D-DAY, SEVENTH OF NOVEMBER

Well, here we are. Referendum Day. The day we decide if the Administration continues to trample on the economy, the military, the Constitution, the truth without encumbrances for two more years.

As far as I'm concerned, that's what's at stake today. I frankly don't care if the "Democrats win," per se, so long as the entrenched, Bush-supporting Republicans lose. That negative stance is one I've never before taken, and I hope not to feel the same in two years. I remember in 1990 (and obviously in '92) feeling really jazzed-up about some of the "new" Dems who seemed poised to take us into the next century. Wellstone was the most obvious, and just a few months into his term he made an impassioned argument against the First Iraq War.

But that seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? Even were he still alive, one has to wonder if his voice would matter. Russell Feingold voted against the first Patriot Act, and it hardly galvanized anything. Ron Paul (not a Dem, and not a Senator) speaks out against all sorts of Congressional bullshit, but remains a voice in the wilderness, even among his own party.

No, my youthful optimism for the Glorious Revolution of a vehement opposition party has long sense left the scene. I turned my back on party politics. But you know what? After the past six years, I've never felt as isolated from our country's basic tenets & traditions. I want them back. So I'll re-embrace party politics in the negative: with the exception of the rare & brave Republican who's dared to repudiate Bush & Friends' nonsense, I hope they all lose. I'm from New York, which is more blue than my mood'll be tomorrow morning if the GOP retains control, so my vote hardly factors into what I'm talking about here. Hillary Clinton, who I loath, for instance, will win, as will every other national Democrat from the Empire State. In a way, too bad, as these narcissistic pork-hunters represent so much that's wrong with Democratic party politics. But you know what? I'll deal with it for one greater good: De-fanging the bastard in the White House.

Incidentally, I was scanning back through the archives here, trying to see when I first piped in regarding my opinion that the GOP had to lose in these midterms, so that the status quo could become the status go, and maybe we could rise from the morass into which we'd sunk. And you know when I first talked about it? Day one.

Yes, on April 18, in writing about Bush's declaration that he was The Decider, I wrote the following:

I'll say it now, and I promise I'll say it many more times: If November 2006 passes without an historic loss for the status quo GOP, I fear for our Republic. With a quagmire in Iraq, the possibility of a new theater of war in Iran, and a teetering economy marked by debt, inflation, and monatary shenanigans, it's impossible to believe Bush and his allies on the Hill could maintain their power.

Ok. I'll admit I'm fairly proud to see that I felt the same 6 1/2 months ago. But in the same piece, I also wrote this:

Yet, would it surprise you in the least of he stood proudly in front of the White House on a cold Wednesday morning in November speaking yet again of a mandate?

Well, it still wouldn't surprise me, though the reasons differ. What I meant back in the spring was that our nation couldn't survive without a population prepared to hold accountable those who's fucked up so badly. Yet, at the time, I was unsure we'd do the right thing.

Well, if one believes polls & indicators at all, it looks like we've awoken. Conservative pundits calling for a GOP defeat. Administration popularity at all-time lows. The wonderful spectacle of "moderate" Republicans scrambling to distance themselves from their monstrous, nominal party-head. Numbers reasonably predicting the Dems take the House & threaten the Senate. It re-affirms my faith in our country, in our citizenry. In our future.

If the election's on the level.

I'll leave the Diebold/election fraud discussion to those who understand better than I the technology, techniques, and technicalities of computer systems, election laws, vote counting, and the like. I've never really bought into the cries regarding the "theft" of the 2004 election, and I try desparately to avoid thoughts of "Conspiracies."

That said, I've never before feared a dishonest election more than I do now. Even if I'm wrong (and are all the others who fear), look where we've come to. An Administration so dishonest that intelligent people have to either consider the possibility, or take the time to debunk the potential, of election fraud at the institutional level. Or as my Korean-born wife said to me the other day as we discussed it, "In the United States! Wow, I never thought anyone would even think about it."

"In the United States." That's right. The United States: dishonesty, venality, militarism, incompetence, dictatorial power grabs, theft. My reasons may have changed, but I'll stick with what I said. If Bush & friends are talking tomorrow about their continued mandate, about two more years, we're all in a lot more trouble than we'd choose to admit.

Today matters. Here's to it mattering in the positive.