Editor’s note: the following article is by Judith Gayle, a valued member of the Planet Waves writing team. She has a regular blog on our site, Political Waves, which can be reached here. –RA
…of turning, scarce as hen’s teeth. A rarity. An era-buster. There comes a perfect storm of circumstance buoyed by astrological transits and sociopolitical movements and heart-yearnings. And so it is, now.В Look around you today –В this is what democracy looks like!
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You’ll needВ nosh and wine, or burritos and margies, or whatever floats your boat tomorrow night –В let’s gather up some e-resources to keep handy in the next days. Here’s one to bookmarkВ — an interactive map, poll closings, yadda. There’s more here. Remember — keep an eye on Virginia and Florida, both in the blue column now; they will likely report first and give us the tone of this election.
And in the unlikely event that you’re still undecided, here’s a sharp little film clipВ to review your options.
This will be the largest turnout in decades, evidenced by early voting totals and day-long waitsВ to vote. That doesn’t factor in absentee votes, unusually large this year. High turnout on voting day looks to swampВ the available supplies and suspect machinery. Again — we may not know anything until Wednesday morning. Add the legal stuff, and we may not know for quite a while.
The polls reflect an Obama win — but we’re twisting up with nervous energy and holding our breath, aren’t we? It says something disturbing about our times that with anywhere from a 7 – 13 point lead, and every Sunday punditВ projecting his win, Barack Obama is still policing his ground team to keep pushing and not get too confident. Sad commentary that while most of us want to soar, we’re fettered by the ball and chain of repressive politics and the dark thought forms of an erratic and played-out Republican electorate.
The Pub disinformation campaign has done its work; you’ll find an illustration hereВ of the near hysteria of the moment. While I cringed watching it, it’s mild compared with what will come next. You can sense what’s just below the surface of this conversation, waiting to explode.
Compare it to this Christian Science Monitor article:В My wife made me canvass for Obama; here’s what I learned. So many of us areВ ready to reach for one another’s hands, not wave our fists in the air. Time will tell how much of each we will see next.
In this extraordinary moment, we don’t know what happens next — and, truthfully, we’re not entirely sure what we’re feeling, either. You can’t really anticipate a moment like this, a perfect storm of energies that come together like a laser light to pinpoint a turning — you have to enter it and ride the wave.
Reality is making a comeback but it has to peel back layers of poli-crud and fear and self-righteousness and Christocratic nihilism to poke its head up into the light. The dark got too dark there, for a while…and we’re not sure how quickly light can come flooding in, how it will…if it will. Andrew Sullivan writes an excellent article in the Times UK speaking to that question. He ends it with his signature sign-off: know hope. I’m with him.
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The reads today play “what if …” That’s whatВ we’re allВ playing today, isn’t it?В
By the way, an authentic American iconВ died this weekend;В Studs Terkel. RIP.
Hang ten, Wavers — and … a Jude sign-off …В keep hope!
You will find the articles of the day at Political Waves.
Yours & truly,
Jude
Let us lift our glasses and toast the end of the dark days of the Bush monarchy. It has been a heavy weight, hasn’t it? Grief, sorrow, anger… surely all those emotions and many more have been our daily bread, endured or pushed aside in disbelief at what has happened to this country of ours over the past 8 years. He will be gone, we can only hope, he and his cronies and dark counselors. My toast? L’CHAIM! TO LIFE!