I hope everyone who can vote is voting today. And I hope you vote for the good guys. I’m swinging wildly between optimism and pessimism from minute to minute, to the point that I may soon need a hamburger / some drugs to calm me down. Time to go to Burger King.
Meanwhile, here’s a good news / bad news round-up for election day:
- Republicans closing gap as U.S. votes.”
- Democrats concerned about races they thought they had in the bag.”
- In better news from Virginia, Jim Webb supposedly surged ahead of thuggy George Allen in the final polls.
- In the sad-to-admit-it department, Joe Lieberman continued to have a solid lead over Democrat candidate Lamont. Can someone tell me what’s wrong with Connecticut?
- A conservative news site says the Dems will take it all and win both houses. That said, the same site has a lot of headlines talking about a Republican surge in the final hours of polling yesterday. But how do you define a surge? And who gets to define it?
- The Hill, a Congressional journal, published a variety of predictions from the political establishment. Overall it still looks good for Dems.
And finally, I liked this take from Toronto Star, detailing what a possible Dem win would look like, and how it might impact Canada. One thing I liked about this article is that the writer acknowledged what so few in the U.S. establishment see, but what’s been clear for a long time to much of the rest of the world: the current roster of U.S. Dems are so moderate that they’re right of center. In Canada, they’d be in the Conservative party. When I reflect on that, I’m reminded how far right the U.S. has gone in recent years.
Which brings me back to wildly jumping between optimism and pessimism today. Here’s to the political pendulum swinging—ever so slightly—in a better direction. Pretty please?
5 Responses to Happy Election Day!
Excellent links: I prefer to read the ones that say the Dems will gain control of both House and Senate, and squeeze my eyes tight and pretend the other polls and pundits don’t exist. Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah.
The conundrum that the Democrats are really “Republican light” is something I’ve tried to puzzle out since 2000 when I supported (gulp) Nader. Back then, Al Gore wasn’t left enough for me. Now, I dream of the magical happy land of candy where he had been president for the last 6 years . . .
I took MPR’s “Select a Candidate” questionnaire for the Minnesota Governor’s race (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/). It’s a cool Web tool that matches you’re response to issues with what Pawlenty/Hatch/Hutchinson supports.
No big surprise here: on my scorecard Pawlenty (R) scored 0; Hatch (D) 7 points; and Hutchinson (I) 13.
So do I vote for Hutchinson? Sadly, no. I’m voting for Hatch because Hutchinson can’t win; because I can’t risk losing out on the big issues that matter to me. I can’t risk Pawlenty’s support of legal restrictions on abortion or an anti-gay-marriage amendment (which according to MPR, both of which he would support). Sorry, my ideals!
But I’m not that sorry. I think we should work within the Democratic party to get more progressive and liberal candidates on the ballot. Like Lamont in CT (although !@#$ing Lieberman’s gonna take the state) and Keith Ellison right here in MN.
I just wish I’d felt the same 6 years ago and voted for Gore. (Although, to cover my ass, I did live in Mississippi where it didn’t much matter. Right? RIGHT?!? Sigh.)
Vote and vote blue! Go!
Frankly, abortion and gay marriage are the least of my concerns (which, you’d think otherwise, but…). I’m simply terrified that if Republicans retain control of either legislative body, we’re going to end up in another war over the next two years, killing a lot of people for no good reason. None of the Democrats blow my mind, but they don’t seem to want to blow anything else up, either. In this election cycle, that will have to do.
Kris, I did that MPR ‘Select a Candidate’ thing and yikes, I got a 4 for Tim Pawlenty. But I got a 7 for Hatch, just like you, and a whopping 21 for Hutchinson. They must not always add up to the same number.
I think of the Pawlenty/Hatch/Hutchinson race somewhat like I thought of the Bush/Gore/Nader race. I think we need to get rid of Pawlenty, even if Hatch is far from perfect. Hey, reason enough is that then maybe we can get rid of all the depressing “Guns are Banned on These Premises” signs Pawlenty caused. The fact that practically everywhere in Minnesota has to post a sign like that is really embarrassing. The signs might as well say “Welcome to the Wild West, Cowboy!”
Meanwhile, Connecticut….. I don’t think Lamont is all that progressive, is he? Well, compared to Joementum, Lamont is Connecticut’s Nader, but compared to other, actual Democrats, he’s pretty centrist isn’t he? I can’t remember. All I know is that Lieberman makes my blood boil like only the worst of the Repubs do. And he kisses Bush.
That questionairre was fun, thanks! Off to test it out for more candidates….
Oh, Nader! Those were the good old days, weren’t they.
Now it’s like, I better just vote for the Democrat like a good two-party system supporter. Well, I will. I did. I know there should be changes in the “system” and maybe it’s not really “throwing my vote away” if I vote third-party, but you know what? I’m not going to jump out of the system right now.
Oh man, I really wanted to pull the lever (no touch screens for me!) for all the Socialist candidates, but was that going to really do anything for me? No, I don’t think so. But what if those Socialists got really involved within the “system” and started pulling the Democrats back to the left a bit? Oh, I know, the party system is part of the establishment and is rooted in status quo, but still… I can dream just like the dorks running on all the third-party tickets can dream that they are really going to win.
What was that? The centre cannot hold? It can’t. But I sure as hell don’t want the spin-out to be to the right. I am hoping that all the right-ness that we’ve been getting the last few years will, in-fact, lead to a whip right back over to the left. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. And act on it.
Yeah, enought comment-preaching. Sorry.
The Socialists pulling the Dems back to the left — excellent idea! Pulao brought a similar point up with me last night: what if voting for the 3rd party candidate who’s policies you actually liked (rather than just tolerated, or liked better than than the REALLY evil candidate) affected who the Dems ran in the next race?
If enough of us lefties voted for somebody who was really left of the dial, the Democratic party would necessarily have to shape up; hey, we’ve lost our base, we’re too close to the GOP, we’ve run to the right of too many of our party’s members (or too many of our party’s activists) . . .
There comes a point, maybe really soon, where I WILL pull that lever for the Socialists. As I said in my earlier comment, MN gov-candidate Hatch (who lost, btw) opposes an anti-gay-marriage amendment and opposes legal restrictions on abortion. But what if it was just one or the other? What if my choice included (now-elected) Dem Bob Casey in PA, who is pro-gun-rights and anti-abortion? (or, as I would say, pro-handgun crime and death, and pro-imposing religious laws on women’s bodies).
That being said, go Democrats! And adios, Senor Rumsfeld. Good riddance. Here’s hoping some of that new crop of Dems is less conservative than they at first appear. And that the country is, as DB says, whipping over to the left. Let’s see the GOP slide away from their base for a change.