The Monkey Off Our Backs?

And it looks like the "macaca" too has been dislodged in Virginia.  So I should be euphoric and laughing.  At last the brake has been applied to the arrogant Bush administration's reckless juggernaut.  Rumsfeld resigned (was fired?).  George Bush admitted sheepishly that the election results were a thumpin'.  I have waited for six years to see the cocky smile wiped off Bush's face. At last it has happened. But why have I not been able to bring myself to write about the elections for more than thirty six hours, whereas every mischief by Bush-Cheney sends my fingers flying? (Time to close down Accidental Blogger ?) More about that a bit later.

First, an account of my day as an election worker. Instead of just campaigning from the outside, this year I decided to work as an election official in my neighborhood precinct.  I am happy to report that everything went swimmingly well. It was an amazing experience although quite tiring.  I worked non-stop for twelve hours. The two precinct chairs were at it for sixteen hours.  In the end, five of us (all women) did a neat and clean job of verifying and signing in voters, helping with the e-slate (our county had write -in candidates on the Republican ballot) tallying votes, printing and reporting results, folding down the electronic voting machines and locking them up in the "cage."  (They are heavy!) No irregularities occured and all the numbers matched up perfectly. The closest we came to iffy behavior was when one guy with a loud voice and blustering attitude ambled in and declared that he had turned up early to vote so that the "communists" don't take over the country. Since there were no official communist candidates on the ballot, we couldn't fault him for illegal electioneering. But his reactionary behavior was soon balanced out by another man who came in to vote in a t-shirt which read, "The Worst President in History", with George Bush's mug shot emblazoned on it. Because Bush too was not on the ballot, we let it go without comment.

I am happy to report that of the two candidates for whom I actively campaigned (phone bank, block walking), Congressman Nick Lampson won handily to take Tom DeLay's seat in the US congress. This was the biggest monkey off my own back because I have fruitlessly campaigned for every challenger to DeLay since moving to Texas and saw each of them lose. The Hammer used to have a vise like grip on the voters of Distict 22 in Texas - until his recent inglorious downfall. And now my district has a Democrat in Congress for the first time in decades. Unfortunately, Neeta Sane my neighbor, for whom too I campaigned quite diligently and who ran a great campaign for the county treasurer's office on a Democratic ticket, lost.  But Neeta now has a campaign base and name and face recognition. She is incredibly hardworking, competent and vivacious. I hope she will run again for elected office and win the next time. Perhaps Neeta will for now take up a position in our neighborhood homeowners' association which is inexorably turning into an incompetent bunch of "Yard & Curbside Nazis!"

So much has happened since election day - some of it we expected and others we had only hoped for. The Democrats now control both houses of congress, with a comfortable lead in the House of Representatives and a razor thin edge in the Senate - 51 to 49. Democratic wins in states like Montana (crew cut won, corruption lost), Missouri (Michael J. Fox won and Rush Limbaugh lost) and Virginia (clearly the bigot lost) were as exciting as they were unexpected. 

Of the ballot initiatives nationwide, raising the minimum wage won handily everywhere it was featured. So did the ban on gay marriage, in six out of seven states which voted on this measure.  The only state to vote it down was Arizona. Colorado voted for the ban inspite of Rev. Ted Haggard and his methamphetamine fueled gay sexual liasons. South Dakota voted down the proposed draconian ban on abortion. An impressive majority of state gubernatorial races were won by Democrats. A black man is the governor of Massachussetts. Democrat Deval Patrick became the second African American to be elected governor of a state after Douglas Wilder of Virginia.  A woman is going to be the Speaker of the House for the first time in US history. Nancy Pelosi, who was vilified by right wingers and held up as the quintessential lefty liberal to fear by the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity, will be third in line to be president.  With all the congressional committees now in Democratic hands, perhaps investigations of the misdeeds of the Bush administration will begin in earnest, including the shenanigans involved in the run up to the illegal Iraqi invasion. Even though Nancy Pelosi has said that impeachment is off the table, I expect she won't stand in the way of subpoenas flying left and right. A mixed bag of good and not so good. Mostly good -- if you are a Democrat.

Although I feel a great sense of relief, I am far from euphoric. Why?  Because this election was all about what Americans are "against" but not necessarily what they are "for."  It was a vote against incompetence, arrogance, corruption and divisive partisanship. It was against the gross mismanagement of Katrina and the disaster in Iraq.  It was against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove. But of these, only Rummy is gone. Bush and Cheney remain at the helm. Karl Rove's attack machine remains well oiled and purring. The 51- 49 Democratic majority in the Senate includes Joe Lieberman who is going to extract his revenge on his Democratic colleagues for not supporting him during his contentious "Independent" race against Ned Lamont. I heard him tell Sean Hannity that he will "remember" who his friends are (they happen to be mostly Republicans).  Lieberman is a hypocritical and selfish neo-con.  I am afraid that he may turn out to be a traitorous Zell Miller in the making who will stab the Dems in the back unless they facilitate his right wing agenda sufficiently. And if the Democrats comply, how will they justify their own philosophy that sets them apart from the despicable right wing hate mongering of Bush-Cheney-Rove? Americans haven't turned socially liberal overnight. Democrats will have to give them a good reason to vote for them in two years when there won't be the shadow of Bush-Cheney to swing the election their way. Can they do it without selling out and pandering to values that will alienate liberal Democrats like me?  I hope so. But it will be a fine balancing act and I am not entirely sure that they are capable of it. Brian Leiter sums up nicely my own doubts, sobering thoughts and lack of unqualified euphoria.      

Comments

[Sujatha]

You must have had a good rest after all the hard work put in on Election Day.

Here, I'm totally gleeful at the Dem sweep in the major battles in PA. 'Pay-it-back-Rick' Santorum ( for having swindled a local school district of $55K in taxpayer's money to educate his children in a charter school) is GONE! Casey Jr. may be a conservative Dem, but that's still much better than a conservative Republican. Interesting local ward by ward stats show that Casey had gained quite a bit of ground in my very conservative township.

And now the real 'hard werk' of reining in the chimperor starts in Jan 2007. I only hope that no more damage is done in the 2 months before the new Congress is sworn in.

[MinorRipper]

It will interesting to see what we find now that the lid has been pried off this festering stew...Cheney fired the first shot across the bow by hinting that he will ignore any subpenoa...history will not be kind to this administration

www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com

[Dean C. Rowan]

Part of the legacy of American politics, ab origine, is againstness. So it shouldn't be an entirely discouraging fact that Americans have announced their resounding antipathy to the status quo, rather than a genuine "Can't we all just get along?" or "Let's put on a play!"

I share your and Prof. Leiter's qualified sense of the state of affairs today, Ruchira. This feeling was affirmed yesterday evening via C-SPAN, where a briefing of conservatives "betrayed" by the current administration was aired. See this entry in the video archive under Politics/Elections:

Conservativesbetrayed.com Post Election Briefing Conservativesbetrayed.com hold a post election briefing with Richard Viguerie from Conservativesbetrayed.com and American Targeting Advertising and L. Brent Bozell III, from the Conservative Victory Fund.

Unfortunately, C-SPAN doesn't provide clean links to its archived objects, so you'll have to plumb the archive two or three pages.

I found it disturbing, because it depicts the internicine disputes within the conservative "movement," yet the conservatives who have evidently opposed this administration nevertheless maintain a miserable agenda, involving so-called family values and small government sorts of silliness. It's worth watching, if only to see them try to make the best of a massive defeat, although that sentiment wears thin very quickly. But it's quite discouraging, because it represents an alignment of shared opposition to the Bush mess between the present majority and, to my mind, a hopelessly irrational contingent (as opposed to a hopefully irrational one).

Compounding my distress is a remark like the following appearing in an article in today's Law.com. The article focuses on the implications of the election results for judicial nominations:

"'The biggest thing [about the Democratic takeover] is judges,' notes David Hoppe, former chief of staff to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. 'Everything else has a way of working itself out,' adds Hoppe, now a lobbyist at Quinn Gillespie & Associates."

Everything else works itself out?! Now, I have a fairly insipid and immature politics, but it strikes me as either hopelessly naive or viciously cynical to hold the opinion that judicial appointments entail real, rigorous politics and everything else is child's play. This fellow is a lobbyist and former Lott staffer; I doubt he's naive.

[PIAW]

Ruchira,

If I let myself, I would feel the same reservations as you are feeling regarding this election. But, for these first few days, I am determined to look at the positive. Can you imagine how we would have felt if the outcome had been anything short of what we have?

There is a tidal wave of progressive optimistic expression right now. We should let it wash over us and cleanse us and energize us.

Last Sunday I heard a Spanish song that goes, in part, "we are the ocean, we are the boat..." How apt.

I really enjoyed reading your description of your day as an election worker. One of these days, when I can make the time, I hope to do the same.

And don't even think of retiring Accidental Blogger. In the style of "Tom Paine" pamphleteers of old, your passion as expressed through your daily posts kept the energy alive for many.

Congratulations on Lampson's victory!

[Ruchira Paul]

No, Hoppe is not naive and neither are the conservatives who are disenchanted with Bush for reasons 180 degrees different from mine. And that is my problem with this anti-Bush coalition.

I have similarly suspected generic polls which report that majority of Americans think that "the country is going in the wrong direction." When you scratch beneath the bland way the question is phrased, one discovers that different people have diametrically different reasons for thinking so. Too many guns, not enough guns. Too many abortions, not enough right to choose. Too much social welfare, not enough etc. etc. When you break that down, people don't agree at all on which direction they want the nation to move towards.

I am therefore a bit wary of this "anti-Bush" mandate. Surely, Richard Viguerie and I do not agree on why Bush is wrong but only that he is wrong. This confluence of opposing forces coming together to bring about a desirable result is something the Dems must be very careful about.

Like Sujatha, I too am very pleased that a Democrat is now going to occupy DeLay's seat in my district. Nick Lampson is a thorough gentleman. But he had supported the Iraqi invasion and is endorsed by the NRA. He is also pro-choice and supports social services like social security, Medicare. And he is not contemptuous of those who need governmental assistance to get their lives together as the average Texas Republican is. I can live with the vote I cast for him but he is not my ideal candidate.

It is going to be quite a balancing act for the Dems to hold on to the Independents who switched to their side and still not lose the next election when the right wingers find greener pastures.

I am also wondering whether voters will hand over both congress and the White House to the same party in 2008 after the disaster of the past six years. So if the Dems hold on to congress, what does that portend for Hillary?

Unfortunately, even in my middle age, I am still looking for visionaries when politics is just for politicians. Perhaps I ought to reconcile to the fact that "lesser of two evils" is sometimes the only choice we are offered.

[Ruchira Paul]

PIAW:
I missed your comment - we must have posted almost simultaneously.

No, I am not being negative - just cautiously optimistic. My husband on the other hand, is jubilant. According to him, winning is the first step. I agree. I am just hoping that the second one won't be a stumble. Let's hope that the Dems will be able to hold on to the advantage by offering some solid gains at home and in Iraq while being careful to keep the blame on Iraq solidly at Bush's doorstep. Remember Karl Rove is licking his wounds in the wings and will pounce on the flimsiest of pretexts.

I am very, very happy about Bush's humiliation. I am just not so sure about the Dems - yet.

[Dean C. Rowan]

"I am still looking for visionaries when politics is just for politicians," writes Ruchira. She should have cited to the Onion.

[Ruchira Paul]

Okay Dean, that IS funny.