I Had a Dream Last Night (seriously)...

The dream was that, when all the votes were counted, it turned out that Kerry actually did win. Then, I was instantly transported back to Florida in 2000, and all the votes were counted there, too. Now Gore was the president, but Kerry won anyway (weird about dreams that way).

Kerry was talking about how Gore lifted more people out of poverty than anyone else, that the urban agenda was in full force, and how he would continue to lift America's surplus even higher than the $7 trillion it was currently at.

He was also talking about how the surgical strikes on al-Queda had helped to thwart the hijacking plots in 2001, after Clinton had thwarted the millennium plots.

Kerry also promised an even greater increase for education, after greater numbers of children had graduated en masse the previous years.

Dreams are pretty f***ed up sometimes.

I cried at the TV yesterday when Kerry said he wanted to give us all a big hug. After all the work we did; countless hours of canvassing and phone banking and meetings, I really appreciated that. I was so happy we took Michigan, as little as it mattered in the end.

[editor's note, by bobbycodemonkey] I did not do as much as I would have liked to, and I don't pretend to take credit for others' work. I was a volunteer with MoveOn and KE04, but not a major player in either.

But what we're looking at now scares the life out of me. I believe, with this mandate, we have agreed to be a theocracy of sorts -- with the idiot-in-charge having his own Batphone to God. Why does this scare me? Look at the history of theocracies and it'll tell you: they don't end well. Or quickly. Or painlessly. Combine that with the fascist traits of cronyism and big business sucking on the teet of the White House, and with the fact that they control every branch of the system (plus more right-wing ideologue judges doing jumping jacks outside the Oval Office), and the fact that they truly control the message (see the PIPA report), and you have a truly frightening reality: we on the left have to basically start over.

We're kinda where the Republicans were in '64. They, obviously, have been very successful in their rise to power. But we're in a different place, for several reasons. Primarily, our goals are completely different than the right's were. We want equality, ethics, pluralism, education, freedom, and a secular government. Getting there, under the rules of modern political warfare, is somewhat impossible. Why? If you look at what the neo-cons are feeding from - the well of their power - it's disjunctive from our agenda. FEAR doesn't come into play with us. We understand defense -- and are historically better at it (who has won this country's wars?) -- but we refuse to use it as a powertool. Secondly, the message is being controlled. The rise and rise of Fox News signals to me that conventional communications can't be trusted as an ally (not that it ever really was). There was a time in our history -- believe it or not -- that you could trust what you saw on the TV and heard of the radio to be pretty close to an unbiased version of facts. As the GOP became the party of money and deregulation, this played right into the hands of media corporations. There's not a single doubt in my mind that the reason that Fox and MSNBC called Ohio for Bush too early had everything to do with corporate loyalties. Fox is obvious, but MSNBC? Remember who owns them: GE, who "brings good things to war".

So the big question is: will the left go Left? Or will it go Center? Unfortunately, I don't think that we have a say in that. It will derive unnaturally in reaction to the next 4 years. The official movement, I think, will come Center, but I think as events unfold militarily that the true left - Progressives, if you will - are going to find their own footing. It will have to be very inclusive to Religion, and include a revival of the concept that Jesus was not actually hawkish. As the Republican motto is 'divide and conquer', you might just see an official Progressive Party emerge. Would Dean be a good fit?