Friday, November 10, 2006
Throw Me Smack Dab in the Middle
I haven't written about the elections till now, because we're stuck in some crazy personal business here at home. But here's my gut impression:
Nyah-nyah.
I feel like the school bully just got his ass handed to him. Not Bush or Rumsfeld or Rove specifically, but just that whole way of "Oh yeah? Make me! You and what army?" mentality that's governed the discourse over the past five years, and that was met with equally stupid behavior by the other side.
In fact, this was a referendum on the whole business of "sides." Apparently, people were getting tired of being pushed back and forth between two false choices and wanted something in the middle.
I started this blog 21 months ago after watching the State of the Union address, when my husband said don't bother quoting pundits, and to enter the argument myself. So you'd figure, now that things are going more "my" way--nyahhahhahhah! Okay, that's enough--that I would stop blogging, the way I let my subscription to The American Prospect lapse after Clinton got in. (Uh..."Clinton got in"...wait a minute, I need a better choice of words...No, I don't.)
But the mistake I made back then, and am determined not to make now, is to treat this as the end of something. We should have made it more into the Beginning of Something, and hopefully we will now. Because even though the past few years have seen a lot of anger and fear and reflexive behavior, they've also seen some people willing toquestion their assumptions and do some real thinking. I want to see this continue, starting with me.
Besides, now I can write more stuff about my cats.
Nyah-nyah.
I feel like the school bully just got his ass handed to him. Not Bush or Rumsfeld or Rove specifically, but just that whole way of "Oh yeah? Make me! You and what army?" mentality that's governed the discourse over the past five years, and that was met with equally stupid behavior by the other side.
In fact, this was a referendum on the whole business of "sides." Apparently, people were getting tired of being pushed back and forth between two false choices and wanted something in the middle.
I started this blog 21 months ago after watching the State of the Union address, when my husband said don't bother quoting pundits, and to enter the argument myself. So you'd figure, now that things are going more "my" way--nyahhahhahhah! Okay, that's enough--that I would stop blogging, the way I let my subscription to The American Prospect lapse after Clinton got in. (Uh..."Clinton got in"...wait a minute, I need a better choice of words...No, I don't.)
But the mistake I made back then, and am determined not to make now, is to treat this as the end of something. We should have made it more into the Beginning of Something, and hopefully we will now. Because even though the past few years have seen a lot of anger and fear and reflexive behavior, they've also seen some people willing toquestion their assumptions and do some real thinking. I want to see this continue, starting with me.
Besides, now I can write more stuff about my cats.
