November 05, 2008

Mixed Feelings

As I sit here, watching local election results come in, I find myself very proud of my country and disappointed in my state. As a nation, we rejected cynicism, rejected the politics of fear. We listened to someone tell us we need to work, and we cheered. After months of hearing the uneasy question, "Are we ready?" we said, "Duh!" We watched the new first family walk out in front of an elated crowd and were unashamed to say that we cried.

Minnesota stood behind Obama with a ten percent margin. That looks like a lot of support--until you look at the results in our other races. We're sending Michele Bachmann, who doesn't believe that Obama has America's best interests at heart, who saw nothing wrong with the Obama Waffles, to Washington to work against him. We're sending Eric Paulsen, who is merely somewhat smoother and less transparent than Bachmann, to do the same. With his election, Minnesota actually makes its House delegation more conservative.

With 92% of the vote in, it looks as though we're also sending Rove's boy Norm back to the Senate. It's hard to say for sure, but this race should not be close. There was only one candidate in this race whose priorities matched Obama's.

Looking further down the ballot, there's much to be happy about and proud of. Dangerous judicial candidates were locked out. We stepped up to pay for the things we say we value. But closer to the top, we failed. We chose the president who asked the most of us, but in our first test, we gave him nothing.

We can't do this, people. We elected a man whose power lies largely in his ability to move us. If we stand where we have always stood and refuse to budge, we will ensure his failure. If we do not move, we fail ourselves. And we cannot afford to fail.

6 comments:

Will Shetterly said...

In a representative democracy, someone should represent the nuts. As long as they're not representing the sane people, I don't mind having them in office.

But I'm still praying the Dems get their 60 in the Senate to keep the nuts in check.

Minnesota badly needs Approval Voting or Instant Runoff Voting.

Anonymous said...

If you check the electoral map, McCain won most of the counties in the 6th district, I didn't look too closely at the 3rd, but I think it is about the same.

The Franken thing has as many Democrats to blame as Republicans. The nasty attacks started with the Ciresi campaign. There is still hope with the re-count.

Stephanie Zvan said...

I know, Will. It's just that before last night, there was some hope that my neighbors were less nuts than uninformed. There's really no hope of that now.

We're working on IRV in Minneapolis. We just have to get through the innevitable court challenge. Then we have to figure out how IRV affects counting for major third-party status.

Mike, if I meet Rep. McCollum, I will have to ask her how she feels about Coleman's views of women.

Anonymous said...

There are some dems who need to pay and within the party they will be taken to account.

Yes, Mike, the Twin Cities suburbs went for McCain.

The demographics of the twin cities are obvious. White flight shapes much of what we see. Everyone in the suburbs is either an upper class selfish Republican or a white trash bible humper. Except of course for most of my inlaws, my immediate family, and some of my neighbors. And Mike of course.

Will Shetterly said...

Stephanie, I should've started my comment by saying I share your pain. It would've been sweet to see Bachman go down, and you've been after her for longer than I knew she existed.

Stephanie Zvan said...

Greg, give me a little bit of time to absorb all this, then give me a push to do something about that. It's about time I trusted my personal autonomy a little more and took some of the advice about pragmatism I was dishing out to the anarchists.

Will, it's all good. I took that part as read.