The dancing shoes are staying in the closet.
As I told an acquaintance yesterday, the real benefit of being a glass-half-empty sort of girl is that when something good happens, it’s a surprise instead of a relief.
I have to admit, though, that it’s gettingincreasingly hard to resist enchantment.
And in that vein, I’d like to say something to everybody who ever said it was over this time, completely over. When Gonazles was confirmed, when Alito and Roberts made the court, when Kerry conceded, when the Pinochet Act (tm watertiger) passed, when yet another Dem said yet another thing that was less stupid than anything a Republican had said in months but got twice the airplay, when Dean screamed, when Hackett dropped out. I’d like to say something to all of you now.
This is why we didn’t give up.
If we’d given up then, we wouldn’t have been here for this. And I can’t imagine not being here for this. Can you imagine not being here for this? For the past two weeks, it’s been a nonstop shitstorm for the GOP. Congressmen hitting on underage pages and other congressmen covering it up. Woodward’s book painting Rumsfeld as somewhere between Ahab and Willy Wonka. George Allen and the deer head story (which to my mind is worse than macaca, worse than his reaction to the question about his mother, worse even than his politics). Bob Ney, Curt Weldon, Ken Blackwell, so many corruption scandals I can’t even count them all, and Rick Santorum comparing our military to hobbits. Every single time I turn on the TV there’s an anchor sitting there with her WTF face on, trying not to laugh out loud. Don’t let’s forget the meth-buying gay-sexing anti-gay pastor. Even I couldn’t believe that one. It was like God had decided, finally, once and for all, okay, fuck it, the souls he is winning for me are not worth my having to sit next to him at dinner parties, I’m done with his ass.
Karma. Tastes like chicken. Honey-glazed chicken with fried sage stuffed under the skin. Mmm.
This is why you rant and you rail and you spend a couple of days kicking stuff and yelling at the pets after something goes horribly wrong, but in the end, you get back up, because tomorrow something like this happens and you don’t want to miss it. The dancing shoes are staying in the closet and the pen’s staying out and to the paper, fingers on the keys, because we’ve got a couple of days of work yet to do. But I want you to look around and try to imagine having given up, and not having made it here today.
A.
We’re not there yet.
And, even if Democrats regain either or both of the House and Senate, we won’t be there yet. If Republicans lose a majority in either house, on November 8 they will be hard at work trying to get it back.
There’s still all of the damage done over the last six years to wade back through.
There’s still the fact that about half the country is happy to vote for these guys under normal circumstances, and even today about a third think Bush is a good to great President.
I hope Democrats win both houses. I hope Stevens hangs in there another two years. I hope, frankly, that a lot of the folks responsible for our current foreign policy and for the current-day operation of the executive end up in jail.
If all of that happens, we won’t be there yet. It’ll be a great start, but there will still be lots to do.
Don’t take your work gloves off.
Thanks
The only thing that has given me any sense of optimism is all of the republican sex scandals coming out at such an opportune time. Nothing upsets Americans more than sex and, of course, gay sex is the most unsettling. I think (hope) it will have a large effect on conservative turn-out.
The link for the story about this new GOP scandal is:
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/44823.html
mmmmmm…chicken flavored karma.
The one thing that made me optimistic was Dick Cheney shredding documents this week. And the Tom Friedman op ed that millions will see today.
I’ll be happy if at least Albuquerque gets rid of Heather (“I cried when I saw Janet Jackson’s breast on TV.”) Wilson gets thrown out on her ass by Patricia Madrid. That’s kind of setting the bar low, but, hey, I’ll take what I can get.
Ballot box #13
“If Bush is worried, he does not let on. Nor does his top strategist, Karl Rove, who, just as he did in the final stretch before the 2004 election, has made a point in the past few days of appearing jovial and carefree.Wearing a Cheshire cat grin”
Karl got official word today:“The fix is in.”
What a great post. Expresses all the feelings im having now. I feel about to burst, but afraid of Tuesday also. I agree, I’m so glad im still here and didnt give up. Picking up and moving on from 2004 was so incredibly hard but worth it. I also worry that my local congressman will just miss winning although i feel very very optomistic. He is a candidate who no one gave a chance in hell of being a worth challenger to a rubber stamp republican. But thru purely grassroots and some fab netroots help the last two weeks, i can just feel the win. But im trying to keep the feeling hidden.
But im glad i didnt give up.
“The dancing shoes are staying in the closet.”
One smart girl.
Did you hear about the YELLOW BUTTON?
Turns out that the CA SecState Katherine “Bruce” MacPherson has known for quite awhile that Sequioa voting machines have a yellow button on the back, which allows for switching to “Manual Mode,” and thereby enabling the entry of AS MANY VOTES AS YOU WANT.
Seventeen counties in California have these machines.
Next to Come: residents of 17 counties opt to have Yellow Button installed on the back of their heads. “It’s a no-brainer.”
— Paul in LA
You really do need to retain your pessimism because the next few weeks are going to be a horror show as Democrats duke it w/ the GOP out over voter suppression and impossible GOP victories.
i also am keeping my expectations down. kkkarl IS stil in the mix. and diebold. and stupid amerikans. oy, from ATC, could tennessee be stoopider???
see, THIS is why norherners look DOWN on you.
I’ve been maintaining my pessimism too. And I’m not giving it up until at least 20 rethug congressmen have conceded their races on Tuesday night.
After that, I’m going to do the wildest snoopy dance anyone has ever seen.
Until then, I’m keeping my hopes tamped down. Because we cannot expect them to behave in good faith. They’ll try their dirty tricks and even outright fraud right up to the very last moment.
But if we prevail, it’s going to be oh, so sweet. So here’s hoping.
The glass is still half empty. Now, I have this recurring nightmare that my local Congressional candidates will lose in a very close race, and I could so easily have done more. I do phone banking every Tuesday night and sometimes other nights too, donate so much my credit card balance is hurting, always show up when a crowd is needed for effect, write letters to the editor, etc. But, yes, I could do more. I have gone thru this before, and it took months for the depression to completely leave. I’m just so worried that something will go wrong again. Wednesday can’t get here soon enough for me. (What do you do when you win an election? I can’t remember what it was like.)