Feeling demoralized? In tears after last night's Wisconsin recall election? Wondering what in the world happened? Dazed and confused? In a post-loss stupor? Need some clarification and a teeny weeny silver lining?
Me too.
I was, and am, devastated. I had a fleeting "I give up" moment. I wanted to cry. I did cry. I wanted to scream, but instead I downed some vino and went to sleep knowing I'd wake up with the inevitable "Oh CRAP, we really did lose!" hangover.
I called Paddy and we lamented and ranted our fool heads off. I read email after email, tweet after tweet all feeling the way Paddy and I were feeling, all very reminiscent of Election 2000 astonishment and outrage.
We scrambled emotionally for a way to pick ourselves up and start fighting again, fighting even harder and louder than we already have.
There's nothing else we can do, so let's do it. Let's win in November. And let's be happy that Democrats control (at least for now, pending a recount) the Wisconsin State Senate.
As for some perspective, here are two posts with a few attention-worthy insights to link to...
[T]he exit polls point to two major reasons why we weren't able to recall Scott Walker.
First, 60 percent of voters thought that recall elections were only appropriate for official misconduct, while 27 percent said "any reason." Another 10 percent said "never"—and those voted for Walker 94-5. It's hard going into any election with 10 percent immediately off the board, and for those who said "only official misconduct," Walker won 68-31. Turns out people just didn't like the idea of a recall—something worth filing away as an important lesson learned. [...]
The reality is, yesterday's election was better than any phone poll, because it gave us the voting preferences of two and a half million actual voters, and this is what the exit polls tell us:
If the presidential election were today, for whom would you vote?
Barack Obama 51
Mitt Romney 44A seven-point lead, Obama over 50 percent, despite lacking participation of one of Obama's biggest constituencies (young voters), does not suggest a particularly close race this November.
Markos also reminded us that young people didn't turn out. This could be due partly to apathy and partly to Voter I.D. laws. Please read the whole post.
And via WaPo's The Plum Line, there's this:
What’s more, this throws water on the idea that Obama could have turned the tide had he campaigned for Barrett. If a substantial portion of Wisconsinites are opposed to the recall qua the recall, then there’s not much Obama could have done to change minds. That was a job for Wisconsin Democrats, who should have done more to show voters that Walker had sprung a radical and unprecedented agenda on the electorate, and deserved to be removed from office. [...]
Regardless of how money influenced the race, this is a wake up call to Democrats around the country, who now see the extent to which Citizens United has allowed Republicans to raise massive amounts from a handful of wealthy people. There’s no doubt that both the DNC and the Obama campaign is using this to try scare donors into further giving. [...]
More than anything, the GOP is working to destroy the infrastructure of the Democratic Party, and so far — with the assault on public sector unions — it’s been a tremendous success.
Indeed, as Rachel Maddow pointed out in a video in this post, if Republicans kill unions, “they win every election, every state, every year, forever.”
We need Democratic candidates who have strong progressive values, and we need to support them, organize like crazy, and have a consistently strong message. It all starts from the bottom up, including school boards and city councils all the way up to state legislatures and national offices. Starting right now.
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