Life during wartime. Election during wartime. It's not surprising that the Republicans gained control of both the House and the Senate, since Republicans have traditionally been seen as being better than the Dems to handle war and defense. It's the 9/11 effect on American politics.

But my father, who was a die hard union liberal democrat, would say that every democrat defeat is a time for the party to assess itself and plan for the next election. He would say that politics is like a never ending war and one lost battle does not mean you've lost the war. The Dems will have to go through a long overdue soul searching and learn from this defeat. The Republicans have planned their strategy for years starting at the grass roots level with reapportionment in the South, and concentrating on local and state races and governorships. The Dems, as was seen in the Florida race in the 2000 election, did not have the troops on the ground in Florida which was a telling sign of the state of the Democratic party at the grassroots, local and state level.

The Dems have been focused on winning the presidency and won with the election of Bill Clinton, but it was done at the expense of the local, state and governorship races. I was reminded yesterday that Tip O'Neill said that "all politics is local". The Republican take over of the house and senate in this election proved Tip O'Neill was right.

Not a good day for the Dems unless you live in California, but the success of the Democratic party in California Republic bodes well for the Dems. California has always been seen as a political bellwether; so goes California, eventually so goes the rest of the country. Although the GOP have won this battle, the future for the Dems is still pretty darn bright!

I got back on track with my novel last night, and wrote for three hours. I need to be steady and finish my daily word total every day because it's too easy for me to slack off and fall behind in my word count. I was originally planning to write the story from my female protagonist's viewpoint, but I think I will have chapters where the different characters speak and tell their story. Right now I'm finishing up a chapter, at least I think it's a chapter, on how the character's family came to have elf DNA. So much of this is backstory, but it's crucial to understand the history and how events from the distant, distant past are still influencing events in the present story, and eventual downfall of the society, of which this story is the first piece. It's very complicated.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the election results in San Francisco tomorrow. I think you will see a conservative backlash in the election results. And when I say a conservative backlash, I mean a move to the center and moderation and away from the left and the progressives. This is San Francisco after all, and if you're a moderate and in the center you're considered a conservative.

The left and progressives are so impractical to me. They want to throw money at social problems, thinking that money will solve problem, and you know what it hasn't solved anything. So much of left and progressive policy is rooted in ideology. Ideology only works in theory, in a vacuum, in an ideal world. And I'm sorry, there is no place on this earth that is ideal.

Take the homeless issue. If you take the progressive/left policy of giving money to the homeless and apply it to the family unit, you'd be thought of as a horrible parent. Imagine having a homeless child who is unable to find a job, and may or may not have substance abuse problems. As a parent, wouldn't you want to help them to get out of their situation? You don't just give your child money and expect to fend for themselves. You don't just throw money at your children, and then walk away. But that's exactly what San Francisco's homeless policy does. We have laws here where you can't find out anything about the homeless, you can't ask them their life story to find out what they need, why they live the way the do, etc. The left and progressives still think it's the 60's and the homeless are just hippies who like living on the street, and the city should support them in their chosen lifestyle.

I don't know. It just seems that if left/progressive policymakers would base laws on how they would treat a family member, then maybe we'd solve many of our city's problems. It makes you wonder how the left/progressive types were treated at home as children and how they are as parents, doesn't it? Then you have to think of John Walker Lindh's parents, and start to really wonder.

The post below was an email post I sent last night. It seems to take a day for an email post to get into Blogger. That's a heck of a long time, isn't it?