Worried? Sure. Who wouldn’t be? Somewhere around 2 PM on January 20, 2009 what had previously been a fairly smooth and responsible conducting of the country’s business abruptly melted down. Since then the economy’s gone into a tailspin, everyone’s stopped pretending that post-partisanship is anything except a null statement, every two-bit dictator and strongman in the world is testing the limits of our forbearance, and we’re seeing the first signs that our chattering classes are nursing one powerful post-Inaugural hangover.

I SAID, WE’RE SEEING THE FIRST SIGNS THAT OUR CHATTERING CLASSES ARE NURSING ONE POWERFUL POST-INAUGURAL HANGOVER.

So worry I can understand. Depression? Not so much – at least, not for me, and not for you, either. Do you know why?

It’s because I’m free, and so are you.

I originally had about four paragraphs of blather, here, but let me cut to the chase: the USA took responsibility for governance away from the GOP back in November of 2008, and if the Democratic party thought that they could hack it on their own they’d not be spending so much time trying to bluster, threaten, and/or otherwise force us into signing off on their policies. We’re under no such obligation: and they used up all the names already that they could call us in the last election cycle (including the four-letter ones), so there’s little that they can do there, either. And, of course, the Democrats have no intention of actually changing their policies to accommodate our opinions: it would clash horribly with their existing position that the GOP is made up of illiterate, [Insert Group here]-hating, hyper-rich regional hicks.

Thus, we can enter into the 2010 election cycle with light hearts and unworried brows. The disaster has already happened. We’re now in the aftermath. Many people are busily – and fruitfully – discussing what our message should be for next year, what our message should not be, whether we should have a message at all; personally, I think that we’ve got plenty of time to come up with one, not to mention a leader or seven to help spread it… but what we need to do now more than anything else is to demonstrate that we actually believe what we’re saying. Which we do, even when we suspect that some of our legislators don’t… and the Democrats are now discovering that rather more of theirs don’t actually match word with deed. That puts them on the defensive, for a change; and I look forward to the luxury of being able to pick my battles and call my shots.

So I’m not depressed, and neither should you be: we’re actually primed to have a lot of fun this election cycle. If you still are depressed, like Glenn Reynolds I recommend ShrinkWrapped’s quote as an antidote:

“If people are in despair it is up to them to refuse indulge in the passivity that is the only way Obama succeeds in remaking this country, and take action. Turning passive into active is a time honored treatment for depression.”

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.