from the sublime of the series to the mostly awful with glimmers of hope

Yup, I'm talking elections.  The hope, of course, provided by the stalwart residents of California who cheerfully informed two millionaires that our state is not for sale.  Bye bye Carly & Meg.  Will not be missing your smug faces on my tv machine.  Also the happy news that Sharon Angle lost, meaning we won't have to build that border wall to protect us from a state crazy enough to elect her after all.  Christine O'Donnell - done -although she doesn't seem clear on the concept having immediately followed her loss with a call to her opponent telling him what his agenda should be and then advising her followers "we've got the room all night..plenty of food..let's party".  Of course, given the fact that the way she's been supporting herself for years is by being a candidate, maybe this was just her last chance at a free meal.  Are those napkin wrapped canapes I see in your purse?  Andrew Cuomo prevailing over the porno loving, baseball bat wielding Carl Palladino - should've been inevitable, but hey, I'm calling it good news.

Now the bad news.  A lot of people voted for the party that gutted the economy and outsourced our labor market in the confusing belief that they would restore our economy and improve the labor market.  I could go deeper but that's pretty much it in a nutshell.  Why.  Truthfully, I don't think people read enough.  And even if you do read it becomes unfortunately increasingly possible to only read (or listen to) people who think just like you do.  On the right and the left.  Opinion becomes truth and opinion requires a lot less effort and self examination than research and analysis and finding fact.  Also, I wonder if there's a sort of national Stockholm Syndrome afloat - people identifying with their captors.  They look at these not too bright, venal, wealthy "leaders" and think "Hey, I'm not too bright.  I can be venal.  Sure, I'm broke right now but if they can succeed, so can I.  What if I succeed and then I don't get away with all the crap they're getting away with because I backed some crappy financial reform bill. The hell with.  I'm rolling the dice on my chances. This is American, god damn it."  Sort of like the Scientologists who haunt the Celebrity Center near my house wearing psuedo military uniforms, smoking incessantly, and doing the bidding of the house of  L. Ron in the mistaken belief that one day they will wake up and be John Travolta.

In the wake of his success I was at first a little worried about John Boehner.  How will maintain his tan and his golf par with all of his new found responsibilites?  But then I realized it's no problem.  When it comes to legislating, he can text the word "no" from any ninth hole in the country.