We are coming into the home stretch of the election and it is really looking like we are going to hand the GOP a stinging defeat. I have read several comments and diaries where people worry that dKos and the democratic sphere should not count their chickens and we should fight like we're 10 points down. There is concern that people might get complacent and not vote because we are going to win anyway. I do agree that we have to keep working (of course).
I just want to put out my perspective, which is violently opposed to the "we will get complacent" sentiment. First, I think we are going to win. The question now is only how big? Will we win 10, 20, 30, or 40 House seats? Will we take 4, 5, 6, or 7 Senate seats? Permit me to use a sports metaphor. For the past 12 years the dems have been losing to the republicans, but now it is clear that the dems are winning 28-0 going into the last 10 minutes of the game. I have been in such situations in games. At that point your have two choices, you can lay off and not run up the score, or you can go for jugular and make it as painful as possible.
The GOP have been trash-talkers for years and played dirty. The refs have always called things in their favor, but this time the GOP has played so poorly the refs can't help. There is 12 years of resentment and anger at how they have played -- it's time for major pain.
- I want to push them out of districts where Bush won by 60% in 2004.
- I want to beat Rick Santorum so badly that he concedes after 10% of the votes are in.
- I want the loss to be so bad that Conrad Burns is reduced to mumbling incoherently about a secret plan to save Iraq -- wait, he's already done that?
- I want the loss to be so bad that GOP supporters can't sleep on Nov. 7th, or 8th, or 9th or 10th.
- I want the loss to be so bad that this election is mentioned in the history books.
- I want the loss to be so bad that Rove is discredited to the point that no one wants him working on their political campaign and he spends the rests of his days a broken man, talking in a mirror and insisting that he was right and we're all wrong.
- I want the loss to be so bad that Bush is left inarticulate when asked about the election. Well scratch this one, that would be true regardless of the results of the election.
- I want the loss to be so bad that the smirk is permanently removed from George Bush impudent face.
- I want the loss to be so bad the Rumsfield is left posing questions and answering them himself, but no one else is listening.
- I want the loss to be so bad that Cheney finally admits he really is the Penguin from the Batman series
- I want the loss to be so bad that a civil war breaks out in the GOP, that the neocons and the radical religious nuts are tossed from the party
- I want the loss to be so bad that the GOP becomes synonym for loser
- I want the loss to be so bad that we are treated to a never-ending run of jokes about the ineptness of the GOP on the Daily Show and the Tonight Show.
Hearing we are ahead is only motivating me more. Today I will be pledging $50 to match a new contributor to the DNC and likely giving money to the DSCC and DCCC. Today I will also be using Move-on's call for change program. This week and into the election, I will be talking to my neighbors about he election and encouraging them to vote for the democrats. No, I am not complacent.
It's time to run up the score!