extraordinary woman.  Having been brought up not to ask a lady's age I can only estimate from our conversations that she was in her late seventies or early eighties.  She lives by herself on a hundred acre farm where she does most of the mowing along with raising alpacas, sheep and cattle.  Since all those activities are not enough to keep her busy, she is also heavily involved in her church which models itself along the lines of the Purpose Driven Rick Warren congregation.  While her politics were considerably to the right of mine - she spoke glowing of Focus on the Family - I very much admired her approach to life.  While I was there she was trying to decide on the next subject to tackle online, having just finished a course in effective lobbying.  I was particularly struck by her last choice of study as only a couple of weeks before I had a house guest who had also just finished an online course in effective lobbying.  I found it both amusing and instructive that while each woman had chosen to learn how to lobby, my house guest belonged to a church on the far left side of the aisle and when she spoke glowingly it was not about Focus on the Family but MoveOn.org. 

If you gave each of these women a sheet of paper and asked them to write down the things they wanted from their leaders and their government - even though the phrasings would be very different - I believe their desires would be much the same.  Both women spoke of the need to mentor our youth and both were working through their churches to help see that this was done.  Both women spoke of the waste of lives and resources in Iraq and lobbied their representatives to end the war.  Both women were concerned with the economy and the plight of the unemployed and uninsured.  In an odd way though the very concern and activism that these women bring to their issues keeps us from coming together to solve solve the problems about which they - and indeed most of us - are so concerned. 

Political organizations - and I include Focus on the Family as a political organization - are about power: getting it and holding onto it.  Power comes from two places: money and votes; in order to get both, an organization, a candidate needs to invigorate its/his/her base.  Saying "we're all in this together, hey all you MoveOn.org folks we're meeting dwon at the Focus on the Family house, it's your turn to bring the treats" doesn't open wallets and get people to the polling places.  If you want to see true transformation, you need look no further than the rapidity with which the Obama-ites have taken over the fundraising appartus of the Democratic Party, discouraging donations to any entity not associated with the Obama campaign and using MoveOn.org mailing lists to pull millions into the fight; they know that those who control the money control the message.  Not to slight the Republicans who have already unleashed the Tennesee Republican Party against Michelle Obama; they know rallying the troops is easier if you have a villainess, just ask Senator Clinton.  ("Bad, Tennessee Republicans, we told you not to do things like that.  Bad, bad Tennessee Republicans.") 

So, the Democrats are not going to be introducing my houseguest to the little old lady in Pennsylvania - and neither are the Republicans.  The parties have these women right where they want them - energized and on the phone talking to their representatives not to each other.