Democracy for Vancouver

Halloween is a big deal at our house. L. and I start bouncing around ideas for our multiple pumpkins sometime in August, and by the second week in October we’ve been to at least one pumpkin patch to choose our victims (the bigger the better). One local farm, Bi Zi, has by far the best deal: $8 per person gets you a cup of hot cider or coffee, a hayride, two tries at the giant pumpkin-launching slingshot, and your choice of pumpkin from their fields - any size.

This year we had a lot of rain early in the month, so the fields were strewn with rotting orange lumps. We had to pick carefully, but eventually made it home with our four blemish-free giants, storing them in the garage until the weekend before Halloween.

I had it all planned out: because my designs work better as lanterns if they’ve had a few days to dry out, I would start carving on Thursday the 25th and finish one pumpkin a night through Sunday. Since I rub them inside and out with alcohol after carving, the jack-o-lanterns usually last a week or more.

Not this year. The first one began to show signs of rot by Friday morning. When I went to the garage to bring in my next victim, my hand broke through the bottom as I tried to lift it (ewwwwww). The third had two small spots of rot that I thought I could cut out as part of the design, but the shell of that pumpkin gave way as soon as I tried to carve it. And the cloud of fruit flies told me that the fourth was a goner, as well.

I have begun to feel a similar buyer’s remorse about the Democratic party. I’ve been unsure about it for a while - how could you not after the many triangulations and political betrayals of Bill Clinton (and now Hillary)? But I’ve stuck with it, never ceasing to call myself a Democrat.

But these days I feel like my hand is breaking through into something that has rotted from the inside out. Chris Dodd and John Edwards and Howard Dean may keep it looking healthy on the outside, but deep down it is something that has succumbed to fear and a lust for the power that may return to the Democrats if they can just keep their heads down for another 12 months.

We don’t have another 12 months. Whether it’s warrantless wiretapping or children’s healthcare or getting the hell out of Iraq or staying the hell out of Iran, Pelosi, Reid and all of the Democrats need to stand up and say “No!” to the asshole-in-chief. They need to scream bloody murder every time the GOP filibusters or supports a Bush veto. They need to shower off the rotten goo that is politics-as-usual and stand up for the millions of us who voted them in to take this fascist oligarchy down.

For the first time since moving to the ultra-fertile Willamette Valley 16 years ago, our pumpkins are from Safeway, and not from a local family farm. Having been picked before the deluge of rain that hit at the beginning of the month, the Safeway squash are light and dry, and easy to seed and carve.

I may not be able to switch parties as easily, but at least handing over my money is a choice. And as I told the DNC caller who hit me up yesterday, I’m done paying to be disappointed.