oh boy Connecticut

Ned Lamont is my hero.

I am not donating to his campaign as I am not much of a fan of carpetbagging, and carpetbagging must be donating money to an election that doesn't affect you, but I am impressed. Today he leads incumbent Joe Lieberman by double digits. Double digits! Why am I happy about this? Setting aside the fact that Lieberman is a censorer (is that a word) and clearly would rather be a Republican (which isn't necessarily wrong), he is an incumbent. One of the problems in our country is the malaise that follows 95% incumbency rates in Congress. Why bother voting when everyone who's in wins again? So no one bothers voting. It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course, but it's hard to explain this to unsophisticated voters. I think every primary and every general election should be a competitive race. Period. I don't think it should be because of term limits as that is a top down solution. I think it should be because courageous Americans decide that investing in their country is important. You do not need money to challenge someone (although it helps), all you need is ideas, energy and courage.

For the same reason, Dennis Kucinich is my hero. While Ned Lamont has a good chance of winning, Dennis Kucinich had a snowball's shot in hell, but he had the balls to get out there and try.