Trying To Stay Afloat

It's really sad that I'm wishing I had a Democratic Senator so that writing to her/him would make some sort of difference. I wrote to Arlen Specter this morning telling him to vote against Alberto Gonzales. I tried to flatter him about being independent-minded and needing to help keep his party on the straight and narrow, but realistically speaking his vote is a foregone conclusion. Writing to Rick Santorum about it is a waste of the time it takes to conceive of the idea. On the other hand, if I were a Massachusetts citizen, it might do some good to write to John Kerry, since he (like most Democrats) could potentially be swayed to go either way.

It should be the other way around. I should be able to count on the Democrats to be lined up on the side of good, so that I can take advantage of living in a red-Senate state to try to push Specter to the left. But it's hard to aim the cannons at the enemy when all hands are needed to bail water on our own ship.