SDCYD Members Fired Up by Congressman Bob Filner
“The country’s going to hell,” said Bob Filner, who represents California’s 51st District – generally, the southern portion of San Diego – in the U.S. House of Representatives. Calmly but passionately, the congressman explained that Americans are currently being “attacked” by rising gas prices and pharmaceutical costs, and that George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans have rolled back many of the gains the progressive movement has achieved in recent decades. Overall, Filner contrasted the core Democratic idea that “we’re all in this together” with the GOP’s “law of the jungle” mentality and lamented that, in recent years, “their ideology has triumphed.”Does this mean the average person should just give up? Filner doesn't think so, and he shared stories from his past to illustrate how ordinary people can have a real impact on their country’s affairs. In 1968, for example, a young Filner joined hundreds of other activists in New Hampshire to campaign for underdog candidate Eugene McCarthy in the state’s Democratic primary. McCarthy’s surprisingly strong showing in that contest stunned the incumbent Lyndon Johnson, who withdrew from the race soon after.
Filner, who is currently in his seventh term as the 51st District's representative, took some time to ask for help with his 2006 re-election campaign, where he will be facing a primary opponent who plans on accusing him of being "too liberal." But the congressman's main point seemed to be that Democrats need to stay motivated in the fight against the Republican agenda - and that individual Americans cannot get discouraged about their role in the country's democracy. "At the municipal level, in particular," Filner noted, "a little organization can go a long way."
