Please take a moment to indulge me in a tiny mental exercise.
Close your eyes.
Wait. That won't work. You won't be able to read my next words.
All right, then: Don't close your eyes. Just sort of pretend they are closed, for the purposes of this exercise, and join me as we take a journey in our minds.
It will not be a long journey. And I promise I'll have you back before the commercial ends. Or before the boss realizes you're surfing on Kos. Or before the kids wake up from their nap. Or whatever.
It's a journey in time. Come on. It's easy. Really. Just leap across the Great Divide with me and you'll be there.
You made it! Congratulations; that wasn't so hard, was it? So, let's see now: when have we ended up? It's always best on these journeys to get one's bearings immediately. Ah...next Thursday. One week from today.
One week from today.
Look around you. It's only a week away, but are you sure you are in the same world? I know: the banner headlines on Huffpost proclaiming doom for Obama's entire remaining agenda seem a bit excessively ominous, but then the cnn.com interview with John Boehner in which he is declaring his intention to stall anything and everything the president wants now that he will be Speaker and to open numerous investigations into Obama's actions in Afghanistan and Iraq and for all I know maybe even into the whole birth certificate thing--all sorts of fishing expeditions designed to take congressional time in random efforts to find some excuse to try to impeach Obama--doesn't exactly make everything sound hunky dory.
And what in the world are we supposed to do with Senator Angle? We are supposed to put up with her insane ravings for at least six years? Along with Demint, whom we were already stuck with (and who, thank GOD, is not going to get to be the majority leader--they're saying that will probably be Dick Durbin) and Ensign and other already-ensconced GOP idiots, we have Rubio and Rand and Angle with their lunatic fringe policies and me-first, everyone else be damned right wingers like Ayotte and Toomey and Mukowski as well.
Look: Olbermann is on TV, saying something about how it looks as if there won't be a need for Second Amendment remedies. So there's that, anyway. He says that tomorrow he'll have a Special Comment: The Tea Party Congress--When the Mad Hatter Takes Over the Shop. It sounds like something that would be interesting, but we can't stick around that long. Wait: before we head back, though...this looks interesting...
The story is about how this horrific result could possibly have happened.
You see the gist: the right hated Obama for all of the obvious reasons so they rallied the troops against him from Day One, very successfully as it turned out. This chart says that GOP turnout was much higher than in normal midterm elections. But what is this one? If the Dem turnout had equaled the GOP's in percentage, we'd have swamped them? All we had to do to avoid Speaker Boehner, Senator Angle, Senator Rand, Senator Mukowski, etc. was to get fellow democrats to cast their ballots????
Just a second: How many of you are going to cast yours next Tuesday?
WHAT?
EXCUSE ME?
I know you have what you think of as valid reasons. I know you've been less than perfectly happy with the administration. I know some of Obama's policies, appointments, etc. have utterly pissed you off. But FOR CRYING OUT LOUD we're talking about Speaker Freaking Boehner here! We're talking about Senator Sharron Runs-From-Press No-Abortion-Even-When-Raped Revolution-Every-20-Years I'm-A-Certified-Loony Angle here! We're talking Rand Paul! Ken Buck! We're talking guys who think it's cool to dress up in Nazi uniforms. We're talking about ceding these nutjobs control of our government!!!
No, no, no, NO! This is not the election to sit out in protest. Look around you! This is NOT the world you left a few moments ago. It is already beginning to change. It is already feeling more paranoid, more frightening. In fact, I'm feeling more frightened just being here. We have to go back.
Come back.
Open your eyes again.
Oh wait. Right. You didn't close them. Well, then, open them wider. Look hard. See the mess that is about to happen.
And get out and vote on Tuesday. And get everyone you know to do it too!
<div style="text-align:left;font-size:x-small;margin-top:0;width:512px;">10 Minutes from Alyssa Milano</div>