Like it or not, Puritopians will not win in the South

[herding cats]

7. The point is he can make gains for the people there.

This is how things were done before the Great Purge in 2010. By and large the candidates sucked to our standards, but they sucked a hell of a lot less than the Tea Party candidates who swept them out of office.

The end result is the poorest people, the women and the minorities suffer the brunt of these changeovers. Then there's the laws they enact, some of which end go up to the SC and could very well end up impacting all of us before this is said and done.

It's was far from perfect, but it was better before than it is now. What matters is if the people are being disenfranchised from voting by lawmakers, if women are losing their right to choice, if minorities are living with racist policies, if the public educational system is being gutted, and if the impoverish are being denied a chance healthcare and to get out of poverty. To name a few things.

If we can fight some of these things, maybe even erase a few of the regional losses in those areas, it puts us on better footing to gain support in the future there. Not to mention the population has a better chance of feeling real improvements in their lives. Which really does matter when it comes to local politics. What we have to overcome is the bigoted hate and divisive mentality the Republicans have fostered there first. Which takes time, and a lot of delicate stepping until your gains are sustainable in the region.

I wish it wasn't like this. I wish things were cut and dried in the land of local politics like some people believe they are. But, it's not. We're not even close to that stage of majority social evolution yet in some of our states. We do have some true progressives in all states, though. Which is great news! We need to keep them working toward changing the minds of the populations in their regions, and believe it or not, a moderate kicking someone like Vitter to the curb is something being celebrated by a lot of real progressives in Louisiana tonight. It's a fire they hopefully can use to ignite others to their way of thinking a little at a time.

Every step in the right direction is one less in the wrong one. Unless you live under some really insane RW rule at the moment, I realize that's not an easy thing to understand out of hand. Some peoples lives have been going backwards now for years in ways many people don't bother to stop and think about much, and this is a salve to one state's population of such people.

I just hope it works out for them if even only marginally.