Their Pound of Flesh

Following up on What The Fez Said ....

If you think that a Clinton or Obama presidency will exist in order to extract revenge on the Republicans who have ritually humiliated Democrats and fucked this country six ways 'til Sunday for the last several decades, I have two things to say to you:

1. Grow up.
2. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Government doesn't exist to make you feel better about feeling crappy these last years. Its most fundamental purpose is to bring some semblance of order to society -- and all that that implies, depending on your particular political philosophy.

If the very idea of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama taking office and deciding that the best use of their time is not humiliating Republicans, but rather working (with or without them) to withdraw from Iraq without setting that entire region on fire, reverse the deficit, renegotiate NAFTA, stabilize the dollar, formulate a national health care plan, close GITMO, and/or restore our reputation in the world makes you throw a tantrum and threaten to stay home in November, go ahead. But I suggest that after you finish stamping your feet and pounding your fists you seek the assistance of a qualified mental health professional in an effort to deal with your emotional immaturity problem.

Listen, I would love to see HRC or BHO kick some Republican ass come January. I am human and I, too, want my pound of flesh. I really do. But I don't need it and I don't want it if it will mean wasting time the way the Republicans have wasted time, money, and goodwill these last years. It's not about me.

The short term goals are to stop the (literal and figurative) bleeding and then to move forward. And if along the way we also achieve a long-term political realignment that makes the words "Permanent Republican Majority" provoke gales of laughter and anyone who ever voted Republican hang their head in shame, well, that would be revenge enough for me.

Feel free to flame me in comments.

Update: People, if laws were broken, there need to be prosecutions. Hearings are going to be necessary, too. As I said in comments, I'm talking bullshit, penny ante and otherwise, like the Republicans have been pulling these last years.