I Blame Bill Clinton

I have been through the denial, total profound depression, sadness, and the desire to move to Belieze. (It is just too cold in Canada.) I have tried to get it out of my system reading irrelevant fiction, drinking, whining, obsessing, and playing video games. (Try it ladies. Pick up a first person shooter and after you get over the fact that you aren't supposed to be doing it you'll learn to wallow in the joy of randomly murdering whoever gets in your way. I think you'll like it,)

Now I have arrived at anger, and I expect to stay here for a while. Don't get me wrong. It isn't like I find myself in an unchanging state. I went through that white hot murderous rage when I avoided the supermarket so that I didn't snap at an innocent checker. But my mood has developed into a more focused, measured, retaliatory rage. I'm spending time thinking of what to do about it all, how to get back at them, and how to make sure it doesn't happen again. It isn't white hot. It is very very cold.

And today it occurred to me that it is Bill Clinton's fault.

Bear with me for a moment.

Bill Clinton in his own way deserved the Presidency. He was a good wonk and served well. And, just for the record, I don't care whether or not he got an occasional blowjob. But he was elected because he had that charismatic thing that is fabulous in person and manages to light up the television set.

But he wasn't anything remotely resembling a liberal. In fact he was on the right side of the middle, in my view. In another time he would have been a perfectly suitable liberal Republican. (Yes, Virginia. There used to be such a thing.) And we -- yes WE -- let the right pin the liberal label on him. So, at best, the American public began to see him as a the left side of the spectrum and anything to the left of that as extreme. He moved the perceived center. And ever since folks (read Al Gore, John Kerry, and tons of folks who you could name yourself) have been chasing Republicans for the center. Meanwhile the center keeps moving rightward.

I'm going to write a thorough analysis of this one of these days, and figure out what positions have actually moved. And I'm going to do everything to get the bastards. Meanwhile, let's not be looking for a Terry McAuliffe clone at the DNC please. We already have the DLC; we don't need to duplicate that.

Hope you are feeling a little better.