Tuesday 2 November 2004

The Long Haul

It was really nice to see Kos wax eloquently over at one of the most read progressive blogs on the net:
...today was merely a battle in a long war. The GOP built its electoral dominance over 40 years by building a massive, well-funded message, training, and media machine.

We started putting ours together last year.

You all have much to be proud of. But please don't think your job is done, or that your hard work was all for naught. It's not, and it wasn't.

This is just the beginning, not the end. Regardless of who takes that oath next January we still have a war to wage. We won't wage it with violence, but by building a solid foundation for a new progressive movement.
If Bush pulls out this win, as now appears likely, there will be some intemperate responses by some on the indignant left. But much more common will be the tempered, determined, and coordinated efforts for the causes of peace, justice, dignity, and the protection of our natural world by people of moral conviction all over this planet. Many ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

We can take lessons from extraordinary people who have come before, and as Kos suggests even from that which we can admire in the "opposition". Indeed, we need to be ready to find allies where we might least expect them, for we cannot win progressive change through isolation and alienation, but only by sharing a moral vision wherever and whenever we can. Heroes who have come before struggled through much worse and kept on going in the bleakest of circumstances, while we still have a presumption of rights from which to start, and means for coordination that Harriet Tubman, for instance, never could have dreamed of.

There's no time for despair - let's keep moving.

2 comments:

-epm said...

I am drained... Today, I have nothing to give.

But tomorrow the sun will rise, I'll draw another breath and gird my armor to fight on.... Because tomorrow another soldier will die, another family will slide into poverty, another right will be impinged, and Bush will hammer the bitter wedge of fear deeper into America.

Anonymous said...

instead of being terrified....i am choosing to look at the positive effects this outcome will have.

foreign policy, the economy, the environment, health care, so called entitlement programs, etc...

*all* are unquestionably the GOP's responsiblity now.
"you can run but you can't hide."

some examples:
iraq costs over $350B and 2,500 american casulaties - GOP.
budget deficit hits $800B+ - GOP.
next terrorist attack we all know will happen - GOP.
osama bin asshole,s alledged goal of bankrupting america happens - GOP.

if we somehow survive the next 4 years if the last 4 years are repeated....

i predict there will not be another GOP president in several generations and the GOP party as we know it today will collapse quickly and decisively.

my hope comes from 93 yr old father surviving WWII and the great depression. i must unfortunately hope that WWII and the great depression don't look pale in comparision to what we might be forced to live thru however.

there is in fact no time to despair...
remember nixon was forced to resign in his 2nd term.