Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

With so much talk of secession or expulsion in the air, I think it’s important to think about the size of the Kerry vote in the southern states and commonwealths. It was really quite significant. This letter to Josh Marshall, on just that issue, really hit a nerve with me. To be fair, it’s probably important to think of the size of the Bush vote in the North as well.

I’ll admit that I don’t understand the South. I doubt I ever will. It’s a mystery to me. The times I’ve been there, I’ve felt as though I was in a foreign land. At the same time, southerners probably don’t understand rowhouse dwellers in Philadelphia. They probably never will. We do share something though…

Unity, while a rare commodity in this nation, is possible and, at least in the barest of terms, has been achieved in the past. Not under this President though. Not under the rule of this Republican party. Division is their means of governing and it shows. Could you imagine casual talk of breaking up our nation in 1994 or 1984 or 1974 or 1964 or 1954 or 1944?

John Kerry says he’s ‘fired up’ to return to the Senate next week. I’d hoped and assumed that he wouldn’t fade into the background after the election loss. The party needs to keep its leaders visible and active if it plans to have any chance of fighting effectively while very much in the congressional minority. Listen, I don’t expect great things but I do expect, and we all deserve, a fight.

Further down in the linked article, you can get your first taste of former Kerry staffers warming up their daggers for a good backstabbing. What was it Athenae suggested that people like that do? Go fuck themselves with a rusty chainsaw? An excellent plan, but they better do it now, while it’s still legal.

Courtesy of DemFromCT

I know it’s a bit late, I haven’t been keeping up with my reading, but Maureen Dowd’s piece in yesterday’s New York Times is really worth a read.

“We had a good conversation,” the senator said. “And we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today I hope that we can begin the healing.”

The president says he’s “humbled” and wants to reach out to the whole country. What humbug. The Bushes are always gracious until they don’t get their way. If W. didn’t reach out after the last election, which he barely grabbed, why would he reach out now that he has what Dick Cheney calls a “broad, nationwide victory”?

I know it’s juvenile but, hard as I try, I can’t resist.

Me too. I keep trying to think of the right thing to write - the right thing to say - the best way to put a good light on events that have gone, in my mind, so wrong. I can’t.

Last night, I watched the election returns with my old roommate from college. We were both, I think, struck with a strange sense of isolation. Isolation from the beliefs and happenings of our country. Living in Philadelphia makes it difficult, I think, to get a real feeling for the ideas, emotions and fears of a great portion of our nation’s populace. I think that a great many people in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Baltimore and so many other big cities feel that same sense of isolation today. Many others do as well. Needless to say, an isolated feeling it is not.

The American people were not fooled into voting this man into office. They evaluated him and his policies and decided that he was the best choice. Like it or not, the American people have spoken.

Last night I was disgusted. Tonight, I’m confused. I fail to understand how a person of sound mind and good conscience could vote for man whose record of failure is so plain to see. I fail to understand how people who live far from skyscrapers or nuclear power plants or financial centers or major ports or any other genuine targets of terrorism, are so frightened that they claim, in exit polls, that it is the number on reason they are voting for a candidate. A candidate, I’ll remind you, who was rejected, overwhelmingly, by the people who live in those places most at risk.

…more later. I’m not up to writing any more right now.

It’s pretty amazing that the Republican party and its media apparatus has been able to portray a very moderate, gentle and soft spoken man like Tom Dachle as some sort of fire breathing, baby eating, Castro loving monster of the extreme left. Amazing but true. If they could do it to him, they can do it to anybody.

While Daschle’s political leanings are to the right of my own, I’m still sorry to see such a dignified Senator go. Unfortunately, his own political survival in a very red state made it difficult for him to function as minority or majority leader.

Hopefully the Democrats will pick somebody from a deep blue state as their next minority leader. Somebody who really can breath some fire and speak truth to the Republican majority, with the full support of his or her own constituents. Durbin, of Illinois, appears to be the favorite du jour. I’ll have to look into him more closely, but I suppose he fits the bill.

I know of a Senator from a deep blue state who just received somewhere in the range of 55 million votes. I don’t know whether or not he would even want the job, but I think Kerry would make a great choice. Unlike Durbin, or many other choices, he is very well known to the American people and would be seen as a natural adversary to Bush and one they would listen to. Additionally, with his own presidential ambitions presumably extinguished, he would be able to fight the good fight without fear of what it may do to his chances in Iowa. Now how many Democratic Senators have that going for them?

I Haven’t been able to get my head wraped around the election as yet so I’ll just keep quoting better bloggers. Here’s Athenae

Here’s what I propose: A statute of limitations on depression, bargaining, etc of Friday at midnight. A weekend off: go see your spouses, your kids, your friends, go sit in the sun and have a drink. Go do whatever it is you do when you’re not here.

I’d like to sleep for a while, and remember not only what I did, but why I did it. The things that are important to me: keeping my brother and sister out of the war, improving our journalism, supporting good candidates, those things are still out there, and I still care about them.

Here’s Kevin Drum:

I sure hope all the liberal energy that came together this year doesn’t dissipate. After all, the real problem has never been George Bush, the problem has been that a bare majority of Americans agree with George Bush. That’s not an academic distinction, either: just as movement conservatives built up their machine in the ashes of Barry Goldwater’s loss in 1964, liberals need to continue building a long-term machine dedicated to changing popular opinion. And it’s hardly a herculean task: a switch of only 3 or 4 points in public opinion is a virtual landslide, and if we can pull it off it means that guys like George Bush can’t get elected anymore, even if they are the kind of people you’d like to have a beer with. It can be done.

Here’s Josh Marshall:

Well, here we are. And this is the test for people who care about this kind of politics and these sorts of values — making sure that what has been started is not allowed to falter. This isn’t 1964 or 1972 or 1980. This wans’t a blow-out or a repudiation. It was close to a tie — unfortunately, on the other guy’s side. Let’s not put our heads in the sand but let’s also not get knocked of our game. Democrats need to think critically and seriously about why this didn’t turn out 51% for Kerry or 55% for Kerry (and we’ll get to those points in the future). But it would be a terrible mistake to stop thinking in terms of those ten years Simon described.

Take time to feel the desolation and disappointment. But I remain confident that time is not on the side of the kind of values and politics that President Bush represents. It took conservatives two decades to build up the institutional muscle they have today. Though I was always nervous about the result, I thought we could win this election. But it was always naive to believe that that sort of institutional heft could be put together in 24 or 36 months.

Since I’m not quite sure what to say or what to think, I want to point you to this post by Meteor Blades which hits a number of good notes. Here’s a little but go read the whole thing.

Because what I found in my reading was a plethora of bashing Christians, bashing Kerry, bashing gays, bashing Edwards, bashing Kos, bashing America and bashing each other. As well as a lot of people saying they’re abandoning the Democrats, abandoning politics, abandoning the country. This descent into despair and irrationality and surrender puts icing on the Republican victory cake.

It’s tough on the psyche to be beaten.Throughout our country’s history, abolitionists, suffragists, union organizers, anti-racists, antiwarriors, civil libertarians, feminists and gay rights activists have challenged the majority of Americans to take off their blinders. Each succeeded one way or another, but not overnight, and certainly not without serious setbacks.

Not really of course. Whatever. I’m disgusted. Have a good night.

CBS just called it. I knew it and you knew it but enjoy….

I just got back from my walk. Center City is still Kerry Land. Wow. One out of every three people on the street is, at the very least, wearing Kerry/Edwards buttons if not carrying giant Kerry lawn signs. There were groups on Broad Street waving Kerry signs getting the passing cars to blow their horns. It sounded like a massive traffic jam. I joined in briefly myself.

Remember, Al Gore carried Pennsylvania by about 200,000 and Philadelphia by 300,000. Big turnout, which is what everybody is seeing, means pretty good things. We shall see of course.

On another note, I’m heartened that Virginia is too close to call. I don’t expect Kerry to carry Virginia, but if it’s at all close we’re in for a good night.

The local news keeps repeating “long long lines”. I keep getting happier.

I would say three quarters of my blogroll is down due to traffic. With the huge interest in the election, it’s to be expected. Be patient.

For myself, I’m super excited. I’ve been screaming “we’ve won” all day today. The atmosphere here is intoxicating. My neighborhood has become a John Kerry theme park of sorts. I keep wanting to put up overly optimistic posts, but for now, that would be stupid since I have no idea what is happening in other parts of the country, or even other parts of my own town.

This is way too important….get the hell off you ass and go vote!!!! In PA you only have two hours left..even less in Ohio. Go Vote. If you live in a state whose outcome is predetermined…Go vote! For the sake of our country, we need a popular vote winner taking the oath in January. Go vote! For the love of all that is good and decent and super dooper swell and whatever the hell else…GO VOTE!

Anyway…Be sure to check out Will Bunch at Campaign Extra tonight. He’s having some sort of Electopalooza tonight. I think he even has prizes! Will’s live blogging of the debates was, in my view, the best out there. I’m sure that whatever he does tonight will be a cut above superb.

I’m going to log off for about an hour or so and go wander the neighborhood, and it’s drinking establishments, just so I can soak up a little more of the atmosphere.

Neither political parties nor political candidates should ever sue to stop a vote count. If the situation is truly corrupt, deal with it afterwards. Never stop the count. Never stop the vote. Too many of our people have been lost. Too many lie in the ground in unmarked graves.

Go read the voter stories that James is posting on The Rittenhouse Review. They are really pretty special. Enjoy this day. We’re going to win.

P.S. One of those stories is mine.

Big surprise right? I haven’t written anything about it, but my office has been buzzing with the story, so I figured I should throw my old shoes in. Anyway, Will bunch has the scoop on the non - story here. You know why the Republicans are having wet dreams about voter fraud right? For the answer just look at all of those long lines at the polls. If you are a Republican, those long lines are real bad news.

[Update] Josh Marshall has more here. Just a bunch of planted bullshit.

A friend of my told me that he was the tenth person in line this morning at his 27th ward voting place in West Philadelphia. This is usually a low low low turnout ward. Not today. It was just a little after 7:00 and he had over 50 people in line after him. Keep it up. Don’t stop. Eleven and a half hours to go. In Pennsylvania that is. Adjust times accordingly. Additionally I passed four polling places on my walk to the bus and subsequent bus ride to work. All were packed. I don’t get to go myself until later.

I’m stealing quite liberally from Jim at Rittenhouse Review here. I hope he doesn’t mind too much. As you get ready for bed, let me just remind you of what the next four years could look like. Sweet dreams.