I'm in a bad mood today. But let's be clear: I'm not going ANYWHERE.

[beachmom]

Hi Tay. I think we just have started dueling threads on the JK forum!!

A first for us.

Hey, us out of staters are rip roaring mad. The entire situation is completely out of our control. We feel impotent. And I guarantee you the mirror image of Mass., Georgia, despite many scandals with the Republican state assembly (the Speaker attempted suicide except he actually faked it to garner more sympathy about his corruption problems, and was forced to step down . . . ), will not vote for a Democrat as revenge. They are not that stupid. They get what power is. They will want to clean house from time to time but would never sit on their hands and allow a DEMOCRAT to be elected. No way. Somebody needs to let the Mass. public know: their "honorable" anti-encumbancy vote will NOT be balanced out in the South. All it means is more right wing southern GOP votes in the Senate.

I will remain a Democrat, active when the situation warrants (limited opportunities here, unfortunately), and I will always vote. I'll call Congressmen/Senators when I think it will make a difference. I will remain informed. I'll keep posting here from time to time. But what I will not do is waste all my time on the day to day political dramas. That has zero effect on the things that are important to me and lowers the quality of my life (less time for my family AND I end up in a bad mood).

Call me a cold realist who still, despite many setbacks, am quite idealistic.

I watched the special on PBS about our national parks. I saw how fighting for something for DECADES had so many setbacks, bitter defeats, and small steps forward. I'm not going anywhere. But I will use my time more wisely going forward.

Adendum:

And, Tay, more power to you and the good work you, the Dem party, and so many activists in Mass. will be doing. I am all for that. I think that is why you can be in a good mood. You know what you need to do, and you will set out and do it.

[wisteria]

1. Yes, rip-roaring mad. n/t

[TayTay]

2. You have a right to be rip-roaring mad

This race, on the national level, had huge implications. IT is a depressing result, all the more so because you could not affect the outcome of the race from where you are. I do get that.

There is a lot of soul-searching to be done in MA. We dropped the ball, crapped out at the table, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, pissed away a 31 point lead and everything else you can say about this debacle of a race. We had a bad candidate, who had a top-heavy organization that proceeded to run one of the most arrogant and ignorant campaigns I have ever had the misfortune to see, never-mind live under, in my state.

No doubt about it, we sh*t the bed on this one. Now we have to eat sh*t sandwiches for the next three years and wear bags over our heads when we discuss the US Senate. Brian McGrory had a superb column today that really states how a lot of people feel: Swept off our feet:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/20/swept_off_our_feet/

However, I also can't help feeling that this was a reckoning, one long overdue. I apologize on behalf of my State, my State Dem Party who had their heads up their butts for this race and for the idiotic campaign that people in other states had to try and make sense of . (Still not apologizing for the voters. That never works.)

I saw this coming. We felt it after the 2008 race. The Dems shut us out. They knew everything and didn't need any help. No problem, we professionals know what we're doing and aren't you little local people so cute with your little accents and concerns. Go sit down you adorable people and let us do what we want to do. You're so cute. (Arrrrggggghhhhhh. Just arrrrrggggghhhhh!)

Yet, I am energized this morning. We fight. The battle can at least now be called a friggin battle. We need to get energized and fight. That is, I think, the cause of my good mood. We can at last acknowledge that trouble is here and we need to organize and do better.

[Mass]

3. Yes. I am no fan of McGrory, but this sums it up.\nt

[MH1]

4. yup that McGrory piece seems about right

funny, I started writing a response to the other thread that I never got finished and posted, but here's how it started: "I think MA is going to wake up with one hell of a hangover once it gets off its bender and realizes who it slept with."

I don't know if it's a good sign that I was thinking along the same lines as McGrory!

[TayTay]

5. It's a good thing

The problem with anger elections is that you often wake up feeling like you were drinking sterno and lighter fluid cocktails the night before. Ouch!

There will be a lot of people in MA waking up over the next month, turning over and seeing who they were in bed with and making a beeline for the bathroom. Unfortunately, there are consequences to this particular sleepover and all the wrong folks are going to be the ones, pardon the expression, being screwed over.

Sigh!

Again, I am not happy with these results. Energized to do something about it, but not happy. Quite the opposite. I am so angry with a lot of folks here that I can barely see. I will channel that anger into a proper course. This didn't have to happen you know. That is the part of the sterno cocktail that is the hardest to reconcile: this didn't have to happen.

[wisteria]

12. Yes, that is what makes me mad. n/t

[beachmom]

6. I loved that column!! I felt like I was there!

An excellent description of what happened.

[wisteria]

11. What a damn way to have to learn a lesson though.

But, organize, energize, and fight sounds like a good battle cry.

[beachmom]

7. I'm also mad because health care just died:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/01/placing_a_call_part_ii.php#more?ref=fpblg

The votes aren't there for the Senate bill. As Josh Marshall predicted the other day.

The Republicans won more than a seat in Mass. They just won by destroying the President's agenda.

So that is why I am in a bad mood.

[TayTay]

8. Maybe, though that was always an illusion

We have the power to pass health care. We lack the will.

There are numerous ways to pass that bill, if there is the will. And Barack Obama is still responsible for his own presidency. He has the power to shift the debate again, he should use it.

[beachmom]

9. Barney Frank no longer has the will. If he doesn't, then who does?

The unions are useless:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/20/827602/-Breaking:-Labor-Will-Not-Support-House-Passing-Senate-Bill-As-It-Is.-

You are right that Democrats have the power. But they are just a bunch of WIMPS.

[ObamaKerryDem]

10. "We have the power to pass health care. We lack the will. "--This is what it all comes down to.

Hopefully a newfound will to do so will be the silver lining in all of this..

[wisteria]

13. Exactly. n/t