Jackson Hole Underground

AP photo. Click to enlarge.

Nearly five months ago, on a cold winter’s night in Iowa, and Jackson Hole, as I sat at my computer watching the election returns pour in from the country’s first Democratic caucus, I got the feeling something extraordinary was unfolding, the kind of moment in history that raises hairs on the back of your neck, like the protester stopping tanks in Tiananmen Square or the U.S. hockey team upsetting the Soviets.

Barack Obama had shocked the American political establishment, winning by a sound margin. One could sense that a movement was afoot, one that with ordinary people rolling up the sleeves to take back their government, actually could succeed.

Last night, I got that feeling again. Obama was back in Iowa as voters in Oregon gave him the overall majority of pledged delegates for the Democratic nomination. What had started as an improbable dream was just about coming to fruition.

The events of the past week had been extraordinary: Seventy-five thousand people turned out for a rally in Portland, as boats lined the banks of the Willamette River and the snow-capped Mount Hood shone in the distance. Obama then came to Montana, where he was adopted into the Crow tribe and given the name Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish, meaning “One who helps people throughout the land.”

Obama’s speech last night (video after the jump) was electrifying, not so much for what he said — we’ve heard every permutation of the “change” theme by now — but for the passion and energy with which he said it. I’m not exactly sure how Obama will change the workings of our government, but I know we will be the ones to make it happen. We already have.

In Wyoming, the next step comes this weekend when the state Democratic convention begins at Snow King Resort in Jackson. I will be one of the delegates formally casting a vote for Obama and pressing Wyoming’s two undecided superdelegates — Cynthia Nunley of Lander and Nancy Drummond of Sheridan — to do the same.

Beyond the formalities, I am most looking forward to meeting Wyoming’s Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate: Chris Rothfuss, Nick Carter and Keith Goodenough. Rothfuss, a young engineer and professor from Laramie, is sounding the right tone as he fearlessly challenges Republican incumbent Mike Enzi, one of the Bush-Cheney administration’s most loyal enablers.

Carter, an attorney from Gillette, and Goodenough, the former liberal lion of the Wyoming Senate, will face off in a primary to unseat freshman Sen. John Barrasso, who was appointed after the death of Craig Thomas in 2006.

If we want to change Washington, D.C., we can start by sending better representatives from Wyoming. Jackson Hole resident Gary Trauner stands a good chance of winning the seat soon to be vacated by U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin. Trauner’s ideas for electoral reform are among the best put forth by any candidate in America.

If we have learned anything from the Obama campaign so far, it is that grassroots politics can bring about sweeping change. And in no state are politics more grassroots than Wyoming. If we back these candidates with the fervor we have Obama, a revolution will be taking root.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 10:44 am and is filed under politics, democratic party, wyoming, gary trauner, barack obama. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.