October 2004 is a month that I count among the best and worst of my life. My candidate - then-state senator Barack Obama - was about to beat Alan Keyes to win Peter Fitzgerald's Senate seat for Illinois, something not even us volunteers had thought likely as late as February of that year. I was elated.
But at the same time, Senator John Kerry was losing the battle for the presidency. And the idea of four more years of President Bush in the White House - holding the most respected and revered position an American can, representing our great country to the rest of the world, legislating (along with his pals in bullydom Dick Cheney, Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay) the laws that guide our country, our persons, our money - made me throw up a little. OK, a lot.
But you know what it didn't make me do?
It didn't make me scream "[o]ff with his head" when Kerry spoke of President Bush. It didn't make me have the gall (hyperbole? Idiocy?) to characterize Bush's policies as "treason". even though I thought some were disastrous. It didn't make me go to John Edwards rallies and suggest, loudly that we "[k]ill," the Republican candidate for president and a fellow human being.
Don't get me wrong, I was, "mad! ... really mad!" I didn't want to see Bush, DeLay, "and the rest of the hooligans ... run[ning] the country," and I too thought that if it came to pass, "we [as a country] have to have our head examined."
But difference between Democrats and Republicans, or at the very least then-Kerry supporters and now-McCain supporters, is that while they are both losers (in the strictly electoral sense), Kerry supporters didn't turn 2004 into "one of the most appalling campaigns" in recent memory. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that this is coming from the same group of supporters that laughed at community organizing and booed hope during their convention, but seriously, suggesting someone kill Senator Obama? Isn't that treason?
The jury is still out as to where October 2008 will come in on the rank of months of my life. My candidate - Senator Obama - looks like he just might win, something not even us volunteers had the hope would happen as late as January of this year. I am (cautiously) elated. But watching some McCain supporters express their disgusting (and questionable) hatred for the man who may just hold that most respected and revered position an American can makes me want to throw up a little.
Ok, a lot.