rational retreat redux

This is my maiden voyage at this cite. I had retired, for mental health reasons, from all things political after the debacle of Nov. 2. I am getting a second wind, and will be "at one with" again shortly.

Thanks for the opportunity for re-entry.

Note that the title of this contribution is somewhat ironic in that when first coined, sans "redux", it was a slogan adopted to explain, via shorthand, why it was permissable to stop caring about the election. Hours and hours of watching "Hardball", hoping that a hardball question that could not be answered could fuel a daydream that the American public would catch on, or viewing poll cites, hoping that the numbers occasionally favoring Kerry would stick because the American public was catching on, or listening to real insiders who swore that the youth vote was going to overwhelm Karl Rove and prove that the American public whose future was at stake was catching on, or seeking out Talking Points Memo in hopes that any of a number of revelations of corruption or lies or incompetence would force the American public to catch on HAD FINALLY ADDED UP TO CONDUCT TO WHICH EVEN SISYPHUS WOULD DEMUR.

Thus, while at one point in time withdrawal seemed the only viable option, and Rational Retreat meant what it said, it now represents a retreat from retreat.

It all boiled down to, excuse the triteness, a culture war. One that was unwinnable by the blue states. And everyone knew it all along. And all that was done in the meantime was so much, as they call it in the restaurant biz, "plate coverage".

So, onward and upward, whatever that means. (Such is the responsibility of grownups).