A few reflections now that it's apparent that Dems have taken the Senate and House nationally, as part of a national wave against the GOP.
1. I"m sad and disappointed that Colorado continues to limit equal rights for some. Colorado's Referendum i ,which would have allowed same-sex couples the same rights that every other citizen is provided, failed. (More on this below, but I'm sure Hickenlooper is anguishing about whether his failures contributed to this Referendum's defeat....)
We still have a long way to go educating our citizens about the principles of basic fairness enshrined in our Bill of Rights....
2. Rumsfeld leaving, Gates coming. Clear signal we're back to Bush I realpolitik... the whole Scowcroft/Baker crowd is now running foreign policy.
I've never felt Rumsfeld was substantially or primarily to blame for the Iraq mess, the buck just passes by that post. More generally, I wish he'd had more success restructuring the military. That's fundamentlal to getting our outlandish outmoded weapons costs under some control, without which it will be very tough to deal with other costly issues like health care and retirement benefits...
3. Bush' Speech. He should have made it two weeks ago -- -bet the Republicans would have kept at least the Senate.
4. The Denver voting mess. Hickenlooper completely screwed this up. While I think the City Auditor's alarmism on the voting centers was too histrionic to be effective a few months ago, an effective executive should have managed this well enough to avoid the problems. Some of the problems were completely avoidable and predictable --- running the computers that vetted ID's off the same server that city employees use was completely inane.
I'd like to see an analysis as to whether any issues or candidates were flipped due to voters unable to vote, and I'm curious as to the legal recourse if so...
More generally, Hickenlooper had best insure he's surrounded by competent managers going forward...
5. Trust in the process. I've been cynical since the GOP tried to overturn the popular will by impeaching Clinton (end of my Republican tendencies) and much more so after Katherine Harris, the suited GOP thugs, and the right-wing Supremes cabaled behind closed doors to give Bush the country in 2000 .... Diebold and a single party country run by ideologues who clearly valued power over the Constitution... well, I've assumed the worst.
But it appears that the popular will has been able to overcome money, gerrymandering, illegal smear campaigns, and voter suppression ... which means an entire generation of Americans will believe again that our American democracy can work.
This is vital to me -- I've seen my children grow up to believe that dissent will be punished, and that those with opposing views have no voice.
Late last night I talked to my son on the phone. He was staying up late to track results. He was excited, proud, energized, interested, engaged.
For the first time in years, my 13 year-old believes in the system...(update -- a 24 year-old expresses it well...)
6. Progressives mobilizing marvelously. I think the key to success in these efforts has been their sophistication.
Trailhead raised more money than all the other Colorado 527s combined, but was frustrated at every turn by fast-moving, new-media savvy small groups and individuals who could respond and rebut every tactic before it could get traction.
Best example; the collective response to Beauprez' attack ads on Ritter. Within hours of the news that Beauprez' campaign had illegal access to the NCIC database, the mainstream media was forced to investigate and report, because the people's media was generating massive blog, email, and IM traffic. Beauprez' attacks were hurting Ritter, but Beauprez lost the entire campaign over the next two weeks by having to play defense (and fumbling that entirely). While Ritter's campaign was responding, it was the citizens' media (which also fostered and promulgated Both Ways Bob) that coined and disseminated BeauprezGate within hours... (consider Allen's Macaca-moment, YouTubed everywhere in moments...)
It didn't work everywhere, and money matters; Paccione didn't have enough dosh to respond to the personal attack ads fast enough; Winter never had the cash to take on Tancredo (though his campaign was much better than Conti's, and I think it would be great if Bill keeps pushing for two more years -- Tancredo is Colorado's worst citizen, and that needs continued focus...); Fawcett probably didn't have enough money fast enough either (though it seems that that district would vote a dead elephant in before a non-Republican. I think in fact they just did...)
7. As goes Colorado's GOP, so goes the country's.... The ideological, holier-than-thou, hate-immigrant wing has meant that the faces of the Colorado GOP in DC are Marilyn Musgrave, Tom Tancredo, and Doug Lamborn. (Oops, almost forgot Wayne Allard, how could that possibly happen ... ) No Reagan conservative in this state is proud to have that crowd represent their values....
Corrollary; the GOP can lose more here before they get back on track. Look at what happened to the GOP in Ohio and New York -- an even greater local wipeout than here. The Republicans won't be voted back in numbers until they stop spewing hate-mongering extremists out of their primaries...
8. Thank goodness for multi-party power in D.C. This is so extraordinarily vital in an era when the Executive branch has been on a mission to usurp authority of the other branches. We have been on a fastpath toward an undemocratic America that our founding fathers would never have accepted or recognized. Thank goodness that trend has been stopped dead for now...
9. Where's Wayne?? Allard, that is. The least effective Senator was also the most invisible during this last campaign season. Any sightings??
I know my Republican friends are downcast right now, but I firmly believe that the probability of progress on the issues that matter to every American is infinitely greater today than it was yesterday...
