Feeling a sickening feeling in your gut? Irresistable urge to wring hands? Feeling pieces of the sky on your head? You DON'T need to go there. I have the solution for you!!! Read on! Oh...And hey, those with the desire (paid for or otherwise) to cause confusion and disillusion for those in another camp? Watch out, y'all.
It's not often that I diary an article from another blog rather than reporting news or thoughts from my interior. Given that this is the Friday before yet another manic primary weekend however and given the tsunami of cold sweat that has been deluging from the pores of handwringers (and the concern trolls who would heave buckets of cold water and have us believe it was sweat)...I thought that I should refer people to this article at The Field entitled...Boot Camp for Chicken Littles.
More after the flip
Al Giordano, The Field's guiding light and an astute observer of the political scene, has offered a crash course for those who tremble at the thought of yet more primaries to get through and I highly recommend checking it out and going through the comments.
For those who don't want to check out one of the premiere progressive political blogs, here's a portion:
Politics ain’t beanbag. It’s a struggle for power, and those that already have it are accustomed to hanging on to it. What’s happened this cycle that’s different is that millions of folks that don’t have our hands on the levers of state power have swarmed upon the scene and changed the script already.
For every max-out $2,300 donor, now there are more than 23 each donating an average of $100 to their candidate. For every political "professional" and bottom-feeder taking street money or sent by his or her employer to key primary states to contact voters, there are a thousand people making those calls from home as volunteers. For every asinine political reporter at a commercial news organizations, there is an army of bloggers and other fact-checkers unspinning their tangled webs of distortion and simulation.
But make no mistake: it’s still a gargantuan battle.
Believe me, I'm an instant gratification kinda guy so I well understand what it's like to want something so bad (and to want it now!) that you can't wait for the process to unfold. As a Red Sox fan and someone following (and generally believing) in the Dems since the 60's, I know what it's like to have one's dreams and illusions snatched away, thrown on the ground, and stomped upon by Vogons.
I also know that the stakes of a race like this are ENORMOUS and that highly unscrupulous, nihlistic, morally vacuumed individuals will do anything and everything to win this office. Creating panic is one of the easiest ways for them to win...stealing elections takes more efforts. Panic and fear suck the life and marrow out of any battle...it's how routs are created. Putting staff members and operatives to work on the blogs to for psych operations requires very little time, money or effort.
Still, there is nothing to be gained by panic. Nothing to fear except fear itself. If you are feeling weak hearted, anxious, hyperventilated or what have you...go to The Field and go to boot camp. Build yourself up following Al's simple prescriptions and exercises and the next time a concern troll or botbully attempts to kick sand in your face, you'll know what to do. And remember...keep breathing. Slow and steady wins the race. Drip. Drip. Drip.