I’ve read and heard some curious things in the post-election ether, and I’ve got an idea as to how we look and feel a month or three from now. Let me say for what it’s worth, that this idea comes from my gut, but I’ve learned that the gut is nothing if not an efficient collector and processor of filtered data.
Yesterday, I heard Katrina vanden Heuvel saying that we are going to have a non-violent civil war here over the next 4 years. Then today, I had an email correspondence with a friend over the Arafat death rumors. When I suggested that Yasser had a river of blood on his hands, my friend shot back with, “and Bush doesn’t?” Never mind that I had not even brought up GWB’s name. My friend then cited the Lancet article as proof of Bush’s crimes. No, he does not frequent our blog, for while he knows of it, he prefers to read only that which reinforces his own beliefs. There is a contingent out there that cannot, will not, and does not want to let go of anger, bitterness, venom. But I think that group will find itself traveling in ever-smaller circles. Hopefully, the Democratic Party will recognize that there is no future in that thinking.
Now I have no way of knowing what the administration is going to do going forward, and a lot depends on that, but the people that I know and respect, the ones who I listen to closely when they are speaking, are saying basically the same thing: It’s over, we’re moving on (ironically, since the group by that name is not). The country is tired of politics, of “battles,” and of hardball.