I strongly recommend that everyone here, every committed progressive, every reader of this and every other site, to take ten days and read nothing news-related. For your mental health. And for the fights ahead.
In 2000, after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bush v. Gore, I made a vow to myself not to watch cable news again. Until that point, and in the two years starting with impeachment to the election, I was a news junkie. I would watch CNN and every other cable news outlet, the Sunday shows, all of it.
And it had the effect -- literally, the physical effect -- of depressing me. So I promised myself to cut myself off cold turkey. And for three years I did not watch one cable or network news program, not one, with the sole exception of the coverage in the two days of and after 9/11.
Yes, I slipped and watched coverage election night in 2004, and again in 2006 and 2008, and there were a handful of times, surrounding significant events like the State of the Union and other major events where I would tune in. But I would bet that in the last ten years I have not watched network news programs of any variety -- actual news broadcasts, or shows like Today or Meet the Press -- and only watched cable news a handful of times, including last night (MSNBC only).
Of course, I replaced that addiction with the internet, which in some ways is worse. But at least then I can control the filter, and don't feel as bombarded.
But the pledge I made last night after watching Lawrence O'Donnell deliciously grill Martha Blackburn about which specific government programs she would cut (shocker: like every other goddamned Republican, she couldn't answer), and after perusing the blog and news roll of my daily reading was that I needed a break. A break from all of it.
Last night was a bloodbath. A veritable bloodbath. We haven't seen anything like it as a nation in 72 years, this shift to Republicans.
My prediction now: The Republicans don't have the mandate they think they have, and they will overreach. And as a result in two years the public which so forcefully gave the Republicans control of the House will be less than thrilled with what they see. But the GOP will try and paper that over and deflect, as they always do, to the Democrats.
This will mean that the next election will be our most negative, divisive, fiercest one ever, and if the Republican nominee is, as I believe it will be, someone like John Thune, it will be a very close, very heated race.
And every day starting with the lame duck session until election night 2012 is going to be pitched battle. Pitched, bloody, unrelenting battle. I'm an attorney with the federal government, and I have already told my colleagues that it is possible -- if not likely -- that we will see a furlough period as a result of a brief government shutdown. watching Rand Paul go Galt on stage last night only fueled that concern for me.
But until that battle is joined, until November 15, I am taking a break from all news and information, because we just -- we all just -- came off a campaign of phonebanking and door-knocking and we are exhausted and we got our teeth kicked in.
So for the next two weeks, it's books for me. Books and good movies. I'm going to read a sleazy, mindless, filthy novel or two, and I am going to get started on that three-volume series by Robert Caro about LBJ that I've been meaning to get to. I am going to reconnect with friends and family. I'm going to go on long, long, long walks with my dog. I'm going back to the gym, and I may even give a shot at trying to quit smoking.
Readers of David Sedaris will be familiar with his brother's concept of the "Fuck It Bucket." It's a big bucket of candy Sedaris's brother -- affectionately known as The Rooster -- keeps close by. And when asked why he has it, The Rooster says, "Because sometimes you just have to say 'Fuck it' and eat yourself some candy."
So for the next two weeks, I am saying "Fuck it" and mentally sitting down and eating me some candy. No news. No news internet. Nothing. The bookmarks are coming down, and I am turning off the world.
Because for the next two years it's going to be rough and hard and ugly, and I need the rest now. Gotta rest up for the coming fight.
Do yourself a small favor: Walk away from it for a while. put it down. Leave it. It's all going to be here when you come back to it.
Take a small break. For yourself.