Final thoughts

No posting today, as I've been slowly killing myself with the day's news, but I'd like to put in a word before the ball drops.

The exercise of democracy we've seen so far today has been truly inspiring. Take a moment to read Joshua Bearman for a sense of the revolutionary change in attitude towards voting that many people, especiaqlly the traditionally disenfranchised, have been feeling today. As a colleague said earlier, the GOP's biggest mistake this year might have been accidentally making voting a civil rights issue again. That's a reason for all Americans to feel proud. That said, we should recognize that the Republican strategy all along has been to take this from people. With the most brittle cyncism and lack of conscience, the GOP has been trying to derail the vote anywhere they can. What's more, they've been doing it for the past 4 years. If you want to know why today has been such a nightmare, and why the Help America Vote Act seems to have been passed for naught, a lot of the blame can be laid at the feet of local and federal level Republican insterests. While that should by no means exonerate the Democrats who have also stifled progress for their own ends, it has been clear that in the nation at large, and here in New York, Republicans have done what they could to keep election reform from succeeding.