We don't know what will happen on Tuesday. I've lost track of how many times Joe Biden has told me to "listen up," how may times he's asked me for $3 and said it's "important." How many times Harry Reid has begged and pleaded, how many times both Barack and Michelle have told me they "need me." And I gave what I could.
I hope we win. But if we don't, I'm reminded of a column written by the great Molly Ivins the day after George Bush won in 2004, not long before she died.
She said then and its pertinent now:
Molly Ivins November 4
AUSTIN, Texas — Do you know how to cure a chicken-killin' dog? Now, you know you cannot keep a dog that kills chickens, no matter how fine a dog it is otherwise.Some people think you cannot break a dog that has got in the habit of killin' chickens, but my friend John Henry always claimed you could. He said the way to do it is to take one of the chickens the dog has killed and wire the thing around the dog's neck, good and strong. And leave it there until that dead chicken stinks so bad that no other dog or person will even go near that poor beast. Thing'll smell so bad the dog won't be able to stand himself. You leave it on there until the last little bit of flesh rots and falls off, and that dog won't kill chickens again.
The Bush administration is going to be wired around the neck of the American people for four more years, long enough for the stench to sicken everybody. It should cure the country of electing Republicans.
And at least Democrats won't have to clean up after him until it is real clear to everyone who made the mess.
Nationally we learned that lesson. We elected a Democrat in both 2008 & 2012. This year's fight for the Senate is being fought basically in red states that are a little slow to catch on. But the very fact that its a fight at all tells us something. Even in those states the momentum is slowly changing.I'm In Cincinnati. Jerry Springer was here last weekend to do a local political event for Nina Turner, running for Secretary of State in Ohio.
He made some very good points. The gist of it was this:
Over the years, the decades, liberals have advocated for the women's right to vote, for Social security, for the 40 hour work week (and weekends), for civil rights, for women's reproductive rights, for gay rights, for Medicare, for environmental regulation, for food safety regulation, for work place safety (like coal mines) regulation, the list goes on and on.
In the end, conservatives always lose, all they accomplish is to stall the inevitable. But they keep thinking they can stop the clock, even turn back time.
In the end they lose.
The long view is what matters, we can't forget that.