Tuesday, November 05, 2002

Now What? It’s 10 PM.  Things don’t look good.  Despite the lack of real numbers, the body language and general tone of the election appears to be bad for democrats.  How can it be that in the worst stock market since the 1930’s, in a month when consumer confidence plunges 9%, at a time when budgets have gone from surplus to deficit, to pay off the richest groups in society—how is it that the democrats cannot win elections.   In New England, Sununu is leading Shaheen, and it seems that Romney is leading O’Brien for Mass. Governor.  The punitive English immersion ballot question is winning, and I am just glad that my own children are almost out of school.  The politicization of elementary education by ideological zealot and millionaire Ron Unz is going to be a disaster for schools.   Nationally, the democrats have not yet picked up one of their close races, and it appears they may even lose the Senate.   What happened?  My own feeling is that honesty and integrity is more important than anything at this point, and the democrats have been anything but honest.  They simply will not stand for what they believe.  None of the democratic candidates inspires a committed following because they don’t stand up to the terrible inequities of the tax cut, they don’t challenge the priorities of serving the rich, and they seem tongue tied and unable to even make someone as inept as George Bush look bad.   My own feeling is that this defeat, if it comes to pass, should vindicate those in the democratic party who don’t want to play by Republican rules.   I would suggest that Paul Krugman become the chief speech writer for the democrats, and that no candidate be put forward who will not articulate things as clearly as Krugman. 10:26:57 PM   comment []    The No War Blog Mike suggested that I take a look at the No War blog, Stand Down, which is a collaborative effort on the part of both left and right leaning anti-war writers.  It looks good.  The thread that caught my eye was the one about actually liking America, where the discussion was over the fact that neither the left, nor the right (Timothy McVeigh and the militias) had a monopoly on "hating" America.  Anyway, this looks interesting, and I hope to participate. 1:00:13 AM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:30:57 PM.