Friday, November 05, 2004
Round 2 (beaten to the punch)
Should have known Dan would've hit this topic before I did, but here goes (and I apologize in advance for any cathartic statements, while self-indulgent, catharsis has it's place)... This post will probably land squarely on my Dem friends, but I see it as tough love. Tuesday came, we voted. Wednesday came, we lost. Four more years, yada, yada, yada (last Seinfeld reference).
What was more troubling than the result of the election (btw, voted for Kerry *feigned shock*), was the response of many Dems around the nation. "Well, we're screwed now." "I might as well move to Canada." I chalked this up to a post-election hangover, but this gloom followed people around for several days. Frankly, it's starting to annoy me. We lost (or they won, however you want to look at it), fine. This has got to be the starter's gun now. The election was round 1, not the whole chimichanga. There's still round 2 and 3 and 4 and so on. Election day was a fairly resounding loss for the Dems (not to go out on a limb there), it knocked a lot of us out of our chairs. They knocked us down, fine. Their bad. But three days later, I was still seeing segments about people crying over election results on CNN. Three days later, and there are still people lying on the mat! GET OFF THE MAT, PEOPLE!!! Three days becomes three months becomes three years... We lost and will keep losing unless we do something! The mainstream media has even brought into question the durability of the democratic party! The Liberal Media is questioning the durability of the "Liberal" Party! (There's irony in there somewhere.) The party has no leadership, the party is in disarray.
The party is getting out politicked. I read something a while back, I'd like to think it was Fineman in Newsweek, I'd cite it if I could remember. It was something about how the majority of people agree with positions held by the democratic party, but the republican party did a much better job at convincing people they had the better candidate. The gist was this, Dems sit back and hope their issues will win elections. Voter don't pick issues, they pick people. My first pass at this post got erased (Blogger *shakes fist*), so I'm losing the fire of my first pass, which I will add was the greatest blog entry ever written. Think of this as a tribute. Bottom line: Bush won, so what.
Senate is still "cloture-proof" (no 60 member majority), so extreme appointments (Supreme Court and other wise), will get some resistance. Resistance assuming dem senators do their duty and protect the thoughts and ideas of the minority party. I urge you, if your state has a dem senator to remind him/her of this duty. Nebraska has one (paradoxically), so I may have to drop Senator Ben a line. I urge you to do the same.
While President Bush received the most votes since Reagan, it was also the closest race won by an incumbant since Woodrow Wilson. Hardly a mandate, despite what any one says. (I guess if you compare it to how close Bush's first "victory" was, it is a mandate. //michael moore)
A lot of young people got involved in the election and politics in general over the past couple years. This isn't the end of your career! You got a taste now go back for seconds! Hell, run for school board, or city council, or state legislature. Some of the most important issues are decided on the most local of levels.
The majority of people think the country is going in the wrong direction. The majority of the people think the president did not do a good job in his first term. There's wiggle room there, folks. We need to keep wiggling.
I'm out. sc.
-originally posted by "scotty c"
What was more troubling than the result of the election (btw, voted for Kerry *feigned shock*), was the response of many Dems around the nation. "Well, we're screwed now." "I might as well move to Canada." I chalked this up to a post-election hangover, but this gloom followed people around for several days. Frankly, it's starting to annoy me. We lost (or they won, however you want to look at it), fine. This has got to be the starter's gun now. The election was round 1, not the whole chimichanga. There's still round 2 and 3 and 4 and so on. Election day was a fairly resounding loss for the Dems (not to go out on a limb there), it knocked a lot of us out of our chairs. They knocked us down, fine. Their bad. But three days later, I was still seeing segments about people crying over election results on CNN. Three days later, and there are still people lying on the mat! GET OFF THE MAT, PEOPLE!!! Three days becomes three months becomes three years... We lost and will keep losing unless we do something! The mainstream media has even brought into question the durability of the democratic party! The Liberal Media is questioning the durability of the "Liberal" Party! (There's irony in there somewhere.) The party has no leadership, the party is in disarray.
The party is getting out politicked. I read something a while back, I'd like to think it was Fineman in Newsweek, I'd cite it if I could remember. It was something about how the majority of people agree with positions held by the democratic party, but the republican party did a much better job at convincing people they had the better candidate. The gist was this, Dems sit back and hope their issues will win elections. Voter don't pick issues, they pick people. My first pass at this post got erased (Blogger *shakes fist*), so I'm losing the fire of my first pass, which I will add was the greatest blog entry ever written. Think of this as a tribute. Bottom line: Bush won, so what.
Senate is still "cloture-proof" (no 60 member majority), so extreme appointments (Supreme Court and other wise), will get some resistance. Resistance assuming dem senators do their duty and protect the thoughts and ideas of the minority party. I urge you, if your state has a dem senator to remind him/her of this duty. Nebraska has one (paradoxically), so I may have to drop Senator Ben a line. I urge you to do the same.
While President Bush received the most votes since Reagan, it was also the closest race won by an incumbant since Woodrow Wilson. Hardly a mandate, despite what any one says. (I guess if you compare it to how close Bush's first "victory" was, it is a mandate. //michael moore)
A lot of young people got involved in the election and politics in general over the past couple years. This isn't the end of your career! You got a taste now go back for seconds! Hell, run for school board, or city council, or state legislature. Some of the most important issues are decided on the most local of levels.
The majority of people think the country is going in the wrong direction. The majority of the people think the president did not do a good job in his first term. There's wiggle room there, folks. We need to keep wiggling.
I'm out. sc.
-originally posted by "scotty c"
