Who here finds it hard to eat a good meal these days? [View All]

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

What about filling the gas tank, the heating oil tank, paying the electric bill or affording that airline ticket when you really have to get somewhere? Who here is having problems finding a job that pays you a wage that allows you to lead a decent life? Who here recently lost a job? Who here has recently had huge medical bills and no insurance and now faces financial ruin? Who here has lost their home to foreclosure? Bankruptcy? Who here has recently been roughed up or tasered by out-of-control police?

I could go on like this for a while, but I think that the average DU'er is more than smart enough to understand what I am trying to say, above. That the above are some of the real and substantive issues facing this nation. There are a whole lot more.

The reason I ask this is because we will soon have a nominee for our party. Either a black man or a woman. A lot of people are very invested in their respective candidates based upon what either symbolizes. In a large way, either getting the nomination would be a signal of final emancipation for either African-American citizens or women. It is to be expected that those who are emotionally invested in the meaning of that symbolism would feel a great sense of loss and betrayal if their candidate did not win.

But, I am not here to prannie on about symbols. The stakes are a lot higher than that.

We have two good candidates and one of them is going to win the nomination and likely the election. After that, we have a goat fuck to deal with in this country. We have all those issues I listed above and one hell of a lot more to deal with, as soon as we can. They are not issues of symbolism or of form over function. They are concrete issues of dire immediacy. The question we face is: Are we going to Cross over to The Promised Land or Cross The River Styx? And yes, the choice is just that stark.

I write this because the primaries, a time of real personal indulgence and sometimes tomfoolery, are drawing to a close, if one is to believe the signs and portents. That means that something greater looms: the winning of The Presidency and the houses of Congress and then setting to work fixing the problems I elucidated above. Also, doing what we on the left do best: Making sure that the people we elect do everything in their powers as enumerated under The Constitution of The United States of America(and not one assumed or stolen power more...) to work their guts out night and day with a single-minded devotion to truly addressing that which ails this nation.

What I mean is that the personal issues I listed in the first paragraph seems to me to be a lot more important and a lot more worthy of our attention than a snit because someone might have, at some point, said something mean about their candidate or, perhaps, their candidate did not win. Symbolism or not.

What is riding on this election is incalculable. In my 55 years I have never seen this country in such a state, raped of her wealth and cast adrift by our Captains of Commerce and our elected officials. How it all turns out is up to us. In the weeks and months ahead a lot of people need to gut check, suck it up and recognize the fact that we, as a nation and a party, cannot afford the indulgence of snits and long-simmering resentments. We have work to do and history will judge us, all of us, on the quality of our work that looms directly ahead.

History will not judge snits kindly. Snits never fixed anything.