October, 2004

I thought I knew enough frustration and anger and disappointment and shame that surely, surely I was not alone. Roger and I talked about what we could do, how we could most help, where we could go and we decided we'd head back to Milwaukee, the city we'd moved from two years prior. That way we could see old friends by night and do what the young campaign staffers in Wisconsin told us to do by day. Democrats and Republicans campaign hard in Wisconsin and it's difficult to know which way elections will go, so according to all the pundits this state was up for grabs. And the final tally proved that to be true.

We were going to work on the Kerry/Edwards bring out the vote efforts for that week before the November election. I had voted for Edwards in the California primary, given small sums of money to his campaign and fervently believed in his message. His wife, Elizabeth, was also a powerful intellect and I knew she'd bring much to the office. I wanted him to be my president and enough of the rest of America felt the same that Kerry chose him to be his running mate. While he was one of the reasons I decided to get active in the election, the primary reason was my fervent opposition to the Bush/Cheney ticket.

I can't remember what the weather was like when we left Los Angeles in late October, but I'm assuming it was dry and hot and that we were desperate for summer to end. It ended abruptly four hours later when we arrived at General Billy Mitchell Field (or Mitchell Airport as it is now called). I remember beautiful autumnal colors, rain, dampness and sleet; in other words, typical late October/early November days along Lake Michigan. And I remember our optimism, not only for the Wisconsin elections, but for the country. We were going to get this one trick pony out of office and it was going to happen soon. (Here's where I shake my head in disbelief and say fuckfuckfuckfuck over and over again, still horrified that we've had to endure another four years of the dangerous ineptitude of the current administration.)

And so when I read about the excitement generated by Obama or Clinton, I feel a tickle of a sneer cross my face. Yeah, it's great that we Americans are excited about this election but why the hell weren't we jacked up enough about the election in 2004? Indifference by too many in the last election allowed another four years of the current administration to inflict their misery on too many. And now I read about the surge in popularity of McCain. All I can say is too many Americans seem to suffer from short term memory loss. Don't think, fellow Democrats, that we've got this election in the bag.