OH MY GOD THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!! (not.)

Damnit, people, I've had enough. Last night I read one too many diaries chiding "premature" optimism and spinning cautionary tales about the big scary GOP GOTV machine and the confounding self-assuredness of Rove and Bush.  The money's scarce, the machines are rigged, the party's divided, there's still work to do, Osama's in a meat locker somewhere and Iran's next in line—so be afraid, very afraid, and let no one see you smile!

We hear the same tired double standard over and over again: if Bush is smirking, if Rove sounds subtly assured, then the almighty GOP must have an ace hidden away; just biding time until November 6 when they can pull the thread and chortle as they watch the entire Democratic Party unravel in a heap. But if Democrats appear confident, why, it's a sure sign of laurel-resting complacency, giddy poll-intoxication, and impending electoral oblivion!  Yea, brethren, your foolhardy ebullience is as a yawning maw of DOOM, the panther lying in wait to devour ye!  Sound the alarum, turn out the palace guard: someone, somewhere is CELEBRATING TOO EARLY!!!

Well, screw that.  I don't know about you, but I'm tired of seeing this guy ↑ turn up at our parties.  How much more oxygen must be wasted on this nervous meme of insecurity and self-doubt?  The only "trap" facing us is that self-same nail-biting, ulcer-inducing Grand Unifying Theory of Liberal Hopelessness: this ridiculous notion that no matter what Democrats do, it benefits the other side.  

"All we have to fear is Fear itself." Ring any bells?  Sometimes I come away from a CNN segment, a newspaper column, or a diary wondering if everyone in this party has forgotten the psychology of charisma and projection, the principle of the self-fulfilling prophecy.  The Tao of winning goes way beyond the campaign mechanics, the 50-state strategies, the Inside Baseball stuff.  

Sure, you have to work hard to win elections, and sure, the Republicans are going to throw everything at us, both above and below the waterline.  We can and should prepare for that—and we are.  But girding for battle doesn't have to mean filling your drawers and channeling Cassandra and Chicken Little and every other legendary embodiment of histrionics as you loudly contemplate your possible defeat.  

I read this blog, see what everyone is doing to help our candidates across the country, see the money raised and the letters written and the phones rung, and it humbles me.  I don't see Democrats slacking off just because the news has been good—quite the contrary in fact.  Acknowledging that your hard work is bearing fruit, busting out a grin at the latest "Bush 33%" poll, or projecting a bit of calm assurance and inevitability will not hurt the cause—in fact, it can do a lot to deflate the enemy.  

For proof, just look what it's done to us. The continuing mystique of Karl, Incurious George, and the Great 51% Mandate has a lot of people who should be walking tall sounding snake-bit and full of self-doubt.  If Democrats could sound as convincing about the rising wave of Bush-disaffection and electoral retribution, and refrain from airing their every last gibbering, gnawing shred of uncertainty and fear, then we might just turn a few Republican voters into quivering bedwetters for once.  

Their necks are stretched upon the chopping block, so to speak, and you, Dear Democrat—well, you wield a mean axe, and you look damn good in black.  So go ahead and crack that knowing smile, and let their last thoughts be full of the same primal terror they've been so cynically shopping around the nation these past 5 years.  Toss that drowning Republican a nice mental anvil or two, and savor it.  

Down the home stretch, let's stop living life inside a Yeats poem, where the "best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity".  If the centre truly cannot hold, if things are to fall apart, then let that be because we make it so, with steely determination and unswerving faith.  If you must live a familiar refrain, make it that of Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

•  I've got the Kavorka, Jerry!

  The lure of the animal!  I'm dangerous!

  by turbonium on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 04:21:59 AM PDT

•  A poll of one

  I have voted in every presidental election since I was old enough in 1972. But I have never voted in an off year election...until now. This one is different, this one is special. After Katrina the tropical storm of discontent formed a class 1 hurricane and it has been growing every since. By the time comes ashore on November 7 it will have reached class 5. The Republican levies will not hold. Search your feelings, the force is with US.

  by rmonroe on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 04:42:49 AM PDT

  •  You are not alone,

    this will be my first time ever too... and I betting there are many others out there too.

    by PLS on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 07:08:40 AM PDT

•  It's pre-emptive self-defense, you know

  People don't want to be crushed more than necessary if November 7 doesn't result in a takeover of at least one chamber.  And Kos doesn't want people who are looking for any excuse not to give $, time or even a rat's ass the slightest opportunity to think their efforts aren't needed cause the thing is in the bag.  It's not all lily-livered Chicken Little-ism, in other words.  But your point -- which is not as momentous as you think it is -- is still important, and deserves to be heard.  And you write beautifully, too.

  by scorponic on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 05:01:53 AM PDT

  •  Ahh, but to rant...

    ...is to stand at the epicenter of the universe, don't you know.  Everything's infinitely momentous there :-)

    I certainly understand the 'pre-emptive defense' impulse, having been a long-suffering Giants fan.  But I eventually realized that being pessimistic beforehand never seemed to make defeat suck any less!

    by turbonium on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 05:38:06 AM PDT

    •  San Francisco or New York/New Jersey? n/t

      by scorponic on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 05:49:29 AM PDT

•  Tho' much is taken, DOOD abides;

  I'm also getting sick of diaries saying they're getting sick of other diaries with post about how diaries are making me sick.

  by DABush on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 05:39:19 AM PDT

•  asdf

  Remember the 2004 elections?  How about Fitzmas?  For me it was going to an anti war rally with 500,000+ other people and then the next day only have a passing note in the Wa Po about it.  The Disappointment gets to you after a while.  So I can understand why there is handwringing and naysayers.  No one wants to dare hope that this time, finally, things will turn out right.

  by BDA in VA on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 06:38:59 AM PDT

  •  Kind of like decorating the nursery

    before the baby arrives.  

    by marykk on Tue Oct 24, 2006 at 07:13:01 AM PDT