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So in the process of dealing with last Tuesday, I came to an important realization, and it actually made me feel a lot better. It’s pretty obvious, but I think a lot of people are having trouble getting there. I know I was. Here it is: I’m not responsible for getting Democrats elected. There are paid professionals who are in charge of that. They have to figure out which candidates can win. They have to come up with a message that will appeal to the majority in any electorate. They have to raise the money to run the ads and pay the campaign workers and buy the bumper stickers. None of that is my job. More importantly, there’s no reason for me to try to pretend to be something I’m not in order to help Democrats get elected. That means that when I’m talking to people, I don’t have to moderate my views to make it seem like I’m more “reasonable” than I really am. Those of you who read this might be confused, because I don’t really bother with moderation when I’m writing for this site. But believe me, when I talk to actual human beings face to face, I generally strike the pose that many liberals do, which is that I’m a moderate who agrees with them on most things and is still going to vote for a Democrat. I have no idea whether that persuades anyone to vote for the candidates I support, but it certainly isn’t any fun for me. Going along to get along sucks. Ultimately, I have a set of principles that changes very slowly, if at all. My views on how to best serve those principles changes more often, as I get new information. And how I prioritize those principles changes as well (since they’re sometimes in conflict). I vote for the candidates that represent the least compromise of my principles. What I think now is that it’s a lot more important to talk about my principles than to talk about the candidates who are at best imperfect servants of my principles (and probably of their own principles as well). One thing I’ve detected among liberals after this election is that there seems to be a general sense of outrage that conservatives came out of the booth and said they voted in favor of moral values. I hope that sticks in the craw of liberals everywhere, because as I wrote the other day, we’re values voters too, even if we don’t always think about it that way. This election, I think, has made people start thinking about it that way again. And from here on out, I plan on talking about it that way, regardless of who I’m conversing with. I wasn’t born with the principles that I have, I arrived at them through experience and contemplation, and I’m proud of them. And the best thing about them is that I get to keep them regardless of who’s in the White House or who has a Congressional majority. I hope other liberals feel the same way. ...

So I was thinking yesterday about Republicans and how they vote for candidates that share their values (or profess to) rather than voting in their economic self interest. There’s a whole book that was written about this phenomenon, and plenty of liberals think that middle class and lower middle class Republicans are stupid for placing their values above their pocketbook. It was then that it hit me that I’m in exactly the same category as those Republicans. I don’t vote for Democrats because it’s in my own self interest. I’m a white male American citizen with an income above the median income in this country. I have no kids and am almost guaranteed never to have any. Economically speaking, the Republican party probably helps me out more than the Democrats. But I never vote for Republicans, because they don’t share my values. It was then that it hit me that I’m a full fledged member of the liberal elite. That’s what conservatives call people who vote for Democrats based on values rather than their own self interest. I feel special. If I ever get rich, I’ll get promoted to limousine liberal. One can hope. ...

Tim Bray answers a serious question that I would have liked to have asked today. The question: what’s it like to live in Canada?

Jim Kuntsler says it all: We couldn't form a plausible opposition to those who act as if the future doesn't exist. Or, if you prefer, Adlai Stevenson said it all when, at an event during the 1956 Presidential campaign, a woman shouted, “You have the vote of every thinking person!” Stevenson shouted back, “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!”

My wife and I went and volunteered for three hours today doing phone banking for the Democratic party. I was sure it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but I wanted to see what was up at the campaign HQ and talking to Democratic voters was fun (we called people on a list of strong supporters of Erskine Bowles). Most people weren’t home, but all of the ones that were had already voted. All of them. I was amazed. A lot of them had taken advantage of early voting. ...

So I went out and voted before work this morning. It was the most exciting vote I ever cast.

Someone posted this note on the bulletin board over the mailboxes where I live. When I walked by 15 minutes later, it had been removed.

I got spam yesterday from the pro-life organization National Right to Life. They sent multiple emails to an address that only appears in the whois database. Wonder who told them that was a good idea?

A group calling itself Internet Veterans for Truth has created a clearinghouse for all the downloadable Internet video you might want to see.

It seems to me that the upshot of Osama bin Laden’s most recent tape is that he really is a politician, and he’s come up with some new talking points that he thinks will win him more supporters. As Hassan Ibrahim, the al-Jazeera journalist in the film Control Room has said, the struggle of the Islamists isn’t about religion, it’s about power and money. Seems to me that Osama bin Laden thinks he’s shored up his base and is now trying to win over some undecideds. ...