Like many, I've watched the mid-terms with an uneasy yet hopeful feeling. Conservatives dominate Knoxville quite handily, and once you go out of the city limits they get even more numerous and extreme. Combine that with the pervading culture of Christian conservatism, those who wholly vote GOP thinking it the best way to bring back prayer and bible reading in schools and get rid of abortions and gays, and it's easy for any progressive to be disheartened. Tennessee keeps getting redder, and more fanatically right-wing, with every election, though again I did my part and cast my votes. Yet I held out hope that somehow, in enough places beyond out state borders, saner heads would prevail and we would still hang on to the Senate.
Alas, the latest round of polls, several early exit-polls, and finally my gut, seem to be leading to a disappointing night of election watching. It's still early (just past 8:30 EST as I type this), and maybe the polls and my gut will still end up being delightfully wrong. But I am, and have been for some time I guess, trying to come to terms with a GOP Senate to go along with our wonderfully productive GOP House.
But when I really consider it all, I'm not as concerned or worried as I thought I would be. There are several silver linings, but I'm thinking of one that I've yet to hear anyone mention (though surely someone has, and I've just missed it). I'll explain further below the orange thingy...
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