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I know that since I'm from Illinois, I'm supposed to naturally go for Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. For a long time I resisted, but last night Barack Obama's candidacy for the nomination won my support. Barring any unforeseen events, on February 5th I will cast my ballot in the Illinois Democratic general primary for Barack Obama to be the nominee of the Democratic party for the office of President.

I believe very strongly that party primaries serve a valuable purpose as a tool for shaping the future direction of a party. I consider myself to be a progressive and a democratic socialist. I believe the Democratic party should move farther to the left, take a stronger stand for worker's rights, take a stand for equal rights for the GLBT community (which includes civil marriage as a civil right), support national healthcare, and take stronger stances for and against a litany of other issues.

I don't know Barack Obama's positions too well. Barack Obama does not support gay marriage, does not advocate for a national healthcare plan, and far too often his appeals to Republicans to join our fold grates on my nerves, although I understand the importance of being welcoming.

I started this primary cycle as a supporter of John Edwards. His anti-corporate message resonates strongly with my yearnings to gain the supremacy of the workers over the corporate slave-masters. On education, he loses me. It is not enough to "tweak" the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). We must get rid of NCLB. It causes more harm in our educational system than it can ever make up for as a tool for positive influence.

I knew Edwards did not and does not fit me on all issues. I don't agree with him on gay marriage, I don't agree with his healthcare plan, I was nervous about his possible pandering to the AIPAC crowd early on in his campaign but I took him at his word that he was committed to a two-state solution (which is also something I do not favor [one state based on nationalism of any stripe is one state too many, in my opinion.]) I was holding my nose while supporting him. NCLB was just the impetus caused me to switch my allegiance to Dennis Kucinich.

Kucinich is by far my closest ideological match in the primary. Yes, he is often said to be unelectable. Once again, primaries are a way to steer the direction of a party. Even "fringe" candidates (who oddly enough, tend to speak the most to a party's base when it comes to issues) serve a purpose of reminding a party where it should be going, and for pulling the debate back from the lame centrist policies of the Clinton / Third Way crowd. If I was going to vote for a candidate, I might as well vote for my ideal candidate and be able to rest assured that I exercised my voice in determining the direction of the party.

Then, Obama won Iowa. Not only did Obama win Iowa, but he helped bring out swaths of new voters -- of young new voters. Entrance polling before the Iowa caucus (there are no exit polls of the caucus by nature of how the caucus system works) showed 57% of those who showed up had never caucused before. Of this 57%, Obama got 41% of the vote. Given the proximity of the results in the top 3 candidates (the top 3 were separated by only 8.11% [source IowaCaucusResults.com]), Obama won Iowa on the strength of gaining the support of new caucus-goers.

Something to note about that 8.11% figure is that it is based on state delegate equivalents of each candidate's support. I don't have the actual second-round vote totals. Also, the percent of those who are both new caucus-goers and supported Obama was approximately 23% of the total caucus-goers. This means that about 60% of Obama's total support came from new caucus-goers. Absolutely phenomenal.

To be fair, the second and third place finishers, Edwards and Clinton, received a large amount of their support from new caucus-goers. However, the sheer numbers of first-timers who showed up for Obama seems to imply that he is the candidate who can best energize a generation to become politically involved on the Democratic side.

And this matters a lot. In the long term, getting more people -- younger people -- engaged is perhaps the single-most important factor in moving this nation, and the political discourse in this country back towards progressivism. The youth in this nation are overwhelmingly progressive. And if people vote for a party for two or more consecutive elections, they are likely to continue supporting that party for the rest of their lives.

Primary elections are about determining the direction of the party. With Obama helping to solidify youth support for the Democratic party, we will be feeling the progressive reverberations for generations to come.

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As a final note, I would like to say that I am incredibly lucky to have as a primary candidate for Congress in Illinois' 14th congressional district a candidate with whom I agree on most issues and is someone I see helping to energize the party's base as well as bringing more people into the party. That candidate is John Laesch.