Oh, how I had actually looked forward to this year's midterm. Democrats holding the line in the Senate, ditching a bunch of teabag governors like Rick Scott, and other gains. Of course, those high hopes were mercilessly crushed last week. And given how I live in the outer fringes of the Bible Belt, I can't be too vocal at work and such...
But yesterday, as I did some running around in my city's outdoor mall this weekend, to get my mind off this blistering setback. Had lunch at Chipotle (one of the few restaurants I'll still eat at, due to their source of chicken), was walking back from Barnes & Noble after buying the next Wheel of Time book I need to read (anything to help an Amazon competitor), heading back over to the Best Buy to finally get the Blu-ray pack for Man of Steel (which rocks all over 1978 Superman, by the way, and I needed something positive).
And as I was heading back, what did I see? Pulling up to a Cheesecake Factory was...a black Tesla model S. I was right by the curb, and this was the closest I ever got to one. No surprise he was going for valet parking. So out steps a guy in his later years, and I just go ahead and ask, "Are those cars as good as everyone says they are?" He replies that he loves it. I say something quick about just getting a Ford Fiesta soon, being only a year into my first post-college job, and using that while hoping that electric vehicles will be more commonplace in ten years. He responds that he believes they will be, and we both go our separate ways.
Maybe it's me fishing for ANY hopeful signs after the self-inflicted wounds of a botched midterm election. But seeing an obviously well-off, older white dude hopeful about such a needed change, and acknowledging that things are indeed moving in that direction, stuck out that day. That the Kochs and the like can't use their money to will away coming changes in transportation and renewable energy, that forces will conspire against them anyway, like the free market values they claim to love (how ironic!).
Whatever keeps you going. Whatever gears you up for 2016 (keep the White House blue, even if it means using Hillary to do it) and 2018 (flip some governorships and state legislatures in time for 2020).