Just to let you know, I'll be live-blogging the election returns tonight, probably from about 7 pm to 1 am (if not later, if things are interesting). And some of my great co-bloggers will be contributing, too. So stop on by, why don't you? I can't speak for the co-bloggers, but I'll be drinking two things I bought on my recent trip down to Pittsburgh: potato vodka from Pennsylvania and bourbon from Kentucky. Good times -- or not. Probably not. Not with anticipated Dem losses. I've been generally optimistic, predicting that they'd do better than expected, but it's tough to keep up the optimism with most signs pointing to big GOP gains.
Alas.
Anyway, we'll be here. So, if nothing else, come commiserate with us, come lament with us the decline and fall of American democracy -- and come help push back against the Republican spin and media narratives that are sure to dominate political discourse in the immediate post-election period. They'll say this was a thorough rejection of the Democrats' supposedly left-wing agenda, a rejection of Obama's supposed turn to socialism, or fascism, or whatever. It is nothing of the kind. What we're witnessing, at a time of ongoing economic uncertainty (if not crisis) is the triumph of anger, fear, and bitterness, of irrational anti-incumbent sentiment, of successful Republican propaganda, of ignorance and apathy, of a frothing-at-the-mouth Republican base stirred up by deception and dishonesty, of independents buying the lies and embracing Republican extremism. And, of course, what we're witnessing is what normally happens at a president's first midterms, namely, losses for the party in power. What we're certainly not witnessing is any popular uprising for the GOP, which may claim some sort of mandate, including to paralyze government by refusing to work constructively with Democrats, but which will actually have nothing of the kind.
Yes, I'm pissed off already, because I know already how tonight's results will be interpreted by the media -- not that regurgitating Republican talking points amounts to interpretation, but you get the point.
Where the hell's that vodka?
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