Today's decision tells us that the consequences for failing to deliberately and effectively compete for power in today's political environment reach far. We are far too fond of blaming ourselves as much as our opponents for such defeats. We should realize something simple: they want us to fail, they engineer our failure. Collapsing into mutual contempt only furthers the defeat, it doesn't prevent it.
They are not bothering to play fair. They are not bothering to treat us with respect, or to acknowledge common cause with us, even where it's justified. This modern Republican Party has been raised on an increasingly insular diet of propaganda that has these people thinking they are the saviors of American Democracy, even as they curtail the voting rights of millions in their quest for power.
They aren't shy about it. They want control. They will do what it takes to get it, and not just when they feel like it.
Sometimes, it's just a matter of who has the freedom to act when their constituents demand it. Part of the GOP's problem now, and the reason for all its bizarre and atrocious behavior. As much as they were able to win, they only won the House, and lost the other two elected parts of the law-making triangle.
They will suffer much for letting us have the Congress back. We will suffer now and later for them having the House of Representatives back.
We're certainly suffering for letting Bush get the White House. Yes, Gore was not ideal, but really, just a little extra effort, and we could have had traded in complete disaster for non-ideal. Sounds like a good trade to me.
These guys, they aren't interested in playing nice. They're not interested in surrendering to us if we push back hard enough. They're interested in eating our lunch.
We have to get more aggressive now, and stop kidding ourselves that we can be casual anymore in our politics. Casual gets us today's decision, as we underestimate the fervency of the Right Wing, and their willingness to bend or break all the rules they claim to hold dear in order to get the advantage over use.
We need to realize that the more power we win in the Courts, the Congress, and elsewhere, and the better we keep it, the fewer of these heartaches and headaches we'll have to face.