John, have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?
If you haven’t before (or it’s been a while), the basic premise of the movie follows Bill Murray as a weatherman from the big city who’s been assigned to report on Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, PA—an assignment he doesn’t think very much of, and that he doesn’t take seriously. He doesn’t see the value in the lives people are leading in this small community, and he’s eager to wrap up his assignment and move on to bigger things.
And then he wakes up the next morning and it’s Groundhog Day again. Trapped reliving the same day over and over, he eventually discovers that the only way to break the cycle is to embrace the community he’s been assigned to cover, acting as a force for good to make people’s lives better and to treat the town’s traditions with respect. He escapes because he emotionally invests in the town and its people (and it’s a movie, so he ends up falling in love somewhere along the way, too).
Bear with me here, John: our state government works in much the same way.
Over the last decade, the GOP has failed to make needed investments in our communities. They’ve disregarded things like public education that the people of our state have always valued. And ironically, despite claiming to be the party of the rural, working poor, they’ve implemented policies that ignore the real concerns of our working families and have contributed to the emptying-out of our small communities.
And no matter how many times they get elected, they just keep trying the same things over and over again. They’ve got North Carolina trapped in the same downward spiral year after year, and if we want to get ourselves out of it, the only way is to commit to living better and to embracing the people around us. To take the needs of our communities seriously and invest in helping them succeed. And if we’re going to do that, we need to elect some new folks into our government.
Well, it might surprise you to hear this, but this morning, in the real Punxsutawney, PA, their groundhog woke up this morning and didn’t see his shadow.
Traditional folk wisdom says that means that there’s an early Spring on the way (never mind that we had about a week total of winter this year down here in the Piedmont). Now, normally I turn to local news for my weather reports, but today I’m taking the groundhog seriously, and here’s why.
Since time immemorial, human beings have taken Spring as a time of change. It’s when the world renews itself. The days grow longer, the trees grow greener, and new life flourishes everywhere that you look. And all signs point to the idea that change is certainly on the way this year.
We’ve seen Democrats make historic strides in municipal and special elections, and not just in places we’re supposed to win in, but rural communities right here in NC. We’ve seen this campaign raise more from grassroots donors in an off-year than any non-incumbent Democrat for Treasurer has done this century. And voters from Andrews to Ahoskie are sick and tired of reliving the same old government over and over again. They’re ready for change.
But just like Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day, we have to make a choice to change. We have to put in the work.
And in the case of our campaign, that means having the resources we need to reach every voter we can. We have to make sure that our message reaches every corner of this state so that the people know they have the opportunity to escape the cycle this year. John, can I please ask you to donate anything you can today to make sure that we’re able to usher in Spring for North Carolina?
