Optimism

It's tough sledding for liberals/progressives, but I'm not overly pessimistic.  The right has been fuming for eight years as Obama has put in place new rights for gay and transgender citizens.  He has funded healthcare for the needy and avoided a major fiscal melt-down.  The Republicans own congress, they have the presidency and soon the Supreme Court will tip their way.

So where is the room for good cheer?  The reason is demographics.  The recent election and resurgence of the right look a lot like a reactionary last gasp to me.  The underlying reality is that this country is more diverse every day, and the Republican party is more and more just the party of white folks.  You can see it in their convention, their candidates, and their rhetoric.

But more than that, Republicans are getting old.  The upside of that is that old folks vote in higher numbers.  The downside is that they don't live forever.  My daughter and son's friends all lean farther left than even I.  As time goes on, this will create a new force that should sweep aside the Republican resurgence.

Further, as you look at the core achievements, they are not so easily swept aside.  Even if they pass their diminished version of the affordable care act, more will be left with better insurance.  Right now it doesn't even appear they are certain to do that.  Gay marriage is here now; it is hard to see how that bell gets un-wrung.  In the long run, the Democrats have a strong hand, we just need to minimize the damage for now.

The Little Things

It was a simple trip to the grocery store.  We needed some basil and somehow the batch I had gotten just yesterday was already some sort of science experiment.  Hey, that's what penicillin is made from, right?  On the way there it starts to rain, of course.  Californians are funny when it rains.  Everyone sort of huddles in their car, or waits under the store overhang for the rain to stop.  It's just rain, we all shower right?  Some more than others, but still, we know when it comes right down to it, water is just not all that frightening.  It's like we become cats or something.

In any event, I push past all the cat people hovering at the overhang on my way in.  I make my way into the store and it is wall-to-wall people in there.  Now people to me, are like water to everyone else.  Not that they are going to hurt me, but I just don't like to be near so many all at once.  There is no basil of course, but I finally find a nice basil plant, no I can be the savior of our Zucchini soup.  So here I am with my basil behind this woman in the checkout line with like three things in her cart.

She smiles at me and waves me ahead of her.  I smile back and say, "But you only have a few things too," but she waves me by again.  Sometimes you need to let nice people be nice to you.  It makes them happy I think; at least that is what I tell myself, maybe I just want to be away from the cat people.  I went ahead and paid for my basil, but for the rest of my Sunday, I'm thinking that perhaps people are not so terrible.