Photo at the Crosses of Lafayette by Jeremy Maurer.

TILT AT WINDMILLS, SLAY GIANTS

Congress, CA10

by Adriel Hampton

My campaign for the Democratic nomination in District 10’s special election to replace Rep. Ellen Tauscher – with just six weeks to go after yesterday’s filing deadline – vies at the same time for the most creative and the most destructive thing I’ve ever done.

You don’t wake up one morning and run for Congress. You think about it, you meditate on it, you discuss it. In my case, I’d been pondering it since 2002, surfacing it in conversations interrupted by months or years. You see, when your local Congresswoman is a Blue Dog, a go-to Democrat for Wall Street, it’s not just the authorization of force in Iraq that’s got you holding a grudge.

And it’s not just your local Congresswoman. It’s that the entire system is rigged against everyday folks. It’s tightly managed candidates and a political and corporate reality where elites float along while the masses suffer or numb out with TV and other distractions.

These struggles are not from one administration to another, they are fundamental, generational.

This is why I am running for Congress in CA-10, running with all my strength to win. I believe in workers’ rights, in single-payer health care, in peace and equality. I believe in people and in our power.

And while I’ve been mocked as delusional for running against the entrenched power of the Contra Costa Democratic Party and its candidate, Sen. Mark DeSaulnier (a former Pete Wilson appointee), I’m also pragmatic. Elections have consequences, winners write the histories.

I’m a Democrat because I believe that there is a large element within the party that understands the generational struggles we face. On Friday, I spoke to a room of die-hard progressive Democrats, most of whom wore proud heads of gray. Progressive youth cannot deny their fight. It’s time to pick our battles and take our shots.

We can build a better body politic on the common dreams we share. We must use the tools, the vehicles, the sacrifices that have blazed the trails, and we must keep on fighting for an economy that serves us instead of we serving it, for an end to global war, for sane agriculture policies and an end to the Drug War.

We must tilt at windmills; we must slay giants.

Adriel Hampton is a journalist, Gov 2.0 and new media strategist, public servant, and licensed private investigator. He is running for U.S. Congress in the 2009 special election for California’s 10th District. He has pledged to vote against funding for expansion of the Iraq and Afghan wars.

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