Election Night 2018

I’m a great believer in positive thinking. Everything works for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.

Sigh, Candide. Published in 1759 by François-Marie Arouet its subtitle is “The Optimist” but it might as well be “The Leibnizian Optimist” since the character Dr. Pangloss with his motto of “Everything works for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds,” personifies that Philosophy (so the tuition wasn’t wasted!). Leibniz was also a noted Mathematician, take that useful Sciences!

What makes it funny in a Classically Ironic way (the protagonist has a fatal flaw which leads to their ultimate doom that is known to the audience but not the characters, funny guys those Greeks) is that, raised a Leibnizian, her life is terrible. She suffers about every possible indignity known to mid-18th Century France (that’s the satirical part, why are there these problems with society?).

Periodically Dr. Pangloss turns up to say, “Everything works for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.”

Spoiler Alert!!!

In the end Candide dies a painful lingering death from Tuberculosis. And that is irony.

I read it once for class, probably never again. I have memories and Wikipedia It’s incredibly depressing. Maybe that’s why Leonard Berstein turned it into an Operetta-

My point is that if I ever tell you, “Everything works for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.” it translates to- “We’re all Doomed!”

Don’t say that’s not a positive attitude, should I miss the last opportunity I might ever have at being right?

Don’t stare at me like that either. I have a Classical education. I suppose you may be excused Voltaire but as a disciple of Clio I must despair if something as recent as Ghostbusters elicits the same vacant look.

You’re gonna endanger us, you’re gonna endanger our client – the nice lady, who paid us in advance, before she became a dog…

Not necessarily. There’s definitely a VERY SLIM chance we’ll survive.

I love this plan! I’m excited to be a part of it! LET’S DO IT!

Yeah. We’re doomed.

Still, instead of a Republican blowout that leaves Democrats farther behind in the House and Senate, the Pundit money is all on a Democratic House while the Senate margin stays the same or slightly worse. At the very least it gives Democrats Subpeona power.

I tell you I’m an optimist and I think the Senate is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Pretty surely we’re going to pick up some Governorships which will help with the Gerrymandering/Voter Suppression problem and make some Statehouse gains. It would be hard to do worse.

So I’m practicing my French and hoping I won’t have to use it.

Developments below. Really big developments in updates.