I checked the results last night before heading to bed. I had planned to avoid all election results and wait until morning to witness the massacre. I knew it was coming. I feel I've known it was coming since the night President Obama won in 2008. All that talk about the end of the Republican party. Some people were so sure that they would be the minority party into the foreseeable future.
Well that didn't happen. I didn't believe then that it would happen. They just are not those people. They would not go out without a fight. And fight they did. President Obama promised us hope and change. The Republicans gave us fear and more of the same.
It was Roosevelt who said the only the thing we have to fear is fear itself. The Republicans told us that we should fear everything.
It's easy to fall into that trap. Fear is not an easy thing to overcome. It is not rational. It can't be reasoned away. You have to stand up to it with knees quaking and heart pounding, beating it back like a living thing that would consume you.
And it can't be fought at two year intervals. The fight is non-stop. The Republicans understand that.
We talk about motivation. What about education? I listened to an interview with a college student in Baltimore who had no idea who to vote for. She said she didn't know anything about the candidates, just the negative ads that she'd seen. My initial reaction was that we can't spoon feed the electorate. At some point they have to do some research, find out about the candidates, dig beneath the surface. Yes it's time consuming and hard work. But democracy is not a spectator sport. You can't sit on the sidelines watching as if you have no skin in the game.
I talked to a co-worker yesterday who said he would be voting, but it really didn't matter who won. Both parties may be owned by the corporations, but I think we are about to find out some real differences.
And so can you say you woke up if you didn't really sleep? Whatever I did last night, I now have a headache and I'm literally sick to my stomach. I don't think two aspirin are going to make it any better.