You will wake up on Wednesday and, most likely, know whether the Koch Brothers, Governor Scott Walker, the Fitzpatricks, and their gang of State Senate followers have been able to hold off the active resistance to their plans to gut the state of Wisconsin.
That's a given. You will read the news -- perhaps here. Barring the likes of our being hit by an unexpected meteor, the only way that you and others won't know who won is if there is a recount -- meaning that the result was too close to call.
Victory, defeat, recount. You will wake up on Wednesday to one of them.
If you put in some effort -- not "effort like you're the only one who can decide the results, but a fair amount of effort, say, a couple of hours of calling today and a couple tomorrow for all-important GOTV -- then you may not like a bad result, but you will feel that you did your part to prevent it. You will have fought. You did your part.
But imagine the possibilities if you don't put in some effort.
Victory! A net of three Democrats may win, shifting control of the Wisconsin State Senate and blocking Gov. Walker and the Fitzpatricks from doing more damage to the constitution, damage that may, incidentally, take Wisconsin out of the Democratic column in 2012 even if a majority of its residents try to vote Democratic, through draconian voter eligibility laws.
You will celebrate along with the rest of us, as if you had something concrete to do with the victory -- like a fan at a football game. And cheering helps, I suppose -- but our opponents hope that you do no more than that.
Defeat! Fewer than a net of three Democrats win. Maybe it's close, maybe it's not. You, like me, like many of us, will sulk. The drive to stomp out Labor and Democracy will have reached its great victory. This election will be a line in the history books. "Democrats were unable to reverse this movement when...."
While we will all rue the defeat. Others, including many here, will want to know: "What did you do in the war?" How did you put your shoulder to the task when times were most critical? What did you do? What did you do?
You will want to have an answer. Will you have one?
Undetermined -- a possible runoff! It happened in the Supreme Court election where Prosser eventually, due to some voting shenanigans, beat Kloppenburg by a whisker. This is the worst case for you. The polls show it is possible -- not unlikely in the least.
This is where you will wonder whether a few hours of calling, a few bucks of donating for ads, whatever you can spare, might have made the difference.
This is THE FIGHT this year in electoral politics. Wisconsin didn't choose to be Midway Island or Normandy, but here it is. What -- if it's close -- will you be able to tell others -- will you be able to tell yourself -- that you have done?
Don't give more money or make more calls -- yes, they're sick of calls, but you can still usually leave messages conveying your honest passion for victory and fear of defeat here, and it may be one of the last things that they hear before deciding whether to vote -- for other people. Do it for yourself.
You will wake up on Wednesday and you will hear the news. It may be good, it may be bad, it may be a nerve-jangling, torturous "in between." You will be asking yourself, if it's anything but a victory -- "what did I do to prevent this?"
You will want to have an answer for yourself.
You have to give that answer today and tomorrow. On Wednesday it will be too late.
12:24 PM PT: Ha -- forgot to add the links!
For the DGA/PCCC calls (nice computerized system, but sent me only to the Shilling-Kapanke race) click here.
To be able to call any race you'd like, though it's not a fancy computerized calling system, click the WI Dem Party's website here.
1:14 PM PT: Borrowing this from Chris Bowers's excellent diary, which quotes Korkenzieher:
Anyway, you wouldn't believe the shitstorm of blatant lies they're hurling at Pasch. She hates veterans. She hates children. She hates the whole community, except, of course, for illegal aliens. These are ads being run on every media outlet in Milwaukee, and this is just for one race in the Milwaukee suburbs. Now consider how much cheaper it'd be to run those same ads in small-town, northwoods or dairy farm Wisconsin.
Honestly, Wisconsin is always a battleground state in presidential elections, and the stuff being thrown at Pasch alone exceeds anything the wingnuts threw at Clinton, Gore, Kerry or Obama in the last few presidential elections. It has an effect. It confuses people.
It's all about turnout. If we do the groundwork, we can still win.
This is the Koch's dry run for 2012 -- not just in Wisconsin, but everywhere. Will we fight against it or not?