It is difficult for me to put into language the anger I feel at Rahm's reelection. For most of my adult life I have striven to remove hate from my life, but "democrats" like Rahm, and Andrew Cuomo, and Joe Lieberman push me so close to hate that I feel like I'm losing control.
I grew up on in Chicagoland--Franklin Park--in the sound shadow of O'Hare airport. In the era before vertical take offs, we had to pause when talking on the phone when a plane was taking off. We called it the Franklin Park pause. Windows would rattle. At times I felt I could touch a plane if I stood on the top of our chimney. But Chicago was the city that worked. My father was a union steward, my mother a member of the League of Women Voters and at one point President. We benefited from the policies of the Democratic party.
As the youngest of 8 childen I grew up a committed Dem like my parents and siblings, who all remain liberals. But as soon as I learned about Rahm, this ambitious, self-centered. triangulating mother fucker, I hated him. It was so upsetting to me when Obama made him Chief of Staff (for now, let's not get into William Daiey Jr.). There is no one, in my mind, more responsible for the teabaggers, the 2010 losses, and the watered-down Wall Street and Health Care reforms. For Obama's insane attempts to rationally bargain with the extreme right wing by bargaining from the weakest democratic position and getting whittled down to solid right wing positions.
Then this major league asshole finally leaves, but them becomes the Mayor of Chicago. This is not fair. It's like your favorite team trades away the player you think is destroying the team chemistry and holding them back from success, and then they bring him back as the manager. I did something so out of my character today: there was a Huffpost article about his victory, and in the comments I was an inarticulate idiot, "Fuck you Rahm." That's it. That's what I've been reduced to. Fuck you Rahm. I despise you. You and Andrew Cuomo could go jump off a bridge and I'd think, "They died too late to do any good." Why are these people in prominent positions in the Democratic party? How can we ever get this country back on the right track if this is the opposition to the unhinged and insane Republicans? Hope and change? Not so much right now. My response to Sarah the Unworthy when she said, "How's that hopey changey thing goin'?" was, better than despair and the status quo. But, and this is painful to write, maybe she was right (unintentionally, of course)?
I remain committed to working for a better life for all Americans, and every other living thing on our life sustaining planet, but the party I'm committed to is making this very difficult. Fuck you Rahm. Fuck you Andrew Cuomo. Fuck you Chuck Schumer and the 6 other senators working to undermine peace with Iran. Fuck you President Obama and any other democratic politician that supports TPP. There are too many fuck yous for me to list. If the Democratic Party doesn't find its soul soon it will lose everyone--and this is coming from a lifelong dem who has voted for progressives since I turned 18 in 1980.