Everyone is pontificating upon the polls and thinking... all is not lost OR screaming the sky is falling. Frankly, I coulding give a flying frackwater. No, what I care about is more fundamental than who is going to win, it's about getting what you want.
What do you want out of this election? Really? Take a few seconds to think about what you really hope and want out of all of this.
I'll throw out a few things I want out of this election, in no particular order...
- I want strong Supreme Court nominees who will protect and strengthen civil rights, not weaken public discourse and choose winners in elections
- I want Obamacare to be revisited and revised so that we have universal health care, or at least a public option
- I want DOMA repealed!
- I want Congress to finally come up with compassionate and economically intelligent immigration reform.
- I want a President with backbone!!! Who stands up to liars and obstructionists in Congress, and is not afraid to do some grandstanding himself to get what the country needs
- I want our government to focus on stimulating the economy, creating jobs and strengthening the social safety net so it's here for now and future generations.
- I DO want the Federal Government to have a 10 year plan, a 20 year plan and 30 year plan for balancing the budget AND planning for emergencies, just like household would have with a 30 year mortgage, while also planning for retirement and childrens' educations.
- I want all women to have access to the necessary health care and contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies and girls to be empowered with scientifically accurate sex education. Because the best way to stop abortion (as recent studies seem to show) is to not get pregnant in the first place. But any woman who can't care for a child should be able to give that child to a loving home or she should be given the unobstructed choice to have a safe and legal abortion. That's not an either/or option, women should have both options if we want to be a REAL pro-life society.
OK, OK, y'all are rolling your eyes by now. None of this is gonna happen, even if Obama is elected, right? No, it probably isn't. Obama have backbone? Fat chance, to paraphrase the nay sayers. No offense, I do absolutely love our President. But he himself has told us that we must help him, we must hold him accountable, we must force him and enable him to act on our behalves. Did we not perfectly learn this lesson with Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal?
If you liked any of those things on the list above, there really is only one way for you to get them. We must not only elect President Obama, we must give him a mandate-sized landslide election victory. We must give the Republicans a shellacking double what they handed us in 2010. We must aspire not to hold the Senate with our champion Elizabeth Warren and back from the dead Senator Claire McCaskill, we must deliver an expanded majority by saving vulnerable seats with Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, Tim Kaine in Virginia, and John Tester in Montana but we have to pick up some red seats too such as Shelley Berkely in Nevada, Richard Carmona in Arizona and Joe Donnelly in Indiana. And we need to give that gavel back to someone who knows how to get things done, one Ms. Nancy Pelosi.
Think about it. If you want any of those pie in the sky, big picture, progressive changes, and Obama squeaks by with 271 electoral votes? Oh ma gawd, he's gonna give away the hen house. You know it. He just won't have the leverage, and that's not his style. He wins a 350+ electoral victory? Well, maybe now we can talk about some of those things. What if he wins but doesn't even take a 50% majority due to the appeal of 3rd party candidates? Will he have backbone? Which Obama will we get? We will get the one we worked to have, the compromising grand bargain Obama.
If you want the strident, kick ass Obama, we've got to give him the ammunition. So, stop the naval gazing, stop the poll obsessions (unless you are really one of the few who needs to do this for GOTV and advertising targeting), get out and hit the pavement, get on the phone, get to the rally. You know what to do. Time to elect the president that you want, and every moment between now and the election day will determine not only if Obama wins but if Obama has the mandate to enact a progressive agenda.