With that cynical perspective as a preface, Martha Coakley is one of the few people I have worked up the energy to actually support over the past many years. She was a classmate of mine at Williams, so I have known her long before she knew she was going into politics. It would be very hard to find anyone who knew her then who didn’t like and respect her. From where I sit, she is doing as good a job of holding on to her integrity as anyone could do in this awful age of narcissistic commentators and self-righteous bloggers, mostly people who seem to lack the capacity for self-awareness, critical thinking and complex thought. From where I sit, Martha has actually been able to hold onto ideals that inform her decision making, and a capacity to reflect on what might serve the greater good, rather than what might be politically expedient and self-serving.

There are those who will only scrutinize the political concessions that the system demands and who will speak about Martha as if they really knew something about her. They don’t. Because I have known Martha for a long time, I see the price that she has to pay to get in there – in the manure pile of politics – to try to move a complicated world in a better direction. Don’t agree with her vision of that better world? Fine. Make your voice heard. We always need lots of perspectives to keep us from getting blinded by our own perceptual bias. But remember our founding fathers, when they devised this political system, held out hope that people would engage with each other based upon thought and reflection concerning what would keep our shared republic strong, rather than upon primitive and self-serving emotions. I have thought about it and I’m supporting Martha.

After this weekend (we’re going to Western mass for the Baran fundraiser) I hope to flesh this post out a bit. Stay tuned.

-Bob