Our Long National Nightmare is Over

Since at least 2001 we've been stuck in a quagmire of missteps, indecision, corruption and the eroding of our freedoms. Some of us feared it would never end.

But the US House and Senate are now officially out of the hands of the Republicans, and that's cause for much rejoicing. Let the balloons drop and the dancing begin! It's a new age.

P.S. apologies to Mr. Petzold for ripping off his blog post, but when I saw it in my RSS reader, I thought that the above would be the subject of his latest essay and that we would finally have something on which to agree. It'll be my luck that he's a staunch Republican and I'll hear about my misguideness tomorrow... : )

Just to attempt to stem the tide of negative feedback, I'm not a Democrat, Republican or member of any other political party. However, I did vote a single party across the ticket (Democrat) for the first time in my own personal voting history, simply to wrest control of my country away from this current crop of idiots.

Oh wait... that's not likely to stem the tide of anything, is it? : )

When I first read the headline, I thought you were referring to Vista going RTM :-)

Petzold had a cute post that made you momentarily think, "Oh, great, another idiot that has to drag politics into areas where it doesn't belong", before you realized that, regardless of his political beliefs, he was just clowning around and reporting that .NET 3.0 has been released.

Then Sells comes along and has to drag politics into it after all...

I know! Doesn't it suck for someone to use their own personal web site for their own personal opinions! The nerve...

Good for you Chris, stand your ground. Too many people get bent out of shape when policital subjects are displayed on a technical blog. Somebody gave Eric Wise (on codebetter.com) a bunch of crap a couple of months ago regarding a post he made on health savings accounts. People need to get a clue that politics is no longer taboo. It's integral to our lives, and doesn't just take center stage during every election cycle. And yes, thank goodness the nightmare is over. Let's just hope that the Dems don't drop the ball like the last group did.

Amen Chris. Amen.

As I told a friend today, we didn't vote for Democrats. We voted for change.

We voted for a rebuke of the policy of fear mongering as an excuse strip civil liberties.

We voted for accountability.

We voted against the suppression of debate on our policy towards Iraq.

It's about time that we recognize that "Stay the course" is not sound "strategery".

Now the ball's in the Democrats court to do better.

I'd like to add my Amen to that...having faith in the decency of the American people, I look forward to your country shrugging off the rogue nation status that Dubya and his fellow war criminals and lunatics have saddled it with.
Oh, and doing something about the whole "hey, let's see if we can make the climate like Venus" thing would be super too :-)

"When I first read the headline, I thought you were referring to Vista going RTM :-)"

LOL - me too!

I don't exactly know what you are voting to change. The war? Democrats voted for that? It's sad you have to make a post like this.

Wait a second. I thought the nightmare was over in 2000!

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28784/print/

I have been a fan of yours for years, own your books, read your blog.

This post has changed all that. I see no need to intrdocue politics in a technical blog. I come here for technical guidance, not for your political views.

Thanks for all the great tips and advise over the years, your arrogance has just lost you a reader.

"current crop of idiots", how professional and respectful of you. Name calling? Wow, I really misjudged your character.

I suspect we've just swapped one crop of idiots for another. The only positive is that neither party has carte blanche to do what they want (because no single party controls congress and the presidency).

It will continue to be the same old story just with different characters. When was the last time anything really happened in government? 1776? We need to create several new parties so that we have more of a choice than just which is the lesser evil.

Helpful hint: there is no lesser of evils. There are _very_ few differences in the parties any more.

And, as minor correction to a previous post, people didn't vote for change, accountability, etc.; they voted for a promise of all of the above.

The only sign of hope is the re-election of Senator Lieberman, which does at least appear to show the people care about principle over party lines, at least a little.

Chris, I'm so very happy for you that you have a popular blog that permits you to express your opinions. Congratulations!

However, some of us actually read your blog (and your books) for your insights into Microsoft development. We (speaking for other readers) don't care about your political opinions. They detract from the otherwise good commentary that you provide.

You mention a "quagmire of missteps, indecision, corruption and the eroding of our freedoms." The republicans have no monopoly on corruption, so I think that will be a wash. Missteps? Certainly. This is a new war. You can't possible enter it with all of the answers up front. You don't even know all of the questions yet. Indecision? Hardly. There has been no wavering in the committment to fight the war on terror. Eroding of freedoms? There is a price that must be paid for freedom. It isn't free. For example, you put up with airport screenings because it keeps some percentage of the bad guys off the planes. It's not foolproof by any means, but it helps. That's a price that you pay every day for the freedom to get on a plane. Likewise, there is a worldwide battle between terrorists and everyone else. Please take your head out of the sand and wake up! They (terrorists) attacked this country and declared war on us. If you wish to protect this country from attack while we are at war, you may need to give up certain freedoms. That's an acceptable compromise in order to maintain our safety. Better to possible lose some perceived freedoms and be alive than to suffer the alternative.

Good luck with the democrats in control. It will be interesting to see if they meet all of your expectations.

Well done America! :)

Wow, reading your books, meeting you at WinDev (twice), following your move to Microsoft and always anticipating a new post from your blog - all comes to a crashing end with an unfortunate political outburst. What a quick way to polarize your audience that you've worked hard to grow over the years.

No matter which way you would have gone with such extreme language about the election - either way would have added salt to the wounds of someone. This post is like picketting a funeral for any conservatives in your audience - really bad form.

Hey Chris - Don't let all these mindless GOP followers drag your day down.

I'm still sort of shocked. I really do feel that I've just been come out of some horrible nightmare.

I recall all too well following the recount news in 2000 with horror. I recall the mid-terms in 2002 when the Senate went back to the GOP. I recall the look on Bush's face when he was told about 9/11. I recall the beginning of an ill-advised war in Iraq and Donald Rumsfeld blowing off any need for a post-war plan. I recall reading about the 12 volumes of information on Iraq reconstruction that the State Department put together and Runsfeld threatened to fire anyone who mentioned them to his face again. I recall in 2004 when people re-elected Bush. I recall the nomination and approval of two very likely right-wing judges to the supreme court. I recall torture becoming a right of our president. I recall the abuse of our military code for the profit of Haliburton and other defense contractors. I recall our president saying he has every right to spy on the citizens of our country. I recall the president saying he can kidnap and torture anyone if they're even suspected of doing something he doesn't like (like expressing disagreement with our government).

I wish I had been dreaming all of those things.

At least we can try to repair it now.

DC

Chris,

I think you show poor form with your post. The topic is not consistent with the technical nature of your BLOG. It reminds me of the way Barbara Streisand used a recent concert to express her political views or the way celebrities use award acceptance speeches to make an off the cuff op-ed remark. You may not refer to yourself as Democrat or Republican but you certainly seem to be celebrating the Democratic victory. It is revealing of your character that you would profile an entire group as idiots simply because they have chosen to belong to a particular party. If you were given total power of the House and Senate would you have just fired all the Republicans? Would it not be better to review the performance of each individual and make your determination that way? Should the entire Vista developer team be fired because there were some missteps and indecisions that led to the release being years late? I truly think most politicians are trying to do the best they can just as most developers are trying to write good code. If there is such a thing as an average politician or an average developer or even an average driver then there will be a number of politicians, developers and drivers who are below average. I recall one time you wrote about how you had to take a driver safety class for some traffic violation. Should I refer to you as one of those idiot drivers because belong to a group of people that have had to take that class? Am I a good driver because I belong to the club that never had to take that class?

Every Congress regardless of party has had it's share of missteps, indecision and corruption. If you really want to do a good op-ed piece why not take a look at each individdual seat change and compare the new with the old rating them in a way that you might evaluate the resumes of potential job candidates. Then based on that make an argument that this election change is for the better or not. Then maybe you could even compare this election to other elections where control of Congress changed. For example do you expect more/less change from this election compared to say 1958 when the Democrats gained 49 seats in the House and 16 in the Senate?

You can do better.

Dave

I wouldn't be overly optimistic about the new congress either.

Keep in mind, these people weren't voted IN as much as the the other folks were voted OUT.

Woah, Chris man. Why go all "Dixie Chicks" on us man - stick with the cool tech and insight.

At least when Scoble "went political" on his blog he did it to promote something he really believed in or speak out on an issue he supported/opposed. To just come out and say "the other guy sucks" is really something I wouldn't have expected from you.

Let's see what the Democrats can do now. Will they actually make some good things happen, or make a bunch of excuses as to why they couldn't do anything two years from now? It will be interesting to see. Republicrats or demicans, at the end of the day we all end up taking it in the shorts IMO...but I'll keep an open mind. Let's see what they can do now that they are in power. Hopefully this is a lesson to all politicians: do your job well or we will throw your asses out of office.

I think it is rediclous for anyone who is sensitive to Chris's post. There are many good Republicans and there are many corrupt Democrats. But it is very difficult to disagree that our current administration is probably the worst in American history. The best way out right now is unfortunately to vote Democrat accross the line. Hopefully our country will not be so polarized in the future.

Dr. Savage listener there, Sean? ;)

I guess some of your readers have decided that it's their blog and not yours...

Would that it were true. I fear the nightmare is just beginning.

I congratulate the Americans who were able to be above the fear tactics employed by the Republicans in the last years and make the Democratic control of Congress a tremendous victory of the middle class.

Yes, terrorism is indeed a problem, but having gone to Iraq didn't make the world a safer place. On the contrary, it created a new terrorist incubator.

Bashing Chris Sells for posting is political opinion in his own blog reveals the intolerant nature of many conservatives. The strong feelings demonstrated along the bashing suggest these people's belief systems are deeply entrenched in denial.

Once again, congratulations America!

Hey Chris

Gotta agree. So maybe you lose a few US readers for expressing your opinion - but probably no-one else on the planet!

This is why it's a good idea to have categorized posts or a separate personal blog.

You are the owner of this blog. You are entitled to post whatever you want, and I completely respect that right. So, I am not going to lecture you about whether you should be posting personal opinions in a technical blog. Obviously, it is your decision.

However, you shouldn't be too surprised by the type of reactions seen here. It is simply a big turn off to a lot of readers when a blog that typically provides reliable technical information suddenly intermingles political commentary.

It is true that politics is an important topic in society, but it is a highly sensitive subject. People have exponentially differing opinions that also significantly vary in intensity. While some people may share your opinion, others may become severely offended by it.

Just my two cents...

I regularly read Peter Brobmerg's very informative technical blog ( http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com/ ) despite the fact that he *often* makes political statements I disagree with.

Funny how *his* political statements aren't met with the same kind of negative response this one was - does that tell us non-Americans something about the difference between US Republicans and Democrats with regard to tolerance for others different from themselves?

Keep up the good work, Chris.

P.S. I did smile to myself when I saw the title of Petzold's blog entry from the 8th, assuming that he wasn't in fact referring to the .NET 3.0 release. Nice one, Charles!

Chris - you are entitled to say whatever pleases you on your own blog. As one great president and conservative, Ronald Reagan, once said "I paid for this microphone!" so, Chris, you can say anything you want!

It is a pity we take politics so personally but while I may disagree with your political views, I will fight for your right to express them. This is still the greatest country on earth! Thanks for taking the risk to allow people the freedom to vent their feelings on your blog!

Lol, this is so funny....

This is really like a religion for you guys, huh?

One thing that you all seem to have forgotten, is that there is nobody out there that writes a blog for the readers, they do it for themselves...

Therefore, I guess that it won't be much of a shock that Chris probably won't lose any sleep over a disgruntled republican voter that just clicked delete in their aggregator... wow...

Of course, you'll all come back at some point in the future when you realise that arguing over political parties is even more ridiculous than arguing over religion...

I'm glad that us Brits aren't quite as anal about who runs our country - it's obviously taken us a lot less time to come to terms with the fact that red = blue, and every political party is exactly the same as the next...

It's nice when people feel strongly about a subject - unfortunately, the point at which they believe that gives them the right to impose those views on others, to me, is the point that turns to fanaticism....

This is just my opinion, but that's ok, because everyone is entitled to one.

C

While it seems out of place to see a post here about cons instead of COM, it is good to see a "nerd" showing interest in our government. I strongly believe that part of our predicament comes from not enough working folk having time or taking time to keep up with politics. To all those wonks who refuse to come back to this blog, I say good riddens. As long as you keep posting the tech stuff, Chris, I don't care what you mix in.

In fairness, Chris' tag line for the blog is "think deeply. code well.". I imagine this post is more in the "think deeply" camp more than the code well. Not that "crop of idiots" is particularly "deep", but it is something to think about.

CHRIS SAID:
I know! Doesn't it suck for someone to use their own personal web site for their own personal opinions! The nerve...

I SAY:
Does it suck for someone to use an open comment area to express their opinion as well? The nerve of them. How dare an exchange of differeing ideas occur when we know that Chris must be absolutely correct.

Yup, but Chris was brave enough to put his name to his view...

You don't have to be "brave" to say something insulting to a group of people - in fact it is quite a sign of weakness just to call people names from afar.

It will be interesting to see how the "new age" with the new "crop of idiots" pans out.

That being said, we should probably give Chris a break - I am sure he will see what a mistake this post was in this forum and get back to the quality posts we've come to expect.

It's not a forum, it's HIS web site

Chris, I think it's outrageous that you should dare to offer a personal opinion on this site. It's completely unacceptable.
You *must* get right back to offering the free technical advice and insights that all of us freeloading readers have come to expect, nah, deserve, becuase we allow you to let us read your site.

You have been warned sir! No more personal opinions, just free technical content. Damn it, you think you pay for this domain name or something? Shame on you.


PS. Yay Democrats! Oops.

That's the beauty of this country. You have the right to free speech which many men and women have given their lives for that freedom. It also gives me and others the right to voice our opinions also.

The GOP screwed up by not acting like they were in the Majority. They let the spineless Democrats run all over them while also getting away from their conservative views.

This is what the next two years will bring. Impeachment proceedings against the President. Bigger government (government solves all problems). Repealing of the tax cuts which has created a booming economy (for those of you who like higher taxes, no one is stopping you from sending in more of your money to the government. Write a check and send it in.). Increase the minimum wage. Run from Iraq (that's it. let's fight the terrorists in our country instead of fighting them in Iraq). It's sad that the Iranian leaders and terrorists leaders support the Democrats. Why is that? Whose side are the Democrats on? They are always happy when bad things happen to this country.

I always find it funny about the need to raise the minimum wage. What is it at now, $6.50? Why not make it $20, maybe $50 an hour? What would be wrong with that? What good does it do to only raise the minimum wage a couple of dollars? That doesn't help anyone. The private sector should not be told what they should pay an employee.

It's going to be an interesting couple of years.

"let's fight the terrorists in our country instead of fighting them in Iraq"

You think you're fighting 'terrorists' in Iraq?

As a traditionalist I was not happy with the Republicans scandal ridden stay the course performance. However, I'm not jumping for joy knowing that both Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha are in positions of great power. I believe Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy has more knowledge of geoplitics then either of them. Sorry Chris, I do respect your opinion but this really scares me! It also scares me that Al Quaeda, Hugo Chavez, and Iran are cheering their victory as well!

Somehow I knew this post would end up as flamebate.

Rick, it's important you mention Iran. America got it's hands pretty tied up in Iraq. This leaves us with a much more defiant Iran. Besides that, Saddam was actually an enemy to Iran, so toppling his regime actually eliminated whatever remained of a balance in the region. Finally, don't forget that Bush's selling story to go to Iraq was WMD, none of which was found. Though I actually see Iran as a huge menace, don't you think that having gone to war based on a lie sort of undermines America's credibility when it says Iran has WMD? Now, there is this whole flypaper theory, but that is crap invented after things started going wrong. Iraq was invaded on the pretext of WMD.

So, where did the Republicans actually make America safer in face of Iran by going into Iraq? Maybe it's me, but I really don't get it.

I'd like to point out that every single one of my political/social posts over the years has garnered 10x the amount of discussion that the technical posts have ever gotten. Measured in those terms, I should *only* do non-technical posts...

P.S. Those of you in support of posting my opinions on my web site, thank you very much. Those of you advocating that I self-censor myself because of the needs of my audience, I support your right to have and to voice those opinions on this open forum.

Chris,

There is a dangerous and bizarre notion in the technical community that writers are supposed to stick to technical subjects and keep our political opinions to ourselves; that we are uni-dimensional sock puppets whose moral imperatives have no place in the amoral world of information dispensing and that it is an imposition on our readers to provide our political opinions even on matters we feel strongly about.

The more I do, however (see http://www.simple-talk.com for an example of my own firestorm) the more liberating it is, and the more I realize how odd it is for us to think that we can compartmentalize our lives so completely.

In any case, I continue to admire your work and your writing, and I hope you won't let the flames get you down.

Best of luck.

-jesse

You should just start doing one political post a week, but make sure to put a big freaking video ad on the comments page so you can make some money off it :).

Mitch, please don't be so sensitive. This was a great post. Anyone who's offended by a differing opinion is insecure about their own.

You know...I always knew when you stole that van in high school, kidnapped another student, and went joy riding that you'd turn out to be an over the top, hippy liberal. It was just too SLA-like in nature. Your environmental science merit badge and manual tending of water weeds only serve to underscore the point. You should have stayed in your home state where you could vote for fine, upstanding politicians like Michele Bachmann.

"Borrow!" I "borrowed" the school van! : )

Miguel, pull your head out of the sand. The WMD theory was stated back in the late 90's before Bush was President. Everyone was saying the same thing as Bush did, but Bush is the only one that is a liar. The Democrats had the same information that Bush had and they voted for the war also. How long did the useless UN give Saddam to abide by the UN resolutions? Nine months, maybe a year. Don't you think he could have moved the WMD's to a different country during that time span. Does Syria come to mind? He used the WMD's in the war against Iran and his own people. Why would we think that he doesn't have them? Is it stupid of us to think that Saddam might give them to Al Quaeda?

As for Iran. Iran is the one stating they are working on a nuclear bomb. Looks like to me we are in an excellent position to go kick their ass too. The only way the radical muslims will be happy is when all non-muslims are dead. Hopefully you will understand that. Don't forget, we were the ones that were attacked. Remember 9/11 or are you one of those that believes Bush brought down the twin towers?

"You think you're fighting 'terrorists' in Iraq?" Hey John, who do you think we are fighting? You ever heard of Al Quaeda? That's the brilliance of the Iraq war. Make the terrorists come to us in Iraq so we can kill them there instead of us having to kill them here in this great country called America.

I don't like war anymore than anyone else, but there are times when a great nation must stand up and fight for freedom. Many men and women have given the ultimate sacrifice for this country. I would hate to think what would have happened back in WWI or WWII if the citizens of this country at that time didn't stand up for freedom. We wouldn't be the great country that we are now. Freedom takes sacrifice. God Bless.

Thanks Chris for giving us the opportunity to discuss such an important issue.

i just don't get it. in the uk, a person who *doesn't* utterly despise their government is viewed with a certain amount of suspicion by their peers. this innocuous blog post should be a non-event. i really do not get the creepy puritan mentality of some of the commenters here (especially the ones making sinister remarks about "respectfulness" and suchlike).....

oh well,

"Is it stupid of us to think that Saddam might give [WMD] to Al Quaeda?"

If not stupid, at least misinformed. Saddam was a ruthless dictator, but he headed a secular government. He gave women more rights and all but abolished Sharia courts. Al-Qaeda's stated goal is to remove all western influence in muslim countries and turn religious doctrine into law accross the arab world. Seems pretty obvious to me that Saddam and al-Qaeda wouldn't be on the best of terms.

But you don't have to trust me... the Senate Intelligence Committee agrees :

"The Senate Committee concluded that there was no evidence of any Iraqi support of al-Qaeda and that there was convincing evidence of hostility between the two entities."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadam_Hussein

This particular statement was made in 2006, but the underlying fact, while not publicized in the United States, was well-known before the war started. Whether the war in Iraq was justified or not, it is a fact that the US government knowingly lied to the american people in order to gather popular support for the war. I agree with Chris : it's time for a change of command.

And on a completely unrelated topic : I read this blog because there's a bunch of really useful information on interesting (technical) subjects. I am *not* trying to build a long-standing relationship with the author ;-) Which means that I don't care at all about his political views as long as his technical posts stay interesting. Funny how many people don't seem to think that way...

Well, darnnit, Serge, I was hoping for your presence at Thanksgiving dinner! : )

This is amazing.

I've read your stuff for years - you were my inspiration to get involved with the community.

Then you had to go and post *this*...

...which reminds me of why I've always liked you so much :)

(And don't worry about the people who say they aren't reading anymore - let's face it - they came here for technical help because they're either too dumb or too lazy to figure things out by themselves, so they'll be back (if they ever left in the first place).)

It's been a really long time since I've seen geeks act like such a bunch of thin-skinned babies - at *least* three or four hours.

It's a mad, mad world, Chris.

But you get my vote.

For what, I don't know. You just get it.

People who are intolerant of your opinions are people who aren't worth knowing in the first place, and they aren't deserving of the free tidbits of thinklings you've dropped out here over the years.

Someone with real backbone would stand up and argue the point - using his/her own name, I might add - or accept differences and move on.

Fortunately, you'll only lose a few readers if any (I've been through this crap myself), and the bright side will be a more targeted audience of people who aren't so terrified of opposing viewpoints that they have to run off at the first sign of anything different.

After all these years, dawgg, you're still one of my heroes.

Well, how late is this...

Chris, I did the exact same thing for the first time ever in my life - I voted a straight Democrat ticket. I'm sure some decent Republicans lost their jobs but I just don't care right now.

I'm angry about so many things with this administration. I'm angry with their very ugly politics on gay marriage. I'm angry with their disregard for our laws. I'm angry with their arrogance. And I'm just plain tired of their incompetence.

Good riddance!