Finally, I'm a Centrist Somewhere

I spent the past weekend in Boston at the Law Students for Choice first national conference. It was an excellent conference - I learned a ton; I met a lot of great, passionate reproductive rights activist/law students; and I felt very connected to a bigger community.

When I go to conferences, I often feel an interesting push-pull going on. In my day to day life, I imagine most people consider me to be one of their more liberal acquaintances. I like going to conferences on issues I'm particularly liberal on (whatever that means) to feel less like a person on the edge of a larger group... but I often find that I'm often on the edge of the conference population as well. I've attended conferences where I've been labeled a "corporate feminist." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I guess I'm not radical enough some in the women's movement. Then I go to other conferences and I feel like I'm on the other edge, that my opinions are too radical for the other conference goers. At first I thought the LSFC conference was falling into the latter category, but as the weekend went on, I realized that I might actually be in the middle of the crowd in terms of "radical-ness." A very new experience.

I spend a lot of time complaining about the current state of the Democratic party... how I feel that it's trending ever to the right in hopes of capturing some idea of "centrist" voters that probably doesn't exist. This weekend made me think about that a little more. No one likes being in the minority all the time. No one likes being on the edge of a group all the time. Maybe it's just that middle school impulse that never dies that's driving the Democratic party these days... it's just a lot more comfortable to be a conformist than to stand out. Of course, as really unfun as it is to be on the outside looking in, didn't we all learn by looking back on middle school that we would have had a lot more fun doing our own thing than hiding in the crowd?

As nice as it was to be in the middle of the crowd at times this weekend, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun if the middle of the crowd was boring, uninformed, lacking passion, passive or just plain indifferent to the things I care about. I guess that's what I hope the Democrats don't forget. They can be in the middle... but make it a middle worth being in... lead the middle back to the left, instead of scooting to the right out of fear that the middle is leaving us behind.