Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Deep breath, all together now.
Will everybody calm down? It really sucks that Bush won again, but it's not the end of the world. I give you three points for consideration:
Point the First: The American bureaucracy, bless its soul, is an unimaginably inert body. Even with a second-term President and a friendly Congress, the fact is that there are too many mechanisms of the status quo for a radical agenda to be imposed. Moreover, the GOP doesn't have the 60 votes it needs in the Senate to stop filibusters or override vetos or confirm any truly reactionary SCOTUS Justices, so there's that. I imagine we'll see more of the same, but don't expect concentration camps for Muslims or prayer in schools.
Point the Second: Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, MAYBE this drubbing will finally wake up the Democrats to the fact that they need a new strategy, a new doctrine, a new leadership. [read: me. :)]
Point the Third: At least come 2008, the Bush Doctrine will be unequivocably, unmistakably driven into the ground and stomped to smithereens. For better or for worse, America will never again attempt a policy of pre-emptive warfare without overwhelming evidence of a truly imminent threat.
So, chill. This isn't good, by any strech of the imagination; I was in Boston, and trust me, the faces in the crowd told the whole story. Still, let's stop the hysterics and figure out what we can take out of this experience to accomplish good over the next four years and set ourselves up for big wins in the 2006 midterms.
