All out of rage

Unlike Mel, I really believed it could happen. Living in a blue state helped me to believe that, I'm sure. As someone who watched her students get really excited about politics this season, I'm with Mel in hoping that they, and other new voters, do not now feel that their engagement was for naught.

I liked what Jimbo wrote in his post-election post, especially this part:

[W]e lefties have to start thinking seriously about what we want this country to be. A collection of plans is not a vision. Hatred of conservatives is not a vision (it's arguably a blindness). What do we want? What do we want? What do we see as our nation's, we, the people's call in the world?...

We have to be called. And it has been so long since the left has blown its trumpet, since the left has issued a call to us rather than a five-year plan, since it has asked us to give of ourselves for ourselves in the making of a better world. Call us, please, call us. Let the trumpet ring. It's time to wake up from our dream and change the world.

In the past 24 hours, I've gone from dismay to disbelief to depression to frustration to numbness to terrified resignation. The only emotion that's missing is rage. And that's odd, 'cause, lately, I'm very good at rage.

But rage is exhausting and unproductive. And rage isn't going to make the war any saner, the Supreme Court any safer, or the environment less imperiled. Rage can be a catalyst, but it's also a poison — and one more likely to damage she who wields it than the people or things to which it's applied.

What I'm feeling instead tonight is a deep fatigue. But also a growing certainty that what the country needs now are local leaders who are steady and steadfast and brave. It needs people with the kind of patience that enables a clear-eyed idealism and the type of humor that enables sustained efforts for change.

(And, in my own field at least, we could use a few more people willing to lead by example instead of self-righteous indignation.)

There's no comfort (for me, at least) in hating Republicans, or Ohio, or even the horrible Karl Rove. As Jimbo said, hating conservatives is not a vision. Let's set concrete goals. Let's live the lives and be the global citizens we know we should. Let's wake from the dream and roll up our sleeves.