Post-election briefing: We actually won

By Francesca Lo Basso
Collegian Editor
November 15, 2006

I don’t know who Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is, but I know she said something brilliant: “Well-behaved women rarely make history.”

The past few weeks, my roommate and I have been on a rampage. Between volunteering at Congressman-elect Patrick Murphy’s office and making phone calls for MoveOn.org’s “Call for Change” campaign, plus a few stints campaigning and poll-working for State Representative Green Party candidate Mike Rosenberg, and some canvassing and door-knocking for Liberty PA, I’ve been far from Rousseau’s well-behaved, ornamental lady. And it paid off. The Democrats, and more importantly a lot of progressive Dems, swept the election, taking the Senate, the House and the majority of governorships in the country.

The words “Santorum is No-morum” are perhaps the sweetest I’ve ever heard. I was at a MoveOn.org’s “House Party” at 10 p.m. on election night, where a dozen or so volunteers were calling west-coast voters before their polls closed to make sure they voted. The constant chatter and paper rustling came to an abrupt halt as the muted television tuned to CNN and flashed Casey’s majority lead over Santorum. The cheering that broke out from the small crowd of liberals was deafening.

As the numbers continued to roll onto the screen, I was dumbfounded. We’d done it. I’d done it. All of our door-knocking, phone calls, letters and e-mails actually worked. After 12 years of Republican control of Congress, devoted grassroots campaigning managed to take back the government. Within 24 hours, we had control of Congress, Nancy Pelosi was on her way to become the first ever female speaker of the house and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigned.

It just keeps getting better. CNN.com noted that President George W. Bush is trying to shove two controversial appointments through the lame-duck Congress before the new Democratic Congress convenes in January. But, Georgie is out of luck. Bush nominated John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, but a key Republican has joined the slew of Democrats opposing the nomination. Carl Ford, the former head of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, called Bolton “a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy” and a “serial abuser” of subordinates. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-RI, who was defeated in the election, said he would block Bolton’s nomination. He told The Associated Press, “The American people have spoken out against the president’s agenda on a number of fronts, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy. At this late stage in my term, I’m not going to endorse something the American people have spoken out against.”

At a post-election briefing meeting at MoveOn’s office, one of the campaign leaders was asked how she felt now that the results have come in and she replied, “empowered.” I don’t think there’s any other word for it. It sounds trite, but it needs to be said because it’s true: you can make a difference. I feel the American people have been unhappy for a long time, but because they finally banded together over the last few weeks, they issued in a monumental change that will have far-reaching international consequences.

An article in London’s The Guardian the day after the elections was actually entitled “Thank You America.” Right now, I feel like I can do anything. I have hope and spirit, and the privilege of youth to enable me to keep going. Like the infamous line from The Goonies says, “This is our world,” and I want people to remember that anything is possible.

lobassof1@lasalle.edu