The inSC family has a trying time ahead. Kathy is due for a hip replacement, less than a week to go. More worrisome, my brother is fighting cancer again. He had that fight for the first time in 2011, which has gone absolutely as well as it could have. But a few days before Christmas he will have a very difficult surgery. We have hopes that it will resolve the current issue. Time will tell.
It takes things like that to turn my mind from the political reality we are facing. Lately, it has received most of my attention.
More below.
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board.
We had some important success in the mid-terms, but the challenges that remain are daunting. We all have our opinions about them, with so many things on our plates!
The greatest challenge, to me, is in initial goal-setting.
I met a counselor a few years ago (not my counselor, she worked for someone else), who spoke of goals. She said one of the worst things we can do is set our goals too low. Then they become more of a ceiling. It’s very important to set a BIG goal. A worthy one. A challenging one. One truly worth achieving.
So this is my goal proposal.
Overwhelming Democratic victory. Taking back the states, ending gerrymandering and electoral cheating and dirty-tricks from a position of strength, in the states AND nationally. Making the case from TODAY with voters disenfranchised. Almost always there is A path to voting success from them. The obstacles, properly represented, can be highly motivating. Those who see to strip them of their voting rights THUS FAR believe far more in their power and potential than they themselves do. We have almost two years to change that. I am not suggesting that we drop the legal challenges! Far from it! But I think it I a mistake to count on those.
They have never had a more miserable figurehead than they do now. It reflects on all of them in the worst way imaginable. But the damages he and they are causing are very real, and they aren’t diminishing over time, and they WILL not. He is unqualified. He is utterly out of his depth. (That is just one of many analyses in agreement about that.)
He cares nothing about changing his lack of qualification, he can’t even admit that staggering truth, that is apparent to the entire world. Further, nothing drives him battier than people having the nerve to confront him about it. He’s powerless to counter it, because he has no truth with which TO counter it.
Worse, he leads a party no more interested in governing than he is. They cannot govern. They don’t care about governing. All they care about is POWER. Winning elections. They can’t commit to any governance because it could never be pure enough of perfect enough for their fearful and unimaginative constituency. They have purified themselves very nearly out of existence, EXCEPT when it comes to cheating their way to electoral victory.
That is not enough. It should never be enough. And it’s time to have that conversation with our people.
But our goals have been set too low. Winning back the presidency. Congressional majorities, majorities within the states … they need to be staggering majorities. Filibuster-proof majorities.
And the only hope that TRUE Republicans have remaining is that the defeats are so overwhelming that their party HAS to change. Has to accept that it has been wrong for many years.
Yes, I’m fine with them being a permanent minority party. BEST would be if the political opposition had to come from a totally different party. Third-party advocacy is prohibited on Daily Kos, but, hopefully not if it is advocacy for THEM to be replaced by a third party, not us.
I know you all know this - the ONLY hope for our country (and maybe our WORLD) lies with American Democrats. Simple majorities aren’t going to get it done.
We already have a potentially catastrophic minority on the Court. The best counter we can make is to have the American PEOPLE tell them what we demand and expect. If they ignore the will of the people, let them face impeachment.
The worst thing we could possibly do would be to set our sights too low. In my opinion.
On to tonight’s comments! Formatted by brillig!
TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
Highlighted by Cmae:
durrati’s comment/explanation to my question, in their diary about Jon McNaughton's painting "The Forgotten Soybean Farmer and The Reptilian Panhandler."
Highlighted by ozsea1:
This comment by UKLefty, from pollwatcher’s Charles Blow "I don’t believe we are reaching the end of a nightmare, but rather we are entering one.
From brillig:
From Laura Clawson’s Mike Huckabee thought he had the chops to take on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Spoiler: He didn't. comes a great thread begun by Seeds.
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, December 2nd 2018, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Pictures
Top Pictures for yesterday, December 2nd 2018. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
User-set permissions do not allow inclusion in picture quilt
|
|
|
|