So it's been 6 months

[sandnsea]

Today. How is everybody?

[wisteria]

1. I'm still sad sometimes and upset,

but I am looking ahead to 2006 and 2008.

[paulk]

2. the reality of it is really starting to sink in

how are we (as a nation) going to get through the next three and a half years?

[WildEyedLiberal]

3. Mad, energized, and determined

I told people on November 3rd - all Kerry has to do is KEEP DOGGING THESE CORRUPT BASTARDS, and he'll establish himself as our leader.

I feel prescient now :D Or maybe JK's just *that good*.

Well, I KNOW he's *that good*. but I digress... ;)

[JohnKleeb]

4. disappointed but not giving up

[LittleClarkie]

5. Still losing it here and there

Still in mourning. But I got a brand new "Never Surrender" purple bracelet on Saturday. And so I won't.

Still wish with all my heart sometimes when I see Kerry that this was our president. I can't understand why so many in this country are so blind. I just don't understand why they don't see what we see.

[kerrygoddess]

6. I'd like a Never Surrender Bracelet

Where'd you get it?

[LittleClarkie]

17. It has "www.workingassets.com" on the inside

I can't seem to find anything on their site, but I'm on dialup. Maybe you'd have more luck. But that's where it appears to have come from. I got one at the meetup in Wisconsin. Classwarrior had them. Maybe you could pm him and find out where he got them.

[BlueIris]

9. That's about like I am.

And, yeah, "Never Surrender" is still how I feel, too. Mostly, because, as I keep finding out, I can't. It's not how I'm wired anymore. Not about this.

[kerrygoddess]

7. Determined... madder than ever...

Glad to see JK out there fighting hard, and knowing that somehow we have to beat this name Repub Noise Machine.

Oh and sick and tired of the whiners! How 'bout you?

I walked 4 laps at the trakc this evening with my daughter and my neighbor, by the by, good therapy for political frustration. Fresh air and an hour walk.

[TayTay]

I have my crazed weasel moments

but over all, I have accepted it. But in that, 'we're not gonna take it anymore' way.

That crappy media fawn over the 2nd hundred days affected me worse than the 6 month anniversary of the loss. I am going to have to brew up another batch of industrial strength Evil-Be-Gone to deal with the RW nutjob lies that are coming around on Bolton the Bastard, the death of the filibuster and Sens. First and Allen on just about anything. It's going to be a long 18 months until the 2006 elections.

It goes. It just goes. 'Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.'

[foreverdem]

8. Sad, but hopeful

Still sad that John is not in his rightful place in the White House, but hopeful and proud of him that he's out there trying his best to make a reality of what he promised us he would do as president, the things that are actually important to us. I'm also feeling hopeful that the 2006 elections will give us a bigger Democratic voice in Congress, and that this currupt administration will start their melt down.

[europegirl4jfk]

10. Much better now...

... that I've found you, guys!:hug: Well, my friends in California I spent time with during and after the election are Dems but they went back to their daily business and didn't want to talk politics once Kerry wasn't elected. And when I came back to Europe I felt really lost and totally alone... until I came across this group and until I realized that Kerry is still fighting! He's one of the most amazing people I've ever met.

[whometense]

11. Up and down

That gut level 100% certain feeling I've had since November 2 that Kerry won has led to my biggest struggle, how to deal with that certainty. The knowledge of how corrupt the system really is has really been painful.

I hardly watch the news anymore, since what I see and hear inevitably sends me into a blind rage. Did you guys happen to notice they've brought back the slimy Ben Ginsberg, Swift Liar champion, to spew about the filibuster? Of course, we can't let it get to us, because I believe outrage fatigue, along with its pal hopelessness, is exactly what they're going for.

[TayTay]

12. Ginsberg, OMG

That is one evil-looking son of a bitch. There is something about that half-smile that he always has that makes it look as if he is ready to leap out of seat and bite someone in the throat. What a douchebag.

[whometense]

13. Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's exactly what he looks like - like he's about to bite someone in the throat. I wrote a blog post about him last night, but the picture that goes with it is insufficiently evil. Would have preferred one with blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.

[karynnj]

14. Less sad, but awake to what really happened

Until the election results hit, I heard Kerry's heart felt statement that this was the most important election of our lives and understood and would have agreed with it if asked, but I had not really internalized it or completely thought out its ramifications. Since then, I've asked why I feel so differently about us losing this election than other elections.

Part of the difference is an almost child-like cry within me that. "it was not fair". Any administration in power uses their position to help in their re-election, but the use of bogus terror warnings goes beyond anything I've ever seen. Coupled with the broadcast media's blatant support for the President, the deck never has seemed so stacked against a challenger. I still feel that if the media had fairly shown both Bush and Kerry, the better man would have won. In spite of the bias, Kerry almost won.

Since the election, the fact that the Republicans, who control all three branches of government are still whining about any limits to their power and actively working to consolidate their gains to achieve permanent control of the country. It's clear that only total power would make them happy - and even then they would still find a way to blame those of us with no power for their failings.

It does seem though that many other people have also seen through the veil of normal every day life to see that there have been major changes in how our government is functioning. It's ironic that the excess media/government involvement in the Schaivo mess may more than anything have caused people who were uninvolved to see the direction we are moving in.

Over the last 6 months, I've been amazed at Kerry's positive approach to energizing people to fight back, consider their values and take back their government. It's made it harder in a way, because it made it clearer what we lost. (Both in terms of what the government is doing versus what it could be doing and in recognition that Kerry is more than simply an attractive, liberal candidate.)

However, it may be that this loss may result in a new wave of grassroots involvement around "felt needs" (Tay Tay, thanks for all your comments on this) that Kerry and others have been pushing for.
This might be a needed period of re-establishing what the Democratic party stands for and re-invigorating the local parties. Kerry seems to be one of the leaders both in trying to involve people to became the new refreshed grassroots and in defining what he thinks are our values.

Kerry has to be the only losing candidate ever to be involved in an effort to engender activist Democratic grassroots. In hindsight, the Democrats haven't had much activist type energy at least since the end of the 70s, while unfortunately the Republicans have. As the entire New Deal is now under attack, there should be a resurgence of Democrats.

At the beginning, it almost looked like tilting at windmills, Kerry as Don Quixote (why not - it fits with King Arthur and Robin Hood), but, in spite of sarcastic press and being part of the minority, he has had at least some success. Even the failures (like ANWR) have placed the Republicans on record against the public. The Republicans can lose on what they did with Small Business - it's pretty cynical to vote 100-0 then simply take it out in conference. For Frist, this is a huge flip-flop.


Anyway, I am more hopeful now than in November. I still remember how unexpectedly euphoric I felt on Nov 2 with local Democrats hearing the exit poll numbers. It was like getting a fantastic present that then faded and disappeared before my eyes. (In contrast I went to an election night party in 1972, after cheering MA and DC - we turned off the TV, ate the food and played Beatles music, the balm of all pain. After canvassing in NJ, none of us were surprised at the loss.) But, the Democrats were great, so far, in staying together and articulating well the SS issue - it's actually funny that the talking heads are going back to the same talking points of the Democrats have no plan. (Didn't people reject that only 3 months ago!)

Historically, the Democrats controlled everything for several presidential terms. During the time of FDR and than after the LBJ landslide, the story was the Republican party was dead - it wasn't. The Democratic party isn't now. We may even be at a cross roads where we actually define ourselves. I hope we choose a set of values that encompass the values expressed by this group's leader. Imagine Kerry (or another moderate or Liberal Democrat) running as head of a re-invigorated Democratic party that is in unabashedly standing for the types of American values Kerry has articulated.

[whometense]

15. That was beautiful.

I've been noticing over the past few days what seems like an ever-increasing number of ads, op-eds, and articles on the subject of health care for kids. This has made me more hopeful, because it looks to me like Kerry is experiencing real success in pushing this important agenda item into the forefront, and making people conscious of the problem. He's doing an amazing job, and proving every day that he really does have the heart of a warrior.

I agree about the Beatles, by the way.

[TayTay]

16. We The People

Thanks for the mention! I truly believe this is the right path. * Admin people are still pushing the idea that the rich pay too much in taxes and that the middle-class and the poor just aren't paying enough. (They have hidden this in lies, but that's what they are saying.) The middle-class is waking up to this. They see the gas prices at the pump and wonder why the war in Iraq hasn't helped with that. They see their kids can't go to college because the money has gone to give ExxonMobil a tax cut. They stay up at night with a sick kid who is having asthma problems and can't breath and wonder when they'll be able to find a job with health benefits.

You can't fool all of the people all of the time. The day of reckoning is coming. If The Idiot and his foul friends in Congress think they can keep lying to We The People forever, they got another thing coming.

Braov to Sen. Kerry for what he is doing. A lesser man would have folded under the pressure. I am so glad he has not.

[ginnyinWI]

18. I'm hanging in there

I'm sad for the loss of what might have been, but trying to appreciate what we still have. We have JK and the other Dems on the Hill who are fighting the good fight. We have intelligent and insightful journalists like Eric Alterman and many others who are watching what's going on. We have the internet, which is harder for the powers-that-be to muzzle. If this were like the Nixon era, information would take much longer to percolate into the public awareness. That's why the Vietnam war dragged on so long.

I'm realizing that we won't take the presidency for several years, but that each one of us must keep doing what we can, and should. We can get people informed and thinking about what's going on now, instead of at the start of the next election, because the more people know, the less likely they can be fooled the next time around.

Whenever I get sad about it all, I try to put it into the context of history. Powers rise, get corrupted, and then fall. Bad guys have their day, but ultimately go down. That's how it's always been. The bad guys rise to power appealing to people's fear and greed. Their lust for power is never satisfied. They overreach and fail, as they not only defeat the enemy, but start exploiting their own. Their inability to control themselves dooms them, because they are controlled by the appetite for power rather than being guided by principles.

The good guys are able to do good in between those times of darkness.
People rise up and become champions for the common good. It's a constant struggle, but we can't give up. I hope the people will find out sooner, rather than later, that they have been handed a really raw deal!

I'm kind of amazed that many of them don't know it, but I think the main problem is that they think Bush is keeping them safe, and that is the bargain they've made "with the Devil." They realize that the economy is bad, and everything that goes along with that, but they think at least they are safe from terrorists.
But there has to be a tipping point somewhere, when the people will find that that isn't enough. The more they lose on a day-to-day basis, the more dissatisfied they will be with the choice they made. It has to hit home in a personal way, like what has been happening lately: Terri Shiavo, Social Security, and gas prices. They have to be able to imagine it affecting them personally.

[JI7]

19. depends

i still do get upset at the results but it's not a long depression type of thing. for a while i wanted nothing to do with what happened. didn't want to read anything about the election.

but i think seeing JK out there being active helped more feel better. now i am far more able to discuss the election and what we could or should have done. what we did right and anything else. and how we can deal with the future elections.

[XanaDUer]

20. Fine.

I was depressed for about one day. Now I'm pissed, which alternates with being amused at the Bush-supporting whiners who are just noticing they are being screwed.

[politicasista]

21. Ok, sometimes sad, but determined

There are somedays where I am angry at how people treated Kerry and Momma T.

I also find myself angry at my peeps for believing the media spins/lies and people here and beyond DU blaming Kerry for everything that went wrong. I haven't watched much cable TV since November 2, so I am just keeping myself busy with school and music. I am glad that Kerry, Boxer, Obama, Kennedy, Tubbs-Jones, Waters, and the other Dems are out there fighting though.

It's so unfair that sometimes I want to scream, but won't.