Game Over, Man - GAME OVER!!!

[NanceGreggs]

Reading some of the posts here last night, it was all I could do to keep from slapping myself upside the head with a brick.

OMG! Game over! We’re DOOMED!!! We can’t win anything!

So we lost two special elections to Republicans in GOP strongholds – what a shocker! We lost seats vacated by Republicans who were chosen for presidential appointments BECAUSE their seats were considered beyond safe. But according to some here, the sky fell with a resounding thud and it was time for everyone on our side of the aisle to pack up and go home in shame, forever defeated.

The fact that in all special elections thus far, the Republicans have won by much smaller margins than they did the last time a GOPer ran for the same seat was dismissed as unimportant. “The only thing that counts is winning” – a sentiment that completely ignores the gains that Democrats are making, gains that can be turned into victories down the road.

To take the position that Democrats losing to Republicans in Republican strongholds is somehow a sign of overwhelming defeat is beyond ludicrous – in the same way a Democrat winning in a Democratic stronghold is never a sign that Democrats will win everywhere. Most people understand that – but apparently, this is late-breaking news to others.

Politics is a long game. Winning requires effort, hard work, patience, and a slow-but-steady whittling away of the GOP’s hold on voters they have achieved only by lying to them and promising changes they know will never come to be.

Victories are won by inches, not miles; they are won by persistence, not by throwing your hands in the air and walking away. They are also not won by blaming Democrats like Nancy Pelosi – and one has to wonder exactly WHO some of the perpetually disgruntled think could lead the party to win-after-win in Republican districts, which they seem to believe is possible.

Let’s remember that when we lose any election due to Republican voters, we are losing to people who think global warming doesn’t exist because it still snows in the wintertime, people who believe that Trump will bring the coal industry back to its former glory (and reinstating those FotoMart and Blockbuster Video jobs won’t be far behind), people who believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old and that the retirement age should be raised because Noah built the ark after celebrating his 600th birthday.

The fact that Republicans are joyously publicizing their great victory for winning elections they KNEW they would win speaks for itself – and yet the fact that they won those elections by smaller margins than they did a few months ago goes unacknowledged.

If you’re ready to take your ball and go home over last night’s Republican “victories”, perhaps politics is just not for you. Perhaps you’re more comfortable with checkers, because chess is simply beyond your ken. Or maybe you’d just rather discourage your fellow party members because – well, I’ll leave it to those who attempted to discourage their fellow Democrats to explain exactly how “helpful” they were trying to be.

I’m sure it’s a great story. And I, for one, would like to hear the tale.