Today I learned about the policies and politics of (presumed) Supreme Court-nominee Elena Kagan. Usually at this point, I’d write about how unfortunate it is that I (we [you]) hear about a new previously-unknown Justice and think “well, lemme go look up a couple things on the internet to determine whether I ‘like’ this or not,” which is really just a pompous excuse to be intellectually lazy and have someone just tell one what they’re supposed to think. Yup, usually that’s what I’d be doing.

Instead, I started to write little songs because I think her name is fun to say and has good meter. Also, because I’ve had far too much coffee. This was the best one:

Your record’s not stellar but neither is mine

Double-up, sub semper branch porcupine

Oh Eleeeeeena

Elena and me…

You don’t hire women, you don’t hire blacks

But you’re probably gay, which is kinda great

We’re similar, so similar

Doooo waaaah

*hand claps*

Elena Kagan, Elena Kagan

Harvard Law, Carl Sagan

Or perhaps that’s not how it’s pronounced…

How am I to knooooooow?

I’ve only read about you

We’ve never met, we’ve never met

-diggy

I don’t know what’s been wrong with me since I last wrote here.  You know how sometimes you get into a rut, but because it isn’t a particularly unpleasant rut, you don’t notice it’s a rut until you’re way in there?

No?  Anyone?

The point is, I haven’t written because not much has penetrated the dull whirr of life.  This did.  It’s a Labour Party ad from Britain — they’re having their elections on May 6.

And, watching it, I learned that maybe I should go work in Britain.

It’s not so much that we don’t spend enough of our psychic energy on campaigns, but the Brits seem to feel about politics all the time the way I do at the moments when it seems like I was put on Earth to do it for a living.  Watch the video and tell me it didn’t penetrate your whirr.

-andy

Tonight I learned that, despite my every intention and best efforts, I might just be stuck giving a shit about politics.  Pretty much everyone I know who does this for a living — the doorknockers and the flacks, the people who have been doing it forever and will do it forever — they all feel like they were born with some time bomb in their DNA that compelled/sentenced them to a life like this.  It might not be what they want, but it’s who they are.  It’s like a birthmark.  And I think I recognize it on my own skin, even though, like some of them, I wish it wasn’t there.  I think one of the things I will learn in the next few months is whether or not it is truly there.  I’m a little afraid to find out.

-andy

I literally cannot remember a time in my life when I didn’t think I was going to spend the rest of it in politics.  It always used to go like this: I’d graduate from college, take the first train to Washington, be the youngest person ever to do a series of Hill jobs, ???, run for President, serve two terms, retire at age 55.

Okay, I was kind of a prick.  But even when things got in the way of living my life entirely in my head (relationships, lucky breaks, recounts), it was always just a matter of changing lanes on the highway, never a matter of looking for different roads.

I remember back in early 2006, right after I moved to Minnesota.  A time of much lane-changing.  Suddenly, I was going to be a campaign fixer.  And that was neat.  But, at the time, I was running Al’s PAC.  And as I looked at the Senate map (we needed to win, like, six seats to get the majority), I started to think, “Wow.  We will probably pick up one or two.  Maybe even three!”  And as the year went on, that “maybe even” number grew and grew without me even recognizing it until, all of a sudden, it was Election Night and we won back both houses of Congress.  That idea — that radical change — was always in the back of my head, and it crept slowly forward.

That, roughly speaking, is how I feel about getting off this highway.  I haven’t been writing much here for the last couple of weeks because I’ve been up in Boston trying to do something to save the Coakley campaign, which, in lieu of describing, I’m going to summarize thusly:

As things got worse and worse in Massachusetts, and I learned more and more that my frustration with the campaign lifestyle wasn’t solely a function of living far away from tall buildings, and I felt more and more…not me…the notion of taking an off-ramp started to creep forward.

Anyone who knows me has heard me talk about “getting out of the game” or some bullshit like that.  But the idea is now fully crept forward.  It’s not just in my head, it’s in my mouth.

It’s not that we lost, or even that we lost humiliatingly, or even that Teddy’s seat is gone and I had to watch it happen — all of that is part of the life I had decided I was okay with living.  You don’t always win.  Quitters are bothered by that.  Winners are not.  Etc. Etc.

What bothered me the most was going home in a cab Wednesday morning and hearing the cabbie talk about the race and realizing that I didn’t feel like I had much in common with my country anymore.  And, worse, waking up Wednesday morning to find out that I don’t have much in common with my party anymore.

Ezra Klein said it better than me, though.

The loss in Massachusetts was a terrible disappointment to Democrats. But it can be explained away. Martha Coakley was a terrible candidate. Scott Brown ran an excellent campaign. These things happen.

But the reaction congressional Democrats have had to Coakley’s loss has been much more shattering. It has been a betrayal.

The fundamental pact between a political party and its supporters is that the two groups believe the same thing and pledge to work on it together. And the Democratic base feels that it has held to its side of the bargain. It elected a Democratic majority and a Democratic president. It swallowed tough compromises on the issues it cared about most. It swallowed concessions to politicians it didn’t like and industry groups it loathed. But it persisted. Because these things are important. That’s why those voters believe in them. That’s why they’re Democrats.

But the party looks ready to abandon them because Brown won a special election in Massachusetts — even though Democrats can pass the bill after Brown is seated. What that says is crucial: Whereas the base thought it was making these hard compromises and getting up early to knock on doors because these issues are important, the party thought all that was happening because, well, it’s hard to say. It was electorally convenient? People need something to do? Ted Kennedy wanted it done?

If Democrats let go of health care, there is no doubt that a demoralized Democratic base will stay home in November. And that’s as it should be. If the Democratic Party won’t uphold its end of the bargain, there’s no reason its base should pretend the deal is still on.

Yup.  This week, I learned that I just don’t want to spend my life on the Democratic Party Highway anymore.  At least not THIS Democratic Party.  As if I needed another sign, Air America went out of business today.  Thanks, Giver of Signs.

And if I don’t want to spend my life as part of this movement, if I can’t stand to keep my eyes on this road any longer, it’s a lot easier to see that there are plenty of off-ramps.  And that is a scary thing to learn.

-andy

Wow. I had forgotten how insane and exciting and bitterly disappointing elections can be. And thinking of the long-term political impact of the Special Senate Race up in Massachusetts can be downright frightening. It’s colored my day to think that a mismanaged campaign could lead to the end of Health Care reform and what kind of impact that might have on the Presidential election in 2012. That and looking up funny animated .GIFs. That has also colored my day.

In a pleasant bit of cosmic coincidence, I was reading up on the actress Jery Ryan of Star Trek: Voyager fame (not because of her being on Star Trek, but because she showed up on an old Conan O’Brien skit and I had to look her up. Even I didn’t watch Voyager). There was an interesting bit at the end of her Wikipedia bio about a controversy earlier on in her life, when she was married to a Republican Senatorial candidate by the name of Jack Ryan. They had filed for a divorce and reached a custody agreement regarding their son, the files for which were sealed due to contents that might be damaging to the child if they were ever made public. You might see where I’m going with this…

Eventually some journalists (evil, evil journalists) convinced a judge to unseal the paperwork, and it turns out Jack Ryan was a bit…sexually adventurous, and had tried to make his then wife engage in some fetishistic behavior. And good for him, I say. Marriage is a sacred bond between two people, and physical intimacy is a huge part of any relationship. If you can’t trust the one you’re with enough to at least dip your toe into the reality of a personal sexual kink, then your relationship is fucked. But I digress.

Ya see, as much as I think we should live in a world of open discussions about sexuality, the Republican Party as a whole has a slightly more guarded view about what should constitute the moral fiber of a candidate representing the GOP. With these allegations brought to the public, Jack Ryan was eventually forced to withdraw from the race for the open Senatorial seat. His handpicked replacement was the completely and utterly bat-shit crazy Alan Keyes, who no intelligent person has or ever will vote for, leading to a fairly easy victory for his opponent, a young politician in his first major political race.

So yeah, today might end up being a bitter pill to swallow in terms of long term effects, but I learned that the prudishness of ‘Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One’ may have inadvertently helped us elect our first black President. And don’t that just beat all.

-diego

Today I learned that a little bit of campaigning can undo a whole lot of post-campaign recuperation.  I probably shouldn’t say too much about how it’s gone up here until it’s all over, but I’m amazed how quickly I’ve lost all the (physically, emotionally, mentally) healthy habits that I’ve acquired since escaping Minnesota.  This must be what addiction is like.

Tomorrow, I get home to see my cat and start drying out again.

-andy

Today I learned from my mom that one in 50 Americans has no income besides food stamps.

How’s that “ownership society” thing working out for you?

-andy