We can win in 2006

[pstokely]

if our candidates can present themselves as clear alternatives

people want to vote for someone, not against them

let's start finding candidates now

[Tweed]

1. We need to work our asses off

and I'm ready to do it.

[fujiyama]

2. I'm not optimistic

I tried to avoid being too optimistic about this election....and I'm still feeling devastated.

We've had two disasterous elections in the post 9/11 world. The national party seems to be dying.

[Cobalt Violet]

3. But remember part of the plan is to demoralize democrates.

They are counting on us to be thin skinned.

[bunkerbuster1]

4. You shoulda been around in 1972

I assume you're too young to remember the complete and utter disaster that was McGovern's campaign. Now, that was a "disasterous election."

Listen to Paul Simon's "American Tune" to get a feel for just how mournful we felt at the time.

Bad as Iraq is, keep in mind that a HELL of a lot more Americans were getting themselves killed in Vietnam at the time. It seemed so painfully obvious that Nixon was evil and yet the country overwhelmingly backed him.

We didn't give up then. We mustn't now.

I'm not writing this to rag on you at all. Hell, I understand. I woke up at 3am with a horrible feeling in my gut. I've been too upset to even write about it, here or in any other forum, in any detail. I've got acquaintances, colleagues, neighbors who voted for Bush that I don't even want to talk to. I live in a fucking RED STATE (having moved from a blue one three years ago) and I'm seeing every one of my most pessimistic presumptins going in being borne out by these people.

So yeah, I'm devastated. And it may be another week before I can do anything positive, locally.

But I will. I will attend a local county-Democrats meeting. I will learn about local races that will matter. I will find others--like a co-worker who's expressed frustration and wants to volunteer time this time--to help build a movement.

You can too. Our party will not die. Those ratfuckers used EVERY dirty trick they had up their sleeve and they barely eked out a "victory." They can pretend, they can pump up their red-staters, but we know the truth, and we know history.

So yeah, go ahead and mourn. It is like a death in the family. But we must pick up and continue to fight for a better world. It's still within our grasp.

[tritsofme]

6. At least in 1972 and 1984

we kept control of at least the House, and sometimes the Senate, now we have nothing.

That's what makes this election so scary.

[bunkerbuster1]

8. Sure. But the difference here is,

the Preznit "won" by a tiny margin (again). Nixon humiliated, crushed, destroyed McGovern.

The Preznit can continue to blather on about his mandate, but in truth (and we must be vigilant in pointing this out) all he did was get out more of his own true believers.

He didn't make up any ground in New York City. They overwhelmingly repudiated his claims that his War on Terra has made us safer. Essentially what was blue before is still blue.

I don't give a shit if most Americans are willing to accept the spin that our Preznit has a mandate (and I don't believe most blue-staters will). He doesn't.

We have to keep hammering away at him, sure, but most of all, we have to chip away at Congress.

We do not have "nothing." We still have thousands of paid staff members (and, potentially, millions of volunteers, many of whom did not work this latest election but WILL WANT TO NEXT TIME) who can be working to deliver us from evil.

[ladjf]

We're never going to win again unless we can stop the fraud.

[ladjf]

5. We're never going to win again unless we can stop the fraud.

[dorktv]

7. Reporting for duty!