An open letter to Sen. B. Obama (D-Ill.)

Don't stop pushing.
As the Democratic nomination- and the November election- nears, don't slack off or give up ground for political expediency. That isn't what we want to see, those of us who were attracted by the idea of honesty and change. We don't want to see you making deals and jockeying for position. We want you to keep pushing: it's why we voted for you in Texas and Iowa and Mississippi. If you back down, pull back and moderate your positions and language, you will gain nothing. You will lose us, the college kids and the Old Left idealists alike, because you will be no different from your opponents: just another political animal. We want to vote for you, but we want you to be really worth it.
Stand your ground, and break new ground while you're at it. Don't agree with McCain or Clinton on points clearly brought up and fostered by a right-wing agenda. Don't let them control the campaign, or the debate or discourse or the issues. Don't just nod along with the 'conventional' wisdom about Iraq and terrorism: if you're just another bobbing-head Democrat, we don't need you. If, however, you are the man willing to work for change and different ways of doing things, if you are willing to throw off tired old solutions and look at problems from a new prospective, if you are in fact the man we want and need and believe you to be, then you will have us all the way. We will not settle for less. We will not accept concession and backtracking and evil compromise: for us to believe in you, you must show yourself a man of your word.
Sooner than any of us think, the campaign season will be over and the fight will begin, and you will need us to put you in the White House. We won't do that if you sag now, if you lose momentum and direction and become just another politician maneuvering us into the voting booth and out of our future. You inspired us to want something better, and now you must be able to provide it, or you will lose everything. We want to believe in you. Don't stop now. Don't coast into the nomination: the ride isn't over yet. If you can prove yourself to in fact be the man for change, if you can keep going up until the general election, then you have our support. We want you because you are different. Don't become one of them.

Learn more about this author, Anna Carson.
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