Lola and I are at fine concert Saturday night when near the end, the singer bursts into Bush Derangement Syndrome. From out of nowhere some self perceived need to express the hatred. I know enough history that emotional contempt for the opposition is a constant in American politics; still it is nice to daydream about rational people working in cooperation to resolve problems. The election tomorrow is not going to get us anywhere closer to that pleasant fantasy.
For those of us in Madison, Paul Soglin is a kind of prototype social liberal. He is a person with a social conscious who was effective on the local political level but is clearly more a progressive thinker than a careerist politician. He says Democrats must produce actual change if they win power, if they want to widen their base. If they do win, I don’t doubt the Dems will a work a great deal harder pursuing their goals than the comfortably entrenched Republicans have been working at pursuing theirs.
I will vote against the progressives because while I recognize the validity of their concerns I am convinced they are wrong in their approaches to the problems. Earlier this evening I drafted a point by point dissection of Soglin’s liberal wish list, but this is not the time. The people reading blogs know how they are going to vote. I am optimistic the results tomorrow will maintain the slight tilt of the nation away from the socialists who covet the power of confiscation to pursue justice as they conceive it. Knock on wood.
