A year ago I was hiding underneath my covers, sobbing over the loss of Senator Feingold to the idiocy – and money – of the GOP. That night embarked me upon a solid 4 months depression, until the February protests against Fitzwalkerstan brought me hope.
Tonight I am cheering and shouting and waving my arms in the air, feeling the universe correct the errors of last year in a wave of sweeping victories for progressive politics, sensible laws, and a respect for science.
- Maine has restored same-day voter registration, 61% to 39%.
- Ohio has overturned a union-busting law very similar to Walker’s anti-union legislation here in WI, 62% to 38%.
- Mississippi has rejected the ignorant and misogynistic idea that a fertilized egg is a person, 57% to 43%.
- Jill Billings has won WI’s Assembly District 95, recently vacated by Jen Schilling as she won a Senate seat in the recall elections in August, 72% to 27%.
I feel the tide turning, the momentum building and the people speaking. In one week we begin to recall Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch. With numbers like those in today’s races, I feel optimistic for the first time in a long time that reason and vision and care have reentered the political arena.
Ironically, all the hideousness of 2011 has awoken a sleeping giant, and engaged people in politics in a way that I haven’t seen in, well, ever. The overreach and mean-spiritedness of the GOP in stomping on the 99% has turned to bite them in the butt. Chomp!!
