Week one of the soul searching is nearly complete. The article above offers some ideas about how the Democrats can recalibrate our party and win elections again. If that's not enough for you, Slate has just gone to town with this theme, asking writer after writer to weigh in on just how the causes we believe in--equality in civil rights, fair treatment of workers, stewardship of the environment, etc.--can be turned into an electoral advantage.
If you're sick of all of that--and I know I am--you can read this interview with Ellen DeGeneres. It's a wonderful interview--Ellen is great on either end of these chats--and one of the first times I've seen her talk frankly about her relationship with her girlfriend and about how she, as America's new daytime sweetheart, feels about an election in which her love was demonized. Here's the most political I've ever seen her get:
Phillips: "Are you surprised by the sexual orientation, gay marriage, that these are such hot buttons issues in American in 2004?"If anyone can quietly change the hearts and minds of middle America, I'm hoping it's Ellen. I guess we'll see.
DeGeneres: "Am I surprised? No. No. You know, I wish that I wasn't seen differently. I wish that people looked at me and just saw that I was a good person with a good heart. And that wants to make people laugh. And that's who I am. I also happen to be gay. And I would love to have the same rights as everybody else. I would love, I don't care if it's called marriage. I don't care if it's called, you know, domestic partnership. I don't care what it's called. I mean, there are couples that have been together, 30 years, 40 years. And all of a sudden, they lose their house, you know, the taxes kill them, because it's different because they're not married. Everything is taken away just because. You know, with Sept. 11, there are a lot of people that lost their partner and didn't get the same benefits. It's not fair. And at the same time I know there are people watching right now saying, you know, it's sick it's wrong, it's this. And it's like, I can't convince them that I'm not sick or wrong, that there's nothing wrong with me. You know, I can live my life and hope that things change, and hope that we're protected as any other couples, should something happen to me or Alex.
Meanwhile, I've moved on to my own manner of distracting myself from politics: Today, I registered for my first graduate class on my way to a master's degree in journalism. Because I'm doing this part-time, it should take me right up through the end of the Bush Administration. (I'd include a link to a countdown clock here, but do you really want to think about the 1,533 days we've got left?)
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