four more years of fascism

Thanks to just slightly more than half this country. Ah, well, at least we can work with the other half.

Well, this sucked. But my mom gave me a t-shirt as a parting present that says "Remember, no matter who you vote for, the government will get in." That's the truth. Not that I'm an orthodox anarchist, but it's definitely the point here.

So today we drove back from Ohio, my phone had died early evening last night, so if you're waiting on a call back from me, it's coming. When I checked my messages just now, my pal Nicole had called me to ask what we do next. I called back and said, "Fight! Fight like we always have, like we were going to have to anyway."

I'm so glad the framing of this is "it's good moral values to hate queers and want to control women's lives, and gosh, the Dems should've thought of that." Not, say, "gee, over half this country wants us to be an evangelical christian state, in direct contradiction to the Constitution, as problematic a document as that was in its first incarnation." Or perhaps the irony of the party of "No Big Government" wanting to control the minutia of my personal sex life, and the reproductive activities of many.

There will be blaming. I think the Dems picked a particularly uncharismatic ruling-class dude to run. I also think they fold early because that's all they seem to know how to do - conciliate.

I also think that Republican operatives in the state of Ohio calling people and telling them incorrect locations of their polls, and giving voters in predominantly African-American districts fake ballots and having people "vote on the spot" is part of the very problem.

In Columbus, it was raining. As I emphasized to the somewhat distractible but stalwart van's worth of High School students, all political analysts know that when it rains, Dems stay in and Republicans trot out and vote anyway (except in SF - represent!). While there was huge voter turnout, and 90% of the Ohioans I spoke with that day had already voted, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't help. I said to them, "Yes, knocking doors of empty houses sucks. Yes, being rained on sucks. But those things don't suck as much as four more years of Bush." Alas, now we get to find out exactly how much that is, barring force majure.

I came back to DC and wanted to see riots, but instead saw traffic. I got another call from my pal Cathy, who'd spent the last two months in Columbus - she got a call from our people in the Bay, rowdy and in the streets of the Mission. If that don't make ya homesick, I don't know what will.

Hang in there, folks, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.