Do Work

Jesse:
When I read this summary in my email of a NY Times piece on a prostitute lovin' Republican Senator I first get sad:

Obama Factor Plays to Senator’s Advantage
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican who handily overcame a sex scandal, has capitalized on his state’s extensive displeasure with the president and his politics.

Then I try to remember the epiphany I had after Kerry lost in '04 (as a I walked through the bitter Ottawa cold). We have to take stories like this and remember that there's important work to do. If Louisianians are so twisted around by what they see and hear and think about politics that their on the side of the "family values John" because they hate a man like Barack Obama that much, then we need to fix it. We need to engage, we need to argue, we need to, in various non-re-educational-and-creepy ways, teach them that they don't have to think that.

Louisiana is the 44th poorest state (according to Wikipedia, and who else are you gonna trust?). 44th poorest state, and they're upset because Obama's introducing big government programs? You know who those programs help? Poor people and poor states! If you have specific concerns about "federal control", then we need to deal with those. But these guys shouldn't be going so far to turn down money that they support a guy like Sen. Vitter! It's ridiculous.

And it means progressive people and politicians have work to do.