Still in shock

[yesthattom]

I’m still in shock that we won the senate too. A few months ago there was one Dem Senator that said that he’d bet his career on the dems winning the Senate. At the time I thought he was a fool but I didn’t want to say it out loud. Turns out he was right. (Sadly, I can’t find the original quote or who it was.)

I’m also having all these self-hating-democrat thoughts: Now the 2008 election will put a Republican in the whitehouse because they’ll be able to say, “Don’t let the Dems have all three houses!” or “Gosh, maybe it would have been better to lose the Senate because that way we could have been proposing great bills that get stopped by the senate, and wouldn’t actually have to show progress.”

I know it’s terrible to have those thoughts, but they keep running through my head.

The reality is, however, that Nancy Pelosi has been putting forth a really strong agenda. She isn’t squandering this by getting egotistical or power mad.

I know that Dems take as much money from industry as the Republicans, but it is different industries: the non-polluting ones like banking and high-tech instead of the oil/coal industries. (I can’t find a link, but there was an article a few months back about the person that, in the 1970s, came up with the strategy to redefine Republicans by making them the oil party.)

There is also a public mandate to do something about middle-class taxes, the environment, the budget, the war, etc.

The other thing that keeps running through my mind is that there were no e-voting scandals or major problems (just the usual ones). I feel very paranoid: Maybe the Republican strategy was to have a very clean election this time even if they lose, so that everyone acts like the problem is “over” and nobody does anything about the need for paper trails. Then in 2008 they can go full-force with every trick and nobody will be prepared.

While I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, I do believe that Rove thinks strategically on that level. It makes me realize that the paper trail bill is as important, if not more important, than ever.

Comments

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

Little things like having Rumsfeld resign the day after the elections, after several news cycles of "he's here until the end, damnit!", and having his replacement be Bush Sr.'s CIA guy, and all of the stuff with Lieberman, makes it very hard to NOT go around wearing the tin-foil hat all of the time.

I'm trying to concentrate on the, "Yay, good!" of the moment. But I'm feeling the same apprehensions you are. This, I think, is the fate of the underdogs. Even when we win, we worry about getting beat up.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

why is this such a big deal? It's not like Bush is going to put someone with different ideals in Rumsfield's place.

[la-directora.livejournal.com]

Not the who, the when. Weeks of, "I am not firing Rummy, he is here until the very end of my term," to suddenly having him resign the day after the elections. Though, frankly, it would have been better Kool-Aid to have him resign before the elections in an attempt to garner votes.

I don't know, there are just a few small details in the whole process that make me think that somewhere in a back office at the White House, Karl Rove is rubbing his hands together and saying, "Now I've got the Democrats right where I want them." I'm just hoping that it's pure delusion on his part, and that we really are having as good a day as it seems. And that the Democrats play this smart and use their advantage to make moderate, sensible improvements, instead of becoming a raging horde that focuses on subpoenas and impeachment instead of governing the country.

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

This wasn't a clean election. Oh, there may have been nothing seriously overt like altering the counts, but there are numerous anecdotal accounts of people in heavily Democratic areas being told (erroneously) that their polling places changed, or who got harassing calls claiming to be from the Democratic candidate, and so on. One person on my LJ friends list got a mailing that said it was from the Democrats and said her polling place had changed (it hadn't). This time, they pulled out all the stops to keep Democrats from making it to the polls. Thankfully, it didn't work.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Certain parts of the Orthodox Jewish community in New Jersey and New York got some *really* unpleasant emails and letters basically threatening them if they didn't vote Republican.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I hadn't heard about that. Got any cites? I did hear tales of similar action toward black and Latinos in other parts of the country. Jeez.

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Also, check out what's happening in Katherine Harris' old district in Florida. The Republican wins by only 373 votes, as the electronic voting machines record a staggeringly high 18,000 no-votes.

[smbslt.livejournal.com]

You can drive yourself crazy wondering about different scenarios for 2008, but keep in mind what the DEMs taking the Senate means for Supreme Court and other appointments. And there are so many pressing issues that need to be dealt with NOW, like global warming. And there will finally be this thing called oversight!

[baerana.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble reminding myself not to be too happy... but, yeah, I totally agree that Rove thinks on that level. It worries me, too.

Funny, we think alike

[mrfantasy.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of damage that has to be undone, and a lot of dialing back the national rhetoric from the far-right tone it currently has. We really needed both houses of Congress to do the job. And like smbslt said, having the Senate will moderate who Bush can put on the Supreme Court, which is important.

I think we'll have a Democratic president in 2008 because the Congress will make some real progress (minimum wage, fair tax legislation, Medicare reform, environmental legislation, Iraq) and Americans will want even more.

I think the corner has finally turned. People realize the Bush Administration and the 109th Congress took it too far, and no longer stand for American values.

I've been especially impressed with how people like Tester and Webb were definitive about their victory without being completely condescending. Set an example.

[blarglefiend.livejournal.com]

The idea that high-tech is non-polluting is hilarious. The sector pollutes its socks off, just (usually) less directly. And it relies on those other nasty industries like the oil business for energy and basic components.

Banking is even less direct, but it still generates quite enough pollution through all that high-tech stuff it buys and all the energy it consumes. Pretty much any activity does short of subsistence farming. The coal guys are just more up-front about it because it's more difficult to hide.

I work in education IT and am embarassed by the amount of energy and materials we waste. All that coal and oil, and of course the really nasty stuff used to make electronics, and pretty much all of the cost is externalised.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

Ok, the "indirect polluters" were recruited by Dems, and the Reps went for the "direct polluters".

Tom

[cpj.livejournal.com]

You might be thinking of the John McCain quote, where he said that if the Sentate went Democratic, he'd commit suicide.

Sadly, like some politicians, there was no follow through.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

I don't think you need to necessarily be paranoid about Karl Rove to think that un-auditable e-voting systems are a disaster waiting to happen. Even assuming that both parties are squeaky-clean, a trustworthy voting system is an objectively desireable thing.