Now is not the time to panic, or wallow in self doubt. Progress is never easy. Progress on difficult policy in difficult times only looks to be impossible.
With the election of Brown in Massachusetts, the apparent timidity or incompetence of our elected legislature, to get things done you may be tempted to throw your hands up in despair or cast dispersion at those who could be your allies.
Don't.
Strive on, trust, have faith!
Now is such an oppressive term, and it is thrown at us 7x24x365. Good news for Republicans. Having lived through the previous 8 years we all know we want change and we had hoped we would get it now.
Much earlier than now the Hungarian poet, Imre Madách, attempted to address the impossibility and hopeless dead ends of man's repeated failures and the hopeless feelings our failure brings.
THE TRAGEDY OF MAN
ADAM
My Lord, I have been racked by fearful visions,
And I cannot tell which of them is true.
Oh tell me truly, say a-hat fate awaits me:
This little narrow life is all I have;
Is my spirit to be squeezed as in a press
Between my struggles, only for the wine
To be poured away at last into, the soil.
Or have you other plans for this fine vintage?
Are we, our race, to steadily march onward,
Growing nobler as we approach Thy throne,
Or like oxen on a mill, exhaust ourselves,
Unable to break the leashes of our circuit?
Is there some recompense for noble spirits
Who shed their blood and face the ridicule
Of wretched crowds? O please, enlighten me,
And I will gladly carry any burden;
I cannot help but gain by knowledge since
Uncertainty is hell.
Shall the wretched teabaggers exhaust you? Does the uncertainty of HCR with the election of Brown make you feel like your soul's wine has been poured upon the dirt?
THE LORD responds to Adam
No, do not ask
To burrow deeper into the great secret
The hand of God, for the very best of motives,
Has hidden from your hungry eyes. For if
You knew the brevity of your existence
And were aware of heaven set beyond
Suffering could cease to be virtue.
If you could see the soil consume your spirit
What would spur you to shun the present good
For the sake of more inspiring ideals?
If now, with your future glimmering through the mist,
You bow beneath the weight of your ephemeral
Being, the sense of eternity will raise you.
And if the pride engendered by that snares you,
Your tiny span of life will set the bounds,
And safeguard virtue and nobility.
Did you think that the victories of 2008 were your heaven delivered and your suffering would cease?
Do you think the election of Brown as a replacement for Sen. Kennedy shall inevitably consume HCR and the Progressive Agenda?
Well, let's not wallow. It is time to do what we do best even better.
Tis the time to organize. Tis the time to get creative. And when it works, pass it on; extend it.
While criticism is not only necessary and sometimes fun (who doesn't love Saturday hate mail-apalooza!) ours is an uphill struggle that requires more attention and a bit less frivolity and internecine squabbling.
So, don't give up. Don't stay down. Don't get distracted.
Now is your time; your moment. It always was. It will always be. Eyes on the prize brothers and sisters!
As Madách's God character told Adam "Man, I have spoken: strive on, trust, have faith!"