I'm facing tomorrow with a certain apprehension. I know that a smirking Dick Cheney will convene a special joint session of Congress to certify the electoral college vote. I know that certain members of the House will object to the Ohio vote and will cite reams of evidence to support and document their claims of vast voter suppression of Democratic voters. I'm 99% certain that no Senator will back up their challenge. Why not? Fear of schoolyard taunts of "sore loser" from the media mavens, I guess. As far as I can figure out there is no other cost. No one is immune from name calling -- statesmen least of all.
But what if it was an Anita Hill moment? A moment that showed that in the face of the most despicable and depraved character assassination, courage and dignity can win out? Open congressional hearings would almost certainly be very embarrassing to the Blackwells of this sordid affair. But I really don't think -- despite the outcry of a persistent few -- that the gravity of lost confidence in an already rather shabby election process can overcome the inertia of political expediency on Capitol Hill.
My apprehension is less about what happens tomorrow than what happens after. We fight the battles we are faced with, day after day, and loss after loss starts to become rather disheartening. It's not even a feeling that it was a good fight and we did all we could and lost fair and square. This isn't about winning or losing a football game or a tennis match. It's not like the best team won and we should congratulate them. This is about fighting for the game itself. It's as if the playing field is tilting more and more to the right, but all the players and so fixed on the goals that they refuse to mention it. Once the game is rigged it doesn't matter if you are sportsmanlike. You will always lose.
Sorry for the depressed tone and the overstretched metaphors. At the end of a week like this I'm never certain whether to laugh or cry. I'm 99% sure no one will stand up. It's that 1% chance -- that one rogue senator out of 100 -- that keeps me on edge. We'll know tomorrow if facts hold the day, or if ideology and self-interest once again squash debate and reason.
- jack*
Well, Boxer came through, but I'm not impressed. She left the Black Caucus twisting in the wind in 2000. Like you say, what do we do going forward. Seems like one answer is to fight for a real "Help America Vote Act". We had four years after the last fiasco to fix things. What the hell happened?
Posted by: loyopp | January 07, 2005 at 05:36 AM