So, I'm in a bit of a foul humor today, as anyone who spends more than a few seconds on Buffalo's issue-oriented message boards will gladly attest. I've found myself firing off wordy, detailed replies to posts I'd normally dismiss as too ridiculous to admit I'd even noticed, and while I've generally managed to keep it civil, I haven't even tried to keep it friendly. I'm in a bad mood.
There's a little voice inside me saying I'm only playing into the Angry Liberal! stereotype. My reply? "Fuck off, little voice inside me. I've earned this anger."
So far my outbursts have been met with the internet's version of the surprised "whoa, what got into him?" but sooner or later someone will ask why I'm so angry. I've done a lot of thinking about what my answer will be. This is what I've come up with:
I don't need to list in excrutiating detail every transgression of the last six years. Better writers than I have done so already, dozens or hundreds or thousands of times, and people with memories far better than mine have archived these sins for the ages.
But sooner or later, the balance of power is going to shift back in favor or Democrats. We may already be seeing the beginnings of that shift. But whether that day arrives in 2006, 2008 or beyond, our Republican friends are going to suddenly find themselves the odd men out, and won't it be a surprise when they realize Democrats aren't in any mood for playing nice. Part of that will, of course, be correctly seen as the payback which is, unfortunately, human nature. Republicans kicked us, hard, when we were down, and it's going to be awfully tempting to pay them back for each and every kick plus interest. But there's more to it than that. The Republicans who called us traitors, who refused to compromise, who refused to act with common human decency, they have proven they're not worth the time it would take to extend the hand of cooperation to them. They're infants. Children. Worse than children, in fact, because at least children have the potential to grow and mature into adults. These Republicans have proven themselves unworthy to be part of the Democratic (pun intended) process of moving our nation forward. They deserve nothing but my scorn. They deserve to be left behind in the dust.
Now, I struggle with saying this. I'm normally the guy who decries the partisanship that is tearing our nation apart. But I've had enough. The Republicans have chosen the game. They've set the rules. They've stacked the deck. We don't like it, but then, we didn't have any choice, did we? Well, fine... we'll play their little game and we'll play it better than they ever dreamed it could be played. My only regret will be they'll probably never even understand the great lesson of all this.