My sister Sarah wrote the following message (below) within the context of a longer message. I thought it bore further dissemination (with her permission, of course).
By the way, this makes me think of a story I heard from our firend Mary. She called on election night, while she was wating for vote totals from a polling place on the South side of Milwaukee. She told me about a woman she met there, a poll worker for the Republican party. “It was
just like that skit on Saturday Night Live” Mary reported, this black woman in a bright orange tee shirt working for the republicans because they paid her. “Did they buy your vote too?” Mary asked her. “No, they ain’t getting that!” the woman responded with the flash of a smile. Mary noticed a missing tooth in the woman’s smile, and then the poll worker paused, reached into her purse and put something in her mouth. She smiled again, this time a perfect row of teeth. “I’ll give you my nice smile. They made me wear this ridiculous orange shirt, so I gave them my best Jack-o-Lantern smile!”
Okay, Jack-o-Lanterns for BC-04!
-nic
——– Forwarded Message ——–
From: Sarah
To: Nic
Subject: Couple things
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 08:13:25 -0600
Sorry to be silent for so long this week…
As for politics – gee whillikers! – I think it is high time the Democrats recognize this is a business. Amazing to hear Scott Walker [Milwaukee County Exec., ardent Republican, worm -nic] of all people on WUWM a couple days ago attributing the K-E success in Milw County to MoveOn. He derided the disorganization of the Dems, and gave the win to the mobilization of the 527’s. At his polling place, like mine in Tosa, there were two MoveOn volunteers. No Dems. Same at the ward in West Allis were John spent Nov. 2: 5 or 6 from MoveOn, no Dems. The Republicans rented vans and hired temps for election day. By the way, my own ward went 736 for Bush and 735 for Kerry. Too bad Emily didn’t vote absentee, so we could all feel better.
At our house, in the two weeks prior to the election, we received three well-spaced mailings from the RNC addressed to the former owner of our house. Each was about “moral values”. Big surprise, then, that 22% identify moral values as their number 1 issue. Direct mail theory states
you will seal the deal with the third mailing. There were no mailings from the DNC, except those Carville letters asking for money, and ones from local candidates. And of course, the whole moral value thing is classic bait-and-switch, to cover for whatever true agenda will come down the pipeline. Whatever the true agenda is, it will not morally or economically improve the lives of the majority of those who voted Bush. And, obviously, nor will a boycott. At my office, the talk is all about emigrating to Canada, or about only vacationing in blue states, or about wearing mourning for the next four years. I wish the talk were about being, acting, and executing smarter. The time has come and gone for the left to start thinking outside the box. It has never been more urgent than it is now. It may even be time for our generation, and the one which precedes us, to concede leadership and let some new ideas and some real 21st century strategy drive whatever movement evolves out of this miasma.
End of rant….