OK, my Republican friends... you have the White House and strong majorities in Congress.
Do what you will, but please don't carp about obstructionist Democrats. And please tell your President to stand up and start taking responsibility for his actions. Please let the buck start stopping with him.
Just as Colin Powell invoked the "Pottern Barn Rule" in Iraq--as in "you broke it, you bought it" (which is not actually Pottery Barn's policy but you get the idea)--so is it in play here.
There will be nobody to blame the next four years on. So good luck, godspeed--and know that a loyal opposition will be taunting you with our "reality-based" outlook. Unless Bush starts publicly admitting that God is telling him personally how to run the country, a bit of reality might be a worthwhile contribution to the public discourse.
On a final, personal note, I'm sorry that I lost this election for the Democrats.
Watching as ten states banned gay marriage, it became painfully clear that conservative voters who turned out for "moral values" and against the "homosexual agenda" made the difference, just as that blasted Karl Rove said they would. I'm sorry that David and I selfishly wanted hospital visitation rights, protection for our joint property, and the right to pay our taxes together. Apparently, this is so repugnant to Americans it swamped all other considerations. So it looks like our status as "walking, talking wedge issue" is ratified.
At this point, the marriage vow that David and I made is what is holding us together and keeping us here. As we went to bed to bad with the news, we said, "Whatever else happens, we have each other." I would, honestly, prefer to leave the country. Or rather, I feel that it has left me and moving would just be a matter-of-fact recognition of this reality. It would be easy to move to David's native Australia--and my mother, stuck in Oklahoma, is egging us on, with the proviso that she wants to join us.
But David, God bless him, wants to stay. Hearing him talk of his love for Seattle, our home, and our friends here, I realize it would break my heart to leave. Maybe it already is broken. And maybe that's the "Pottery Barn Rule" that really matters--your heart belongs to the country that breaks it.
This is my country, however much so many voters want me to be a second-class citizen. I can still vote, still march, still protest, and still raise my voice in celebration of all that is good and beautiful here. From wherever I go, that's what I will be doing. So this is no end, just a new chapter.
Thanks to the Seattle Times for the chance to write, and thanks to everyone who has been reading along the way. From here on out, my friends and I will be on nonfamous.com trying to make sense of all of this. Because blogging, like politics, is a way of life.
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