All indications are that we're heading for a crushing landslide victory a week from Tuesday. We're all looking forward to it, and rightfully so. It's been a long time, and victory is sweet.
And yes, surely we should celebrate our victories. But a week from Tuesday we're going to win a battle, not a war. It's good to win a battle. But one battle, even a big one like this, doth not a war maketh. The war is far from over.
There's lots of talk here that after this election the Republicans will become no more than a second-class regional party, and we'll be shut of them for generations to come. Sure, that would be lovely, but don't count on it. We've been here before.
Remember 1964? I do.
In 1964 there was another Democratic landslide. Yes we got a lot of good legislation out of the Johnson administration. (We also of course got Vietnam.) But after 1964 people thought it looked like the Republicans had been buried forever. That lasted all of ... four years.
Nixon in 1968 and 1972. Yes, Carter won in 1976 (Watergate blowback? Who cares, I was sure happy it happened) but who had his back? The result was that in 1980 we got the Reaganauts who have pretty much run the show since. God bless Bill Clinton for at least restraining the nutcases somewhat. Sure he got some good things done but I picture him mostly as the faithful Dutch boy with his finger in the dike, holding back the flood as best he could. My guess is that's how he'll be remembered, not for this or that legislation but for brilliantly deflecting as much of the Rethug onslaught as possible. Alas, nowhere near all of it, leading to the Bushies and their all too well known excesses.
The point of all this? Don't gloat, and don't assume any victories are permanent. In 1964 we thought we buried them for good, but they came back and (aside from some brief periods of semi-relief) they have been burying us for forty friggin years.
Now we're talking landslide, realignment, blue states as far as the eye can see, for generations to come. Don't get me wrong, if it turns out that way nobody will be happier than me.
But that's what we said in '64 too. And look how that turned out. Since Johnson, we've been forty years in the wilderness.
Bottom line here is, after November 4 it is not over. We'll need to keep it up, every day, every year. Obama is a good man, but he will need all of us working nonstop to keep this thing happening. After '64 we fractured. Somehow, this time, we have to find a way to stay focused, stay together, avoid circular firing squads, keep our eye on the ball, big picture, pick your favorite metaphor.
Can we do it? I hope so. But I remember what happened after our last landslide. I just hope we learned something from that.