An Otherwise Lovely Tuesday
November 3rd, 2010 © by Susan Swartz
On Tuesday I started making a list of things to be happy about because I feared by the end of the day I would be feeling grumpy and discouraged, possibly near hopeless, remembering the warning by Paul Krugman, that if the elections went according to expectations we should be afraid….be very afraid.
I ran into a guy I know outside our polling place and asked him to tell me something upbeat. He said things could be worse, like those Joe McCarthy years. Somehow that didn’t make me feel better.
Yet, it was a stunning fall day. The air smelled like apples. The vineyards glittered in the sun. I went for a bike ride. The coffee place had blackberry scones.
You can see I was going for the small things because we – I’m speaking liberals, progressives, blue, baby, blue – didn’t start the day feeling good about winning.
It was such a contrast to the night before when our corner of the world had been in Giants heaven. We jumped off the couch and rang cow bells from the porch. That was showing the naysayers, the pundits who said Texas would turn us into barbecue. Let the misfits reign. Let Tim’s hair grow.
But in less than 24 hours Nancy Pelosi, another San Francisco icon, or demon, depending on your point of view, had lost her speaker’s gavel.
We had been warned. There would be a bloodbath, a torrent of opposition against incumbents, a tough day for liberals, a drubbing for Democrats.
I looked at the New Yorker cover I framed two Novembers ago – the one with the blue door at the end of the red tunnel. It hangs above the TV where by early Tuesday evening CNN was getting out the red crayons and re-coloring the USA map. And over on MSNBC Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania was telling Rachel Maddow “I feel your pain.”
Things started to feel a little bit better when that hateful candidate in New York was silenced and some of the Tea Party dream queens succumbed. Unskilled, pop-up media celebrity candidates weren’t going to take all. I began to feel warm fuzzies for Harry Reid.
I worried though for my new phone pals in Wisconsin. One morning 20 of us gathered in a house in Sebastopol and called 1200 Democrats in a small town near Milwaukee to get out the vote for Sen. Russ Feingold. One woman told me she was feeling the chill from her neighbors, hers the only Democrat sign in a nine mile stretch thick with Republican signs. Her guy lost Tuesday to a man who made money in plastics, vows to repeal health care and doesn’t believe in climate change.
We’ll be analyzing this for a long time. Was it really all about the economy? Did fear win? Did nasty campaigning? Are we ever going to find out what undisclosed special interest money really paid for those attack ads?
But as for calling Tuesday’s elections a coast to coast red sweep, I think some parts of this coast actually saw some blue sky when all was counted.
California voted to stay enlightened on the environment and stood up to Big Oil. Voters dumped proposition 23 which would have set back the state’s plan for dealing with global warming. Barbara Boxer fought off Palin-picking Carly Fiorina. Jerry Brown who believes in renewable energy and schools and is the poster boy for encore careers beamed himself back to Sacramento. Meg Whitman’s $160 million wasn’t enough to buy this election.
I asked a friend for more things to feel good about. He thought for a minute and said, “Grandkids. And the Chilean miners getting rescued. I still feel good thinking about them.”
Tags: Barbara_Boxer, Jerry_Brown, Juicy_Tomatoes, midterm_elections, nancy_pelosi, Russ_Feingold, San_Francisco_Giants, Susan_Swartz
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November 3rd, 2010 at 10:41 pm
I was gratified that Boxer and Brown won in California where I lived for almost 30 years. Up here in Oregon I awoke this morning to learn that Kitzhaber, an ex-governor like Brown, edged out the Republican candidate, former NBA nobody Chris Dudley. It took votes from my county, Lane, and Portland’s, Multomah, but we eked out the win.
We also sent Pete DeFazio back to Congress, whipping a complete wingnut named Art Robinson who did not believe in public schools, Medicare and Social Security and was set on offshore drilling and more nuclear power plants in Oregon. He was heavily financed from Back East! I am ashamed and chagrinned that two beloved states from my youth, Ohio and Pennsylvania, got swept up on the Red Tide. Boehner rots my sox. My son is a doctor in Cleveland!
And yes, the miners. I watched every single one come up and bawled every time.
November 3rd, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Hi Jane: Great news from Oregon. See, this “coast to coast” red tide is somewhat exaggerated. Miss you here, but glad you’ve found another compatible world up there.
November 4th, 2010 at 12:58 am
It was pretty devastating to see that red map of the U.S. BUT I feel sort of smug about it. I feel like “OK, show me what you’ve got”. Now you have to DO something and take responsibility, not just sit back and whine. I am hoping that the American people will see what they elected and it won’t give them jobs or ease gridlock. They will see how nasty it looks to do “everything they can to make sure Obama is a one term President”. I think it is actually a good thing for 2012 as it energizes the Democrats AND puts the Republicans in the spotlight. But aside from politics the best thing about Tuesday was still feeling a warm after glow from the Giants!!! I really needed that!
November 4th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
I feel VERY good being in – and from – Massachusetts where we’ve had something similar to the upcoming health care benefits since Mitt Romney’s (go figure …??) administration several years ago, because… our Democrats all won! It was a worry after Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat (and what better example of the independent-mindedness of we Massachusetts folks??). Otherwise, I feel VERY bad.
November 6th, 2010 at 1:56 am
Yay, Judy. And Yay, Massachusetts. Glad to hear that your coast, too, has hung on to a spot of blue.
November 7th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I was in Austin for both the Giants win and election day…although Texans really have two weeks to vote. Austin is a rarity: a Democratic city surrounded by big oil Republicans. But Ranger red was everywhere and emotions were flying high. My California born son is a hard-core Giants fan. We were at a Halloween party with trick-or-treating sandwiched in between innings on a Texas-sized T.V. screen. and several dozen Rangers fans looking for a win. Todd and I were fairly subdued during the game so as not to be banned from the T.V. room and given the job of costume-clad greeters and candy distributors. But, when the Giants won we leaped and and cheered and high-fived each other. Maybe Todd made some enemies, but hey, I don’t have to live there!