PA-03: What Democrats Can Learn from My Grandmother

(Cross-posted at Street Prophets.)

Too often people forget just how important the Democratic Party is to a district like mine – PA-03, here in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania. The story of this district is the story that Democrats are supposed to represent: the struggle of working people to make it into the middle class.

Historically this party has been comprised of people who chose their affiliation not on the basis of culture wars or hot-button resentments, but literally to put food on their tables and to take care of their families. My grandmother was one of those people.

My grandfather was an iron worker, a union man, who died on the job in a scaffolding accident on a construction project at the very same hospital where my daughter will be born this December. His work and his sacrifice have a physical legacy here in Erie, in the buildings he and his generation of laborers constructed.

When her husband died, my grandmother faced a terrible situation, left to raise six children on her own. But she wasn’t on her own: she joined the labor movement. She knew that she alone could not build a better life for her children, nor could she depend on whatever graces might trickle down from the wealthy. So she joined with others in the movement that made it possible for her to feed her family and give her kids a better life. For my grandmother, Democratic politics and organized labor were a matter of necessity.

As I’ve said in the past, I am committed to the Democratic party because I believe in the principles of this party and in the people those principles exist to serve: a sense of shared destiny, collective sacrifice, and civic responsibility. My grandmother had no use for the kind of cheap and phony patriotism that has been sold to us over the past eight years. She was not afraid to be called names: she had real fears, real dangers, and real responsibilities to face.

What we need now more than ever is a strong and vibrant Democratic Party, one that is proud of its uniquely American patriotic past, and one that holds faithful to that history by offering bold and truly progressive ideas for the future. I know that in recent years many progressives have been frustrated with this party, even as many working class Americans have wondered about its commitment to them. We should remember that once our party was empowered by the involvement of people who joined it out of necessity. I think we – netroots activists and working families here in PA-3 – need the Democratic party again.

We’re at a unique moment in American history, and it’s being felt right here in northwest Pennsylvania. It’s a moment of serious crisis and immense possibility: what we choose to do over the next couple of years will determine how many more of our servicemembers will be killed or wounded in Iraq, whether we become a nation that guarantees health care as a right to children and to all Americans, whether we keep our commitment to our seniors, and whether we are serious about offering a better future for our next generation.

The choice for me is easy: I am a Democrat because of history, because of destiny, and because of necessity. Because of my grandmother and because of my daughter.

I am the only progressive Democrat running here in PA-03, but I’m facing a considerable challenge. In this race we have an opportunity to make a statement about what the Democratic Party means to America, and I hope you’ll join with me in the effort. I need your support.

Come by and visit me at my website: www.WaltnerforCongress.com. You can read more about my campaign at EriePressible and Pennsylvania Progressive.