Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Elections...


"Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth." Edward Abbey

Well, that election had all the satisfaction of expecting a stay at the Four Seasons and ending up with a room at the Motel 6. What did we learn? That money and populism works in Wisconsin.

Locally, our Assembly District 1 guy, Robert Meacher, came ever so close to making it on to the ballot. Despite no money and very little name recognition, Meacher did a good job of defining what it means to be a rural Democrat. In fact, if the Greens in the district (who got 6 percent of the vote) jumped on board Meacher's common sense environmentalism, Meacher would have made the ballot. When are the Enviros gonna learn the lesson of 2000? And so now we have a choice between a very right wing Bosetti and a lesser right wing Dahle who is staunchly anti-choice. Both of them will sell their souls to Sierra Pacific.

Robert Meacher won in Butte County, thanks to some awesome writing by Jaime O'Neill and a campaign appearance by Meacher where he wowed the crowd.

Charles Rouse came in second in Assembly District 3. A good thing. We now have a soft spoken Anti-Logue candidate. Speak softly and carry some Rationality.

And we can take a whole lot of satisfaction that Sam Aanestad finished with only 14 percent of the vote. The one poll that was taken by La Malfa showed Aanestad and La Malfa  ahead of the Democrat Jim Reed about a month ago. After Aanestad got a bit of exposure on just how vapidly creepy he is, he dropped ten points.

And so we toil on in our silly corner of the State. When I was a young man, I had the opportunity to ask Petra Kelly, the great Green leader who helped found the Green Party in Germany, some sort of high falutin question that had no basis in political reality. I forget now what the question was, but I will always remember her answer: "Are you kidding? You'll be lucky to stop Fascism in the United States, that's your battle". I think she was right.

I remain convinced that our area is evolving. We aren't as hatefully right wing as our reputation. We just need to keep showing up and speaking out.

Onward shipmates!

4 comments:

  1. Yes, "Keep showing up and speaking out." Another alternative to Republican fascism:
    http://www.borowitzreport.com/2012/06/05/canada-bracing-for-wisconsin-boat-people/

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  2. A bit of humor is much needed in these darkest of days Don. Thanks! Yes, we should continue to speak out, even just for the sport of it...

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  3. The fight continues today in Wisconsin! We Will Overcome" ... it might just take longer than we thought!

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  4. Larry, Thanks for your updates from the Cheese State. It still was a horrible loss.

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