Briley Jumps In

The race for Nashville Mayor got a little more crowded today, as David Briley announced he will be abandoning his run for Vice-Mayor, instead opting for the more prestigious spot. David Briley is currently a second term At Large councilman, and is one of the more "progressive" members of the council. While this is a non-partisan race, there are clearly those who are Democrats and those who are Republicans. On the Democratic side along with Briley, are Vice Mayor Howard Gentry and former US 5th District Rep. Bob Clement. On the Republican side, is At Large councilman Buck Dozier.

In his announcement declaring his candidacy, Briley said, “Nashville has a clear choice." "We can act boldly to claim the exceptional future on the horizon, or we can sit back and be overtaken by the past. The opportunity for success is too great to rest. The cost of being overtaken by the past demands bold action. We must rise to this challenge. Together, we must claim Nashville’s future.”

Briley also addressed a topic which might appeal to young people, and that is the need to improve the technology infrastructure of Nashville.

“Nashville’s economic future depends upon our ability to attract and nurture entrepreneurs in the economy of ideas,” he said, vowing to make the city a “center of excellence in the idea economy.” “The next iPod should be developed by a Nashville entrepreneur,” said Briley. “A Maplewood student could transform our educational system. Our technological infrastructure must be unmatched. It’s a future we can all see. Working together with our creators, educators, entrepreneurs and business leaders, we must claim economic opportunity for all Nashvillians."

The race for Nashville Mayor will be in August of 2007, along with the race for Vice Mayor as well as 5 open At-Large seats and the rest of the Metro Council. If nobody gets a majority in the initial election, there will be a run-off held for the two highest vote getters.

We Made The Difference

If not for young people; George Allen, Conrad Burns, and countless House Republicans might still be in office selling their votes to the highest bidder. Reuters reports that young voters had the highest turnout in over 20 years.

About 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up 4 percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.

"This looks like the highest in 20 years," said Mark Lopez, research director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which compiled the data based on exit polls. "Unfortunately, we can't say if it's a record because don't have good comparable data before 1986."

Rock the Vote, a youth-and-civics group, said young voters favored Democrats by a 22-point margin, nearly three times the margin Democrats earned among other age groups and dealing a potentially decisive blow to Republicans in tight races.

When Harold Ford Jr. talked about sending a New Generation to the Senate, it wasn't just about him. Ford, and the Democratic party, represents far more than any other party, the new generation of Americans coming to their own in our society. We don't come to the voting booth with hangups about what the Democratic congress may have done in the 70s or 80s. While I've read about that in history books, I don't care.

I'm a firm believer in the idea of evolution. Not just in the Darwinian sense of the word, but in society as well. I believe the Democratic party can learn from the mistakes of past Democratic and Republican congresses, and adapt to the new situation on the ground.

The new situation is that we need to maintain balanced budgets. By instituting fair progressive taxation, along with streamlining the way our Government does business, we can begin to eat away at the debt so that when the keys are handed over to our generation we aren't in over our eyeballs in debt.

The new situation on the ground is that the nation is slowly turning against bigotry and intolerance. While the marriage amendment passed overwhelmingly in Tennessee; Arizona (a reliably Republican state) voted against a similar proposal. One of the first states in the country to do so. And while voters are still apprehensive about Gay Marriage, more and more Americans are recognizing that gay couples should be entitled to civil unions which give them similar rights to their heterosexual counterparts. Younger generations are more and more tolerant and inclusive of people of different races and sexual orientation, and as more and more of us come into the voting pool, rest assured that the tide will slowly turn against the old tired ways of intolerance.

The new situation on the ground is that Americans will no longer be scared into voting against their interests. The shroud of invincible has been lifted off the President and his party, and voters have recognized that the President is no God...He's simply another case of a beneficiary of nepotism placed in a situation way over his head.

I could go on and on, but remember this. As our generation slowly gets more and more power, we will bring with us a fresh perspective on old problems. There is always a danger of the old ways corruption our idealism, and that is why we need to be ever vigilant in protecting our greatest gifts to American society; fresh ideas and open minds.

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