Well we did it, moved the ruling set around a bit without killing anyone. But what a shitty election. I mean really: the GOP re-takes the Senate, progressive ballot measures get voted down all over the place, it looks like we're in for another two years (at least) of wealth-favoring fiscal policy and broad-shouldered unilateral foreign policy. Yippie, we're a nation of fat wealthy dunces with our little dunce king.

I apologize if I sound bitter, but I just don't like it when fear-mongernig war-talk trumps reality. The reality is that the GOP has no domestic agenda, no plan for America, and the only way they can maintain their grip on power is by scaring people with phantoms of unarmed Iraqi combate drones (pure FUD) and immanent mushroom clouds (the same).

George W Bush has presided over the greatest wave of corporate corruption and mismanagement of public funds (can you say "tax cuts that blatantly favor the wealthy?") since the 1920s, and there's no reason to think he'll make any but the most cursory motions to address the issue. After all, he's a child of wealth who essentially gained the most powerful position in the world by means of family connections. He's never generated an honest profit in his life and is an adherent to back-room crony capitalist deals. This is not the kind of person I want running the ship, yet it is undoubtedly his public favor that allowed his party to actually make mid-term election gains for the first time in decades.

I find this extremely depressing, because it tells me that I'm out of step with the nation, that this America really isn't my America. It tells me that people don't want universal health care, that people don't want to know when the food they eat has been genetically tinkered with. It tells me that people think the way the show is being run is all right, that what we need is more of the same. It's the kind of morning-after mood that makes me want to expatriate.

However, being the political animal that I am, I don't think that's likely to happen. I can't just walk away and let things crumble. It's going to have to get a whole lot worse before you can convince me it can't get better. I'm going to stay with it, keep putting my spin on events. I'm in for the long haul.