News From Browntown

News From Browntown
It's a sad day when the party of FDR and LBJ, both of whom presided over some of the most progressive legislation and effective government in U.S. history, can only offer voters this;

a) in Virginia a candidate for Senate whose main qualification for office, apparently, is that he was a highly-placed Republican?! ...
b) in Connecticut a candidate whose main qualification for office seems to be that he is a wealthy businessman who thinks that Bring the Troops Home can serve as both campaign slogan and philosophy of government...
c) also in Connecticut, a (former) Democratic Senator who seems to believe that repeatedly invoking the name of Senator John McCain, a Conservative Republican, is his own ticket to ride to victory in November.

In context of current slang, if 50 is the new 40, then Democrats are the new Republicans. The problem is that becoming just slightly less awful clones of those Republicans now in power is not enough to win an election, much less govern the country. Democratic leadership these days appears to be reduced to "vote for us, we're a smidgen less of a mess than the other guys". How inspiring!

How broken can the system get? I read somewhere the other day that the last time our democracy was in such shambles, we ended up fighting the Civil War!

This is why I knit. It is a mind-altering activity that involves ingesting nothing and ignoring selectively. I can sit in front of the television and knit serenely and calmly while John McGlaughlin, Randi Rhodes and Chris Matthews rant and rave. I don't yell at the television anymore because I am focused on finishing one row so I can move to the next... and at the end I have a nice, colorful, knitted thingie.