberals on the drug issue made me think about whether people have the freedom to take drugs.This question conveniently turns into another, larger question: Does man have the right to commit suicide? In theory, of course people have the right to commit suicide.This can be directly deduced from freedom of belief.Some Hindus believe that worshiping the god Zagnath can avoid the disaster of reincarnation, so they throw themselves under the giant cart where the statue of the god is placed, and hope for eternal life on the other side with one death.How a person can be happy, only she knows, and only she has the right to decide, no one else has the right to interfere, and no religion or government has the right to impose a certain outlook on life on others.So when a person decides that life is more painful than death, what right do we have to force her to suffer in this world? This principle is extremely simple and clear, but it does not work at all in reality.Christianity believes that people cannot commit suicide, and no one has the right to deprive others or their own life except God.Due to the strong position of Christianity in today's world, the humanitarianism they put forward is also generally accepted all over the world. Even euthanasia can be opposed with this high-sounding reason. A little derivation of morality will lead to an embarrassing situation, because morality is not a will from God, but just a beautiful coat, and its essence is an agreement summed up after comparing strengths.Different environments will produce different morals, and they are very righteous, but in fact they are all compiled according to actual needs.Or, to make us a little less ashamed, say that all kinds of morality are sincerely preached, but only those that most meet practical needs will occupy the mainstream position.Religious freedom does not come from people's mutual respect, but from the equal power of various sects. Just at this time, everyone has the saying "natural human rights" at hand, so they use it as a fig leaf, because "a gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness", our concession is not Because you can't eat each other, but because you respect each other. After I figured this out, I can no longer be in awe of all moral norms, truth and justice.Just like Neo in "The Matrix", the world that others see as real exists is just a fictional matrix in his eyes; he can break the objective laws that restrict other people's behavior at will.Each of us can be Neo.As long as we see that there is nothing there, and all the constraints are just dotted lines arranged horizontally and vertically, we can liberate ourselves from the superficial illusion and fly freely in the spiritual world like Neo. However, there will also be spiritual difficulties after spiritual freedom: Neo cannot only live in the virtual world, no matter how free the spirit is, he must also live in the real world.The conflict here is obvious.What's worse, complete freedom brings confusion and loss, just like a kite flying in the sky, once it breaks free from the rope tied to the earth, it will fly higher temporarily, but it will eventually fall.After getting rid of the old superstitions, I fell into a new daze, looking around, it was all empty, and there was nowhere to find shore. The master said: "Thinking without learning is perilous." I realized that thinking alone can free your mind, but you can win the world immediately, but you can't rule the world immediately. Next, you should read some books, from Lao Zhuang to Shiye, From Pope, Hayek to Rand, Friedman.The new sage Hu Shi said: "Study more problems and talk less about doctrines", which is also the most reasonable.Participating in the grassroots politics of the Liberal Party and the Kerry camp has given me a deeper perspective on many issues.I hope that I can have the opportunity to do more practical things in the future, and build a new spiritual world after spiritual liberation.