Here are some thoughts about me, Arizona, and the midterm elections...it's intended for mature audiences...follow me below the fold.
I can't defend this state anymore.
Not because "my team" lost, because that will happen. People screw up, or the opponent you run against is so experienced(or beloved) that running against him is like throwing a rock into the ocean. Your philosophy might fail to gain traction because the other guy makes a better argument, but here I ask: What argument? Nobody really said anything that rose above calling Nancy Pelosi an icky girl from San Francisco, and our lovely governor didn't even have to say that.
These are not the power-tie Republicans anymore. I thought they were wrong too, but at least, if you think a bit, you can see how they might reach their wrong-headed conclusions.The Tea Party is just like an adventure through a bizarre, and surprisingly angry world, given that they have decided that they can believe what they want and only their beliefs matter...if that were true, wouldn't you pick happier things? They have selected government by temper tantrum. I mean, odds are, they can't do everything they want either, but who feels good and patriotic about being on Team Gridlock? I know I don't.
But a majority of citizens in this state appear to be okay with voter suppression, racial profiling, shoddy private prisons, and maybe, if we're really good, a safety net that just might involve Grandma selling chicle on the street. Ironic, isn't it? After two years of watching them demonize Mexico, we might be on our way to imitating it(and the worst parts, too, not ranchera music and stuff) So, now when I read on the blogs that the sun must have melted all of our brains, or that we wear shorts to cover up our KKK uniforms, as much as this hurts my personal pride, and makes caricatures of all of you from Arizona reading this, I'm not sure any argument I make has weight after a situation like this, where we have the most engaging Dems in decades and no votes for them.
I thought it would make me feel better to know that other states have their sections of Dumbistan, but it really doesn't, although some states did a better job of keeping the devil in the hole, so to speak.This really makes me question my own efforts, not that I haven't known since the age of sixteen or so that I was swimming against the tide and that I might have been happier if circumstances placed me somewhere in blue America(and that is still a dream of mine) but while I'm still here, it would be nice to feel that I had some impact on the place. How many of the people I called were just afraid to piss me off by telling me they were McCain loyalists? How much of the time my friend spent on GOTV with people with disabilities was spent giving these people tools to vote against their own interest? I'd do it again, but still these questions are going to keep me up nights, maybe for a long time.
Should I give to the Democratic Party anymore?(Assuming that I ever have money again.) I know political giving is not like playing slots, or maybe it is, actually, but I don't know if I've ever gotten return on my investmen
I'm planning on pushing back, and pushing hard, but I find myself wondering "Who are these people?".