We held the fate of the nation in our hands, gatekeepers to paradise who let no one pass. Mothers drew their children aside and whispered, there go the Ones Who Cost Us Elections. With comforting regularity, we enjoyed nods to our power from the bewildered ("No wonder we keep on losing!").
Atheism was pole dancing in the public's face in a way not seen since O'Hair. NEW Atheists, they called us, a fresh name for an exciting pop phenomena. The Internets
belonged to us. Harris, Dawkins, Dennett penned bestsellers in 2006, followed the next year by excreable, irritating Christopher Hitchens. Attuned to the smell of money, Ann Coulter released a book branding ALL liberals Godless. A sitting Senator smeared her electoral opponent with the same label. And through it all, Michael Newdow burbled in the background, scaring the decent with a world of NO GOD in the pledge or on money.
Our salad days. Electoral bigfoots. Living large.
Then...
disaster.
In late 2006, Democrats took the House by margins that equalled the 1994 Republican Rout. 1994 was the Republican apogee, they never enjoyed those numbers again. This year, Democrats expanded their majority by 20-some seats.
They snagged the Senate, too. Then boosted their numbers by at least 5 this year.
In 1994, Republicans flipped their gubernatorial deficit from 20-29 to 29-20. In 2006, Democrats did the same, 22-28 to 28-22. Then flipped an extra governorship in 2008.
The Democrats floated a Senator as their presidential candidate. An unknown Senator. A
black unknown Senator. A black unknown Senator with an Arabic middle name and two weird names hanging on either side. And won.
Democrats won BIG across the board. There is talk of generational realignment. Republicans are in the wilderness, enjoying a Dark Night of the Soul.
What happened to us? Will we never throw another election? We hung our asses out there, bad as we wanna be, and nobody blinked. Have we fallen into
ordinariness, no different than anyone else?
"Hi Pat! I enjoy cooking and music and long stretches of not thinking about God!"
"That's great, Charlie! Are you ready to play Wheel of Fortune?"
*moan*
<thickwitted>Tongue in cheek :P</thickwitted>
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