On The Rainbow Wave And Staying Hungry

      If there's one thing the chain of events that's been unwinding since the midterm elections last Tuesday has shown people like myself  - who had been hoping against probability and the polls that a blue wave might wash over both chambers of Congress - it's that now is no time for wallowing in visions of what might have been.
      What is yet to be is far, far more important.
     It was the day after the elections that I first heard the term Rainbow Wave. I heard it from my daughter Maria, who'd been a valiant campaigner during the midterms,

...and a phone bank captain,

​...even my grand poochie Pinky Poo getting in on the action.

     Maria's team worked for Harley Rouda, Democratic candidate for California's 48th Congressional district,

​...who succeeded in defeating Republican 30-year incumbent Dana Rohrabacher.

     (Now, it probably didn't help Dana Rohrabacher that he was enticed by Sasha Baron Cohen, playing the role of an Israeli Mossad agent,

​...into making a video promoting arming toddlers).

     Anyway, the day after the elections, when I was feeling a weence funky, taking more of a "half-empty" view of the Democratic Congressional victory, I talked to my daughter, who was feeling considerably more upbeat.
    She explained to me that even though the Blue Wave hadn't been as sweeping as we'd hoped, more important was the rising up in this country of an electoral Rainbow Wave: Over 150 - a record number -  candidates of color, LGBTQ candidates, Muslim, Native American and minority candidates won their midterm elections.

    And this, said my daughter, was in the big picture an even greater cause for celebration than a total Blue Wave would have been.
    In fact, said my daughter, it was maybe better for the Democrats that they didn’t achieve a complete Congressional sweep because, as she put it, “This way we’ll stay hungry.”
      I believe that what my daughter said is true.
      Many of us are still still hungry. But these days it's doubtless better that way.