I’ve found that in the day to day rush of trying to stay informed and in touch that I often lose the personal voice that I used when I started writing about politics. It’s been a while since I’ve written about the feelings during an event; they’ve been replaced by facts and opinion. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does, after a while, leave me, as a writer, somewhat empty and frustrated that I haven’t told the whole story. The process stories, the significant achievements, and the scandals chip away at the personal connection and the idealism that fuels many when they become involved with politics. This is something I need to change about how I write, as the original goal of writing about campaigns and issues was to open the door to people who haven’t been involved, and give them some reason to feel like they can and should get involved.

It’s been about a year since I launched Virginia Beach Progressives. And while it’s still a relatively small blog with limited readership, there have been some successes. In the past year, VBP has had over 8,000 visits, and over 16,000 page views. The most popular feature of the site has been the Elected Officials page, where visitors can view almost every elected official representing Virginia Beach from the President of the United States, right down to the School Board. I’ll be adding some additional officials next month. The most popular blog content includes the difficult, and underreported, campaigns of John LaCombe, Peter Schmidt, and Pat Edmonson. Also popular was the organizing and reporting on the LGBT Declaration Demonstration, which VBP helped organize. Other significant events reported on VBP included the 2008 Virginia Electoral College, the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, and the National Equality March. For me, it’s been a whirlwind of a year attending events, meeting candidates and elected officials, volunteering for campaigns, participating in grassroots activism and, of course, blogging about those experiences.

We’ve celebrated some wonderful successes this year, but have also experienced some difficult setbacks. That’s politics. It’s difficult and can often times leave you feeling hopeless when the things you work for aren’t successful. Often, all we endure is a series of one compromise after another. The thing we all have to remember is this: we’ll never see success if we disengage because we’re disappointed. Who will be there to fight if everyone leaves the battlefield? It takes an army of supporters to elect progressive candidates, and it takes that same army of supporters to sustain the strength of the elected progressives. We can’t become invisible, win or lose.

I don’t know what this next year will bring. For the state, we’ll see the inauguration and appointments of conservative officials to lead us for the next four years. This will likely mean significant setbacks to progress for Virginia, but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue working toward progress.

Personally, the next year will likely mean some significant changes for me. Exactly what these changes will be, or how they will affect the balance of my life is a little unknown right now. What I do know is that I need to work toward progress in my life as well as work toward progress in the city, commonwealth, and nation. Like everyone else, I strive to continue to learn, both academically and from my own experiences and mistakes, so I can better contribute to the society around me. What I do know is that I continue to be committed to being a part of the discussion through Virginia Beach Progressives.

Thank you for visiting, reading, and supporting me and Virginia Beach Progressives.

Happy Holidays,

- Joel McDonald

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