So when does the Rush Limbaugh Era of Republicanism end?
When does the hate and division stop?
It's been forever since I used my Kos diary (been here since before the 2002 elections), but I figured I'd cross-post this entry from my blog
Klein Rant: A New Congress, A New Era, because then maybe someone will read it. :-)
Senator Burns has (finally) conceded in Montana. The AP has called the election in Virginia for Webb, and they're right. When the canvas finishes today, which has found no cause to doubt Webb's 7200 vote lead, the inside word is that Senator Allen will be conceding in the afternoon/evening. His presidential hopes are now crushed, and rightly so.
The US Congress is Democratic again, for the first time in 12 years, with presumptive Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, from California, and presumptive Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, from Nevada.
The Republican Revolution of 1994, which started with Newt Gingrich, is over. It's done; it's kaput. Karl Rove has been shown to be a little less brilliant than some thought (he was really just lucky, in reality, in the last 6 years. Amazingly lucky, yes, but not brilliant. Not brilliant at all. Indeed, even rather stupid, in retrospect). The corruption and hubris of the last 12 years finally caught up to the Republicans. Let us hope the politics of strife and division which Rove championed dies with his political career.
It's time to put the dark, sad era of Rush Limbaugh behind us. I mention Rush Limbaugh because he is emblematic of the cancer that has infected the Republican party. That cancer is not in remission, right now, but here's to hoping that having their asses handed to them in this last election will serve as a little bit of chemotherapy for Republicans, and that the honest, decent conservatives out there will take their party back from the crooks and crazies that have hi-jacked it in the Rush Limbaugh era.
I disagree fundamentally with conservatives, and conservatives disagree fundamentally with me. That's fine, and to be expected. What is not to be expected is the blind, irrational, un-American hatred for the other party that Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich cultivated over the last 12 years. The hatred I've felt directed at me by Republicans has been hard not to return.
It should never be that way. Yes, Republicans deserve a serious comeuppance right now (do unto others as you would have done unto you), but I want Democrats to be better than that. I want serious government back in Washington. I want honesty, and a recognition that the other side has valid ideas, too. I want compromise, where appropriate. I want an America that I am proud of again.
Let's do it together, as Democrats and Republicans. What do you say? Let's stop the hate.
I want to see George W. Bush and the Democratic Congress work together to fix the problems that have been either ignored or created in the last six years. We're all going to suffer if we don't fix them, so we owe it to ourselves to put the past behind us. I'm not sure Bush is truly capable of this, but I'm willing to reserve judgement, for now.
I have to add a footnote here, though, unfortunately. The likes of Limbaugh are wont to see an offer of an olive branch as a sign of weakness. Do not make that mistake. Republicans should expect absolutely no mercy if they go back to being as they were yesterday, calling Democrats terrorists and traitors and unpatriotic, and generally making every effort to paint the Democratic party as a bigger enemy than Osama bin Laden.
We are proud liberals, and we are not afraid of a fight, and if that's what you want, we will, sadly and regretfully, make sure to fight back. We've learned from Republicans over the last 12 years. We won't take it lying down any more.