The Left Finally Makes it to the Starting Line

I don't want to make light of the victory. It was historic in many respects. First off, the many parasites removed from the body politic. I was amazed that Governor hedge fund conceded so early. But he has a posh billionaire's life to go back to and can probably leave the smoking ruin he left in Illinois behind for some sunny clime. Governor bald spot of course hung on and still hasn't conceded at the time of writing. He is a spent force. No nice billionaire or foundation has a chair waiting for him after the many times he failed "conservatism." I don't really care as long as he fucking leaves. Same for the others on this list.

It was a win for women and a win for diversity. The midterm elections really showed that turn out can make a difference. Your vote mattered. Local races matter, volunteering or donating money in them can do a lot. It is high time Democrats figure that out. Not the national party or it's consultants just fighting over a percentage of the ad buys. We, the people, at the community level can get our friends or people we know into local offices all on our own. That really can be the new, hip thing to do; DIY democracy, the way the founders intended. From a big picture and just day to day perspective, the people on the school board or city council have an outsized influence on our public life. Sure, local government has little power to combat climate change or make the filthy rich pay their share in taxes but having control over local governments give you stepping stones to influence at higher levels.

The best thing about contesting and winning local office is denying them to the fascists, fundamentalists, and petty mountebanks who otherwise can sleaze their way in. And then those same people have to "go get real jobs" as they are always telling liberals and young people to do. Some local offices and state legislatures allow representatives to hire staff, more opportunities to get young people involved. Because then you get experience in how government works. In this day of newspapers shuttering it is difficult to get information on how local government works, but if you know a guy or gal on the council you can learn a lot. Maybe young, hip people getting into local government could lead to a renaissance of local media. It isn't difficult or expensive to start a blog, podcast, or even YouTube channel. If this trend becomes a movement these new "news" entrepreneurs could expand into print and even AM radio. All without permission from the national Democratic Party or big media operations.

All of this is to say that this midterm election, against all odds, was a success. Not an unqualified success, each House seat was way too difficult to wrest away from fascist republicans, but one party dictatorship has been broken for now. Right wing authoritarianism is a minority position, that is the first step to that starting line, to realize and finally believe that right wingers are neither omnipotent nor legitimate. This has been something of a through line of my blog, calling right wing nonsense "conservatism" is the big joke, they aren't trying to conserve anything that really exists but using the word dresses up the extremism and irresponsibility of republicans, imbuing them with an air of legitimacy. "Conservative" sounds grown up and responsible, the strict father who's only doing this (to you) because it's for the best. Well, no, the cruelty is for cruelty's sake alone. As is the name-calling, gloating, and condescending faux-paternalism they call on more lucid days "tough love." Reject the premise. Any deference to their delusions will legitimize racism, misogyny, short-sighted nihilism, lying, and mean-spirited ignorance.

If it took a con man with short fingers and ridiculous hair to finally convince millennials and all Democrats to finally dispense with any residual misplaced belief that the elder generation knows what they are doing because they are older, great. Now we need to use that epiphany to pressure the news media to stop treating republicans with undeserved respect and deference that allows their lies and cruelty to go unchallenged. Then, when the inevitable cries of "traitor" and "anti-American" arise from wingnut central command, we can dismiss them as the empty rhetoric they always were.

It's gonna be hard, it's gonna take a long time, but we can get there. Let's have some hope that this time the lesson takes, that all the new voters and participants in Democracy on the Liberal side stick with it. If any of your friends start saying anything akin to "well, I voted, now it's up to the Democrats to do something." Or when the new Democratic officials inevitably compromise liberal ideals and fail to stand up to doughfacedonny with sufficient zeal these friends throw up their hands and say fuck it to remind them that it's up to us, not the people we elected, to keep informed and keep pressure on. It's human nature to get comfortable or complacent, it's also natural for young people to get discouraged relatively easily when things don't go as well as they hoped. We all have to stick together and support each other. We made it to the starting line after getting kneecapped for decades, but we can catch up to the fascists if we just put one foot in front of the other and keep going.