I would feel better if I had even an inkling of an effective alternative I could work on
Posted on:: November 3rd, 2004
Categories: Uncategorized dw
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Then let’s just start the predictions, Citizen!
(1) Leader will launch assault on Fallujah by Friday.
(2) Leader will institute “special skills” conscription by January 15, 2005.
(2) Leader will bring us two glorious new Supreme Court justices by the 2006 mid-term elections.
Be joyous, Citizen! Life in the United States of WHAT THE FUCK?! has never been better!
(This comment was rejected using my usual URL. No idea why, but it seemed to think Portland Communique’s URL was a spam URL. I blame Bush.)
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010986.shtml
ABC reporting Kerry will concede this afternoon.
Sad, really sad.
I just said the other day “Americans are not that stupid”, well it seems that only 48% of them are not…
The United States just gave the finger to the rest of the world, particularly the middle east. However, this slim majority will never understand that (or perhaps even care).
I also can’t believe that winning the presidental race does not require a skill testing question…
David,
Go to Max Sawicky’s MaxSpeak and you’ll see a broad selection of ideas for going forward and even a little good news from last night.
Let’s learn from 2004 so that 2006 and 2008 turn out better. The Republicans’ success grew out of a huge fear-uncertainty-doubt campaign, much of it below the radar of big media. Campaign reform needs to happen on two fronts. First, laws should require that all campaign literature and phone-bank-scripts available for public inspection. Second, there needs to be real accountability for campaign workers who break the law. In the NH phone-bank scandal of 2000, Republican bigshots motivated small-fry into breaking the law–all of them secure nobody but the small-fry would ever get even a slap on the wrist, years later.
Let’s learn from 2004 so that 2006 and 2008 turn out better. The Republicans’ success grew out of a huge fear-uncertainty-doubt campaign, much of it below the radar of big media. Campaign reform needs to happen on two fronts. First, laws should require that all campaign literature and phone-bank-scripts available for public inspection. Second, there needs to be real accountability for campaign workers who break the law. In the NH phone-bank scandal of 2000, Republican bigshots motivated small-fry into breaking the law–all of them secure nobody but the small-fry would ever get even a slap on the wrist, years later.
Anyway, that’s what I’m going to work on.
The 2008 Progressive Alliance
I don’t think my St. John’s Wort is going to get me through this!!!! Oh my God, how can this
virtual illiterate be back in the saddle? What
kind of people are living in this country these
days? If they are so afraid of terrorism that
they thought it was a good idea to vote for a
man who can neither spell, pronounce, or understand it…..then I guess it’s praise the
Lord and pass the nukes!
Mid-term elections – plus any interim elections next year – could be the difference in the Supreme Court if enough justices can hang around for a few more years.
Candidates, such as Barack Obama, who can pull votes from all demographics (sure it helped that Keyes is a lunatic, but still, Obama one the largest victory in Illinois senate race history, something close to a 50% margin which was about 20% higher than most early estimates)
Consolidate the few gains & bright spots (California to a degree, Illinois, New Hampshire) and focus on supporting local officials – Texas shows how vital local, state officials are in deciding the ground rules and playing field for national races (gerrymandering meant that the democrats lost lots of house seats)
Try to find ways to protect import national resources, such as wilderness preserves in Alaska, from likely attempts to drill into / destroy them.
Support and if possible fund serious science – California’s 3 billion dollar fund for stem cell research is a good thing generaly speaking – but research into critical issue such as global warming is fairly critical as well.
Attempt to help the remaining Democrats find ways to craft subtle and effect bills or ammendments that can help protect and preserve vital national issues and/or minimize the damage that the Republicans can do – this is likely not easy, but for example Barak Obama here in Illinois was able to get state bills passed in a bi-partisan manner that helped many people – the issue is in how they are framed, presented, and “sold”. See also http://www.hopestreetgroup.org for one non-partisan group I work with that works on public policy issues, striving to find ways to work in a bi-partisan manner.
Work with many, many other people to see if there is a way to create a viable, realistic, alterntative to the Democrats and the Republicans (or alterntively and perhaps more realistically, find a way to do a take-under of the Democratic party and shift it completely into a centrist, progressive position.
Anyway, that is what I plan on doing…
Josh Marshall has the best post I’ve seen: we’ve got to keep on doing what we’ve been doing. The Republicans have spent a lot of time, effort and money to get where they are, and it was a long shot that even the sort of energy and commitment we’ve displayed since 2002 would trump that.
We’re in for a long campaign, and we can’t duck it.
Thank you for this forum! I have
absolutely no trust of the vote
count… my hope was that the
majority would be so great that
vote fiddling would be impossible.
How could a “rust belt” state
swing the way it did?
Now hope is in very short supply!
The “Students for Kerry” I’ve
worked with for months are already
planning for 2006, however, which is making
the situation bearable.