Send the Republicans out of the room for a minute. I'll wait. We all Democrats up in here now? Good.

I know y'all are all pissed off right now with our President (who has accomplished a hell of a lot, actually, all things considered), our so-called Congressional majority, our national party who can't find Tennessee on a map, our state party (and the mysterious Ghost of Ray Blanton's Wildroot Cream shadow party that's really running things), some of our weaker candidates, most of our other candidates running GOP-lite campaigns, and getting our asses kicked up and down the field by a bunch of cretins and scoundrels and fancy pants funded by boxcar loads of GOP corporate cash pouring into our state.

But winners never quit and quitters never win. We gotta show up and we gotta play all four quarters and not pay no attention to that scoreboard. We gotta go back to that locker room with our heads held high knowing we left it all on the field.</lombardi>

There ain't no mercy rule in politics, so y'all get yourself on down to your election place, hold your nose, and vote a straight D ticket. Or you could just lay around on the couch bitching and moaning and making us look like bigger chumps than we already are. Your choice. But as Bill Maher said a couple of weeks ago, "Who you gonna vote for? Your disappointing friend or your sworn enemy?" (Or something like that.) Staying home is a vote for the other team.

And before you go to the polls, you need to go read this Rolling Stone interview with President Barack Obama to remember why you call yourself a Democrat. Here's the money part:

President Obama: When I talk to Democrats around the country, I tell them, "Guys, wake up here. We have accomplished an incredible amount in the most adverse circumstances imaginable." I came in and had to prevent a Great Depression, restore the financial system so that it functions, and manage two wars. In the midst of all that, I ended one of those wars, at least in terms of combat operations. We passed historic health care legislation, historic financial regulatory reform and a huge number of legislative victories that people don't even notice. We wrestled away billions of dollars of profit that were going to the banks and middlemen through the student-loan program, and now we have tens of billions of dollars that are going directly to students to help them pay for college. We expanded national service more than we ever have before.

[..]

It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. There may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, making certain legislative compromises. But right now, we've got a choice between a Republican Party that has moved to the right of George Bush and is looking to lock in the same policies that got us into these disasters in the first place, versus an administration that, with some admitted warts, has been the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.

The idea that we've got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible.

Everybody out there has to be thinking about what's at stake in this election and if they want to move forward over the next two years or six years or 10 years on key issues like climate change, key issues like how we restore a sense of equity and optimism to middle-class families who have seen their incomes decline by five percent over the last decade. If we want the kind of country that respects civil rights and civil liberties, we'd better fight in this election. And right now, we are getting outspent eight to one by these 527s that the Roberts court says can spend with impunity without disclosing where their money's coming from. In every single one of these congressional districts, you are seeing these independent organizations outspend political parties and the candidates by, as I said, factors of four to one, five to one, eight to one, 10 to one.

We have to get folks off the sidelines. People need to shake off this lethargy, people need to buck up. Bringing about change is hard - that's what I said during the campaign. It has been hard, and we've got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place.

If you're serious, now's exactly the time that people have to step up.

Not much more I can add to that.

But, one more thing for the state Democratic leadership and candidates. When you wake up on the morning of November 3rd all bruised and broken up and beat down, remember this: Get off that GOP-lite stuff. Given a choice, Republicans (and most so-called Tennessee "independents" who are Republicans but just ashamed to admit it) will vote for the real Republican every last time. Y'all need to turn off the Fox News and go read the Democratic Party Platform and either get on the same page or quit calling yourselves Democrats. We tried it your way. How's that working out for us? If we're going down, let's at least go down fighting for what's right, moral and just.

OK, then.