I really wanted Elizabeth Warren to run.
There, I said it. Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really wanted her to run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. I mean, I really did.
But she didn't. Isn't. Near as I can tell, won't. And that sucks, as far as I'm concerned.
As a result, regardless of the outcome, we are certain to be visited in 2016 with at least four more years of an administration less unashamedly progressive than I want to see. And that puts me in a foul mood. In darker moments I despair for the future of our country. In a better frame of mind I count federal judges as I try to fall asleep. Asleep. Four more years of progressive sleep. Sigh.
As I said, it puts me in a foul mood. Politically I feel tempted to sit this one out, or, worse, go off to fight in the dailykos meta wars.
But fortunately a wise voice from my past always pulls me back from the ledge.
Her name was Helen. I met her in my first job after college. She was a defrocked nun turned bookkeeper. I never heard the story of why she left the order, but she did share loads of interesting stories from her life as a nun, some of which benefit me to this day.
She told me once about a practice she called "custody of the feet." Her order were out-in-the-world nuns, and from time to time they would find, out in this brave new world, that there are such beings in it, male beings in the main, as could make a nun blush, or set fire to her imagination at least.
Knowing this they were prepared. The practice was that whenever you saw someone who caused impure thoughts to come into your mind you should look at your feet. Study them carefully. Thoughtfully. With your full attention. Until whoever it was left the area.
Anyway apparently this works, well enough to keep nuns nuns, so why couldn't the same thing work for us progressives, is my thought?
Of course, apart from the occasional John Edwards swoon, we aren't really put off our principals by a nice looking pol. That's why we're progressives. We're already good looking, we want right-minded action.
What works for me about something like custody of the feet is the way it brings your mind back onto what you really value at a moment when it is tempted to go off the rails. As a long-time lurker here at Daily Kos I suggest that might, you know, just every now and again, be a helpful thing.
So I have developed a mantra--I'm a Californian progressive, of course it's a mantra--for your use when you feel your mind wandering from your purpose here.
From now on, whenever you feel like slagging someone because they are, to your way of thinking, insufficiently pure, or, perhaps, too purist, if the sound of the word Hillary makes you want to jam your hand into a running blender, or if, when someone tells you contested primaries are a good thing, you feel like screaming "Naderite" at them, try saying the following words for the next ten or fifteen minutes.
A republican president in 2016 would be worse than a disaster.
Try saying it just now. Yes of course out loud. Unless you are reading this at work and you live in Oklahoma. If you can't say something this plainly partisan what are you doing here?
A republican president in 2016 would be worse than a disaster.
Repeat it. Whenever your mind wanders off.
Say it in the morning when you are brushing your teeth.
"Uh ebubihn ezidnt ee uheiurheen uh ee urse an a izastr." Like that.
Say it in your mind instead of blessing your food at meals.
"We thank you lord for the hands that prepared this food and know that a republican president in 2016 would be worse than a disaster."
I used to read to my kids, when they were younger, at night before bed. Sometimes I would just wing it and tell them abridged fairy tales, like the Three little Democrats and the Big Bad Republican. They've grown up now but I really think saying this at night might be just the thing.
A republican president in 2016 would be worse than a disaster.
Simba, remember who you are.
A republican president in 2016 would be worse than a disaster.
Say it.