The Dems Dive In!

Was it only last week that the world dangled on the edge of the uncertainty of America's political future? Was it only last week that inspite of all the hopeful predictions and polls showing the Democrats were ahead by slender margins, the world looked flat and barren, scorching and choking in the dirty heat of war, corruption and money marching down a rat hole?
Handel's Hallallujuh Chorus began to play Tuesday night in my head when all early reports seemed to uphold the prediction of the Dems rocking the House. We were voting and being heard. We were sending that message to the executive branch, demanding change, demanding that we look for better ways to meet our goals as a nation. Nancy Pelusi, only two heartbeats away from the President, wow! I think the Dems have arrived!
The next day, there is more good news. We are three seats away in the Senate, with races too close to call, from Democratic control. No, I said, don't get greedy, there is already much to celebrate and be grateful for. Counting the chickens in the field is a real iffy thing. Stick with celebrating what is already official. At 5 p.m. Wednesday night, the big news broke. Rumsfeld was out, by mutual agreement and resignation. I wanted to open the window and scream.. out of sheer delight. I settled for a hell of a hoe down happy dance which ended with a deep kiss with my equally liberal husband. I found religion, proclaiming that there was indeed, a God! Later on at about 3 am Thursday, I read on the CNN site on the net, that the Dems take the Senate. Not only is there a God, this is Political Christmas!
Instead of Hark, The Herold Angels, there is talk of bipartisanship to be instilled into the next Congress, committees on Iraq and all of our problems. A general spoke to the press about re-examining the war and trying to turn it back to the Iraquis. Even the air that I breathe tastes different and the coffee's better this morning as well!
Does that mean that all is right with the world? Of course not. There is just more potential to fix what is wrong. We will not "stay the course" of block heads and brick walls, we will turn to the economy, our vanishing middle class, our elderly and our science and technology that is so needed, not only for our country, but for the world. We will be counted as a world power, not as a loose cannon on deck. I cherish the day that George Bush "took a thumpin"!!

"Nervous" is a good word to describe how I feel about the upcoming election. Under-confident might also work. What I can't admit is how these jitters permeate into this week's time like a refidgerator full of bad fish. After the election of 2004, where I strode into the election room smiling because I was sure just about everybody had had enough of Bush and Company, I have scaled back my optimism to prevent the devastation that sucked away all of my hope to get this country out of the mess that it was sinking into with each passing day. Once again, I'm hoping.. this time against hope.. that people have finally had enough and are eager for change.
By change, I don't mean trade a Republican for a Democrat and keep the partisan ties as strong as ever. I'm tired of every arguable argument having a Democratic side and a Republican side. If the Dems go outside and report green grass, there is sure to be a Republican rebuttal and a denial of the color green. What happened to true bi-partisan projects?
My television has the smirking face of Osama floating across the screen saying that the Democrats will never find him, if they are elected. Well, Republican Wise-Ones... where the hell is he and why haven't you guys coughed him up, either?? Wouldn't our national woes be better attended to if we had a cooperative effort to solve some of the issues? The mud slinging bash going on , even at the local level, makes the term, "Clean Elections" a bit of twisted irony!
Yeah, but I still want to win. Republicans lock-stepping their way to the new all-American fascism scare me. They don't seem to want to work and play well with others. They just want to extract all the power, spread reasonable doubt about a fair press and use their stations to flatter themselves and use their constituents. Ok, it's not ALL Republicans, but it is enough of them, standing guard over a middle-aged pedifile, shrouding illegal torture with, "life-saving information gathering to help us win the war", and a president that shouts, "Stay the course.", and more young people die because of a failed policy.
I'm not embittered because Kerry didn't win in '04. I watched him struggle to lead the Democrats in a straight line to the finish and he did fail. He failed because he was essentially, uninspiring and that trying to lead Democrats is like herding cats. The special interests and causes that we represent make a platform that is cumbersome to the man that we decide to place in it's center. What happened to Kerry the other day was a sad blunder of verbage that unintentionally fell on the soldiers. I'm glad he apologised, I hope it will not reflect on the Dems bid to take back congress. Again, the word.. hope! Yes, our government needs to be salvaged from being run into a war we can't win or pay for and an economy that is rapidly being built into a house of cards that has no product being exported into the trade market. We have become consumers, who buy rather than build. We are trampeling the middle class with low wages, declining health care coverage, no job security and carrying the burden of a tax- light upper class and an increasing number of borderline workers sinking into poverty like quicksand. It's not about who wins, it's about not losing the American way of life! The Republicans voting as a block reminds me of the pigs in George Orwell's Animal Farm. They were the ones that managed the farm and brought about it's demise with all their scheaming. My heart is set on change, on finding our way back to being the UNITED States, where we pull together to get things done, before it is too late.
So, I'm out and out asking you to vote Democrat this time around, but the biggest loss of all would be to NOT vote. Vote your heart, vote to bring this country back from the fatal partisan-itis that we suffer from, but don't walk away and think that how you feel cannot be turned into a vote. We need to hear from more than just the mouthy few that argue over the extent of Michael J. Fox's political Parkinsons or why embryonic stem cells are sacred and sending 18 year olds to Iraq is not. Your voice may be the final voice to be heard, don't leave it to chance. Pick up that pen and hope, hope big!!!