The difference between the Republicans and Democrats' campaign tactics: Republicans woo the right wing vote by promising them the world and after they are elected, give them less than half of what they asked for. Democrats court their base by repudiating the left wing and after they're elected, give them more than they expected.
Nevertheless, things are in a pretty sorry state when democrats can get excited about a moderate republican winning anything in congress.
Here's another quote from our third President. Extremely appropros.
From a letter Thomas Jefferson sent in 1798 after enactment of the
Sedition Act.
"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over,
their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight,
restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in
the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the
horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt . . . If
the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till
luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the
principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
How many times have I heard this in the past three weeks: "How could so many Americans be so stupid?" This phrase is used to reference hordes of irrational evangelicals voting against their economic self-interest in order to elect a president who agrees with their moral values on the the subject of guns, God and gays. Sometimes I get so frustrated with my fellow democrats. I am personally far right of left on many issues and thus not entirely politically correct on all liberal sacred cows. So I have also felt the sting of being inferred stupid or ill-informed by rabid left wingers (only on e-mail, never face to face). We do not do the Democratic party any service by calling Bush voters stupid, or chanting "dumb, dumber, dubya." If we are to learn anything from this election it must be that eastern, intellectual power elites are anathema to the American public in the modern era (JFK not withstanding). We must go back to our roots in order to appeal to the values that made our party and America great: Justice, Equality, Community. We must look to our great hero: Thomas Jefferson. "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." notice that he didn't use any pseudo intellectual phrase there, like "a priori" "...that all men are created equal." We must appeal to fair-minded moderates that Democrats believe this. That even if people are simple, or haven't gone to college, they can still have a warm spot in our party. Amazingly, the Republicans even stole this from us in the last election: Dick Cheney saying "all Americans are free to engage in relationships of their choice." Talk about big-tent politics.
The truth of the matter is that many very intelligent, very well-informed and highly intellectual people voted for George W. Bush in this last election. The Democrats need to parse their platform and strive to appeal again to the spirit of what makes our party great. Why do we love it? Why do rich Democrats love it so much that they vote against their economic self-interests? Those are the questions we must ask ourselves.
Resurrection appears on my list of favorite movies. On my list of favorite movies which have not yet been released on DVD it's near the top. Ellen Burstyn gives an amazing, career defining performance as Edna Mae, a normal, everyday American housewife who has a near death experience and as a result, finds herself gifted by a strange new power of healing. It isn't long before her powers become noticed by the public, and it quickly follows that the demands made upon her by the miserable become impossible. On top of that, the good work she's done is mistrusted by Fundamentalists because she will not state that her powers come from God. This film is a fascinating character study with a unique sensibility of the normal thrown into circumstances beyond belief, given vivid life by Burstyn and company.
GWB: the unifier--just so long as you accept his point of view. GWB compromiser: just so long as you compromise on his side of the issue. GWB reaches out his hand: in order to take yours and drag you along on the path of his insane agenda.
We must stand firm. We must resist. We must oppose. We cannot give up. We cannot succumb to empty promises of unity that mean nothing other than "get out of the way."
The GOP knows this from experience. Remember the elections of 1992? Read this opinion piece from one of the Seattle Times columnists, Danny Westneat. It is excellent and says so succinctly what I know to be true and what I feel in my gut to be true.
In this national debate over red states and blue states, I am reminded of the immortal words of Edgar Allan Poe, my hero, my American literary saint:
THE "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever
been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal --the redness
and the horror of blood.
***
And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come
like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-
bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall.
And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And
the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death
held illimitable dominion over all.
Thus have the majority of American voters spoken: "Do not change Horsemen in the middle of the Apocalypse."
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