Too much of a metaphor...

It's a lovely coincidence.

Yesterday, it rained all day. Today, the sun is shining.

I don't remember who said it most famously, but there's this line that "It's not the beginning of the end, but it's certainly the end of the beginning."

I don't think it applies; I think it's more the beginning of a beginning.

I've said a few times that there's only one thing scarier than if the Republicans were telling hateful lies about the Democrats, setting American against American, all for political gain... and that scarier thing would be if the Republicans believed it.

During the debate over Harriet Miers, I saw at least one commentor somewhere say something about "how do you know she won't be a good, conservative justice?" as if that was the only thing that could matter. "Is she conservative? Then she must be correct, right?" I'll tell you something: I'd rather have a brilliant, ethical extreme-right-winger on the high court than a mediocre liberal. (Partly because stare decisis requires that an ethical justice only overturn precedent when given a powerful reason to do so.)

The idea that conservatives (or, let's be honest, "Republicans", who haven't been acting all that conservative) are always right is so indescribably dangerous that I can't even think of how to explain it. If it's not self-evidently dangerous, how the heck can you explain something so fundamental? No one, no ideology, can be right all the time!

But a lot of America rejected that, even in the face of some ruthless fear mongering and more than a little hatred.

Oh, yeah... and not just a little bit of anguish about girl cooties. "Speaker Pelosi" was thrown around as if it was supposed to be self-evidently horrible.

Now comes the question: will the Democrats grow a spine, and show some leadership?

The Republicans have been proclaiming their values are American values, and in some cases, they have a good point, and in others, they were dead wrong, but in many cases, they helped make their values American values by strongly pushing those values, and making them seem both ordinary and sensible. There are a lot of those values that need to be pushed by the Democrats now.

First on my list is fairness for prisoners in the war on terror.

Someone, somewhere out there knows a friend or a family member who thinks is into something bad. They think their friend might want to kill innocent people. If they know they'll be treated humanely by us, if they know there will be no torture, and if there's a trial, we'll bend over backwards to make sure it's fair, they'll be willing to speak up. If they think there's torture, injustice, and reason to fear having their friend just vanish one day, to be stuffed in a dark hole with no legal recourse, they're a lot more likely to clam up and hope that they're wrong about their friend.

We got the Unabomber because his brother was willing to come forward. We need other loving brothers, sisters, friends, and even mothers and fathers and spouses and lovers, to be willing to do the same thing. They won't do it until they're sure their friends or relatives will get a fair shake and decent treatment.

But aside from the pragmatic reasons, it holds to our country's founding values, that all people are created equal, that we all have the unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That the United States would rather respect those rights, even if it's scary and dangerous, than to ignore them in the name of fear.

There's more; medical access needs to be fixed, and no, market based reforms won't work. Oh, there are places they can work; lower co-pays for cheaper drugs, fine, lower out-of-pocket for cheaper procedures that tend to work just as well as the newer, fancier ones, great. But people shouldn't crack some vertebrae, and be afraid to go to the hospital for x-rays and other tests, because of medical expenses, until they end up having gone from hunting a deer, and tossing it in the back of a truck, to being unable to walk, sit, or stand for long, and are still, after a year of intensive physical therapy, limited to a 30 pound lift. I don't know *how* to fix it... but everyone needs to be able to go to the hospital without being terrified of what it will do to their financial situation, no matter how tricky that situation already is.

And there's scads more... but that's all I have time for right now.

My condolences to those who felt that the Republicans fought the good fight, and honorably believed that it was a shame that the Republicans lost big.

To the Republicans who didn't fight honorably, to those who invoked fear, hatred, and girl-cooties, I can say only this:

*MADAME SPEAKER PELOSI*, you (expletive deleted), Madame Speaker Pelosi.

Eat it in big bites, and I hope you choke on it.

(End of any semblance of gloating.)

Too much of a metaphor...

It's a lovely coincidence.

Yesterday, it rained all day. Today, the sun is shining.

I don't remember who said it most famously, but there's this line that "It's not the beginning of the end, but it's certainly the end of the beginning."

I don't think it applies; I think it's more the beginning of a beginning.

I've said a few times that there's only one thing scarier than if the Republicans were telling hateful lies about the Democrats, setting American against American, all for political gain... and that scarier thing would be if the Republicans believed it.

During the debate over Harriet Miers, I saw at least one commentor somewhere say something about "how do you know she won't be a good, conservative justice?" as if that was the only thing that could matter. "Is she conservative? Then she must be correct, right?" I'll tell you something: I'd rather have a brilliant, ethical extreme-right-winger on the high court than a mediocre liberal. (Partly because stare decisis requires that an ethical justice only overturn precedent when given a powerful reason to do so.)

The idea that conservatives (or, let's be honest, "Republicans", who haven't been acting all that conservative) are always right is so indescribably dangerous that I can't even think of how to explain it. If it's not self-evidently dangerous, how the heck can you explain something so fundamental? No one, no ideology, can be right all the time!

But a lot of America rejected that, even in the face of some ruthless fear mongering and more than a little hatred.

Oh, yeah... and not just a little bit of anguish about girl cooties. "Speaker Pelosi" was thrown around as if it was supposed to be self-evidently horrible.

Now comes the question: will the Democrats grow a spine, and show some leadership?

The Republicans have been proclaiming their values are American values, and in some cases, they have a good point, and in others, they were dead wrong, but in many cases, they helped make their values American values by strongly pushing those values, and making them seem both ordinary and sensible. There are a lot of those values that need to be pushed by the Democrats now.

First on my list is fairness for prisoners in the war on terror.

Someone, somewhere out there knows a friend or a family member who thinks is into something bad. They think their friend might want to kill innocent people. If they know they'll be treated humanely by us, if they know there will be no torture, and if there's a trial, we'll bend over backwards to make sure it's fair, they'll be willing to speak up. If they think there's torture, injustice, and reason to fear having their friend just vanish one day, to be stuffed in a dark hole with no legal recourse, they're a lot more likely to clam up and hope that they're wrong about their friend.

We got the Unabomber because his brother was willing to come forward. We need other loving brothers, sisters, friends, and even mothers and fathers and spouses and lovers, to be willing to do the same thing. They won't do it until they're sure their friends or relatives will get a fair shake and decent treatment.

But aside from the pragmatic reasons, it holds to our country's founding values, that all people are created equal, that we all have the unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That the United States would rather respect those rights, even if it's scary and dangerous, than to ignore them in the name of fear.

There's more; medical access needs to be fixed, and no, market based reforms won't work. Oh, there are places they can work; lower co-pays for cheaper drugs, fine, lower out-of-pocket for cheaper procedures that tend to work just as well as the newer, fancier ones, great. But people shouldn't crack some vertebrae, and be afraid to go to the hospital for x-rays and other tests, because of medical expenses, until they end up having gone from hunting a deer, and tossing it in the back of a truck, to being unable to walk, sit, or stand for long, and are still, after a year of intensive physical therapy, limited to a 30 pound lift. I don't know *how* to fix it... but everyone needs to be able to go to the hospital without being terrified of what it will do to their financial situation, no matter how tricky that situation already is.

And there's scads more... but that's all I have time for right now.

My condolences to those who felt that the Republicans fought the good fight, and honorably believed that it was a shame that the Republicans lost big.

To the Republicans who didn't fight honorably, to those who invoked fear, hatred, and girl-cooties, I can say only this:

*MADAME SPEAKER PELOSI*, you (expletive deleted), Madame Speaker Pelosi.

Eat it in big bites, and I hope you choke on it.

(End of any semblance of gloating.)