We need a blow out today, not just a victory. Below the fold for why.
Slacktivist get to the heart of the importance of this election:
I don't mean for this to be an entirely abstract discussion. I'm interested in the relationship between stupidity and racism because I want to know which is the root cause. This is a matter of both diagnosis and prescription. And I believe there is a prescription. The Mittens may be stupid, but they do not have to remain so. I believe there is hope for them.
The truth is that unreality is simply unsustainable. Maintaining one's belief in an unreal and untrue theory takes too much work. The vigilant rejection of reality has to be, on some level, exhausting. Even the elaborate support structures provided by Fox News and AM radio cannot wholly shield one from the constant intrusions of the world that is. Denying the existence of that world requires more help than even the voluminous right-wing echo chamber can provide.
This, I think, is part of why we're seeing such desperate vehemence at the Palin rallies. The crowd realizes that the unreality it has chosen cannot long survive if the majority of their fellow citizens and neighbors refuse to play along. As long as the entire crowd is choosing to "see" the emperor's splendid new clothes, then it's relatively easy to go along with that choice. But once the crowd reaches a tipping point, once the majority are choosing reality and the truth, then the emperor's nakedness become impossible to deny. For those who have chosen bigotry, racism and xenophobia, this election represents just such a tipping point. They're watching unreality slip through their fingers and they're trying, desperately, to grasp it even tighter.
I want that bubble shattered. I want their disasrous version of "reality" to come crashing down around them with a noise so loud it wakes even the dead among them. For my entire life, the GOP has based its campaign strategy on demonizing me, my frieds, and my family. My fmaily was the wrong kind of Christianity. My family, with its divorces and step-siblings and a direct refusal to ostracize either, did not represent traditional family values. My city dwelling friends and family were elitists who acted horribly to real Americans. My divorced mother working tow jobs and putting herself trough college was a lazy good for nothing welfare bum. My gay friends were deviants. My African American classmates and friends were super-predator hooligans just waiting to steal a job they did not deserve from a white man. I was a traitor for not wanting to attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. I was an appeaser because I recognized that jaw jaw was better than war war. I was a friend to terrorists because I wanted to correct the mistake of Iraq.
I am tired of this nonsense. I am tired of constantly being told that I am not a real American because I differ on foreign policy or because I live in city or come from New England. I am tired of being told that I am not a real American because I have the wrong tax policies or refuse to agree that patriotism cannot include criticism of the country. I am tired of being told that I must allow a particular religious sect to dictate public policy and private actions or I am not a real American. I am tired of the constant drumbeat of smears and attacks.
I watched the 1992 GOP convention and realized that a significant portion of the GOP didn't just think I was wrong on the issues, they though me, my friends, and my family were wrong for even existing and that they believed the rest of the country agreed with them. I want those people to see a repudiation of that belief tonight so clear and compelling as to command their consent. That would be the greatest good to come from today.