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11.03.04 Post-Election Worries
I am pondering what to do and only delicately dipping my toes into
the icy waters of Nov. 3 reality. I don't want to hear Kerry being
brave. I don't want to see Bush smirk. I don't want to hear wiseass TV
pundits "analyze" for me "what went wrong."
I'm disturbed. I don't know what to do next. I agree with Josh
Marshall at
Talking Points Memo:
Setting aside my general political leanings, my personal views
and feelings of partisanship, I think the result portends very bad
things for America's role in the world and the well-being on all
levels of this country. Changes in domestic politics, in theory at
least, can be shifted back at a following election. The world,
though, is different. There we are just a ship -- though the largest
one -- on waters we can never truly control. And I fear that this
result will set in motion dangerous dynamics that even the
relatively young among us will be wrestling with and contending with
for the rest of our lives.
I guess I also have to agree with
James Wolcott
that "there's bitter clarity to knowing the worst." He says:
The election was a victory for George Bush and Rovianism... It
was also a victory for Osama Bin Laden. I don't believe for a moment
Bin Laden was trying to sway voters to Kerry with his taped address.
This was the outcome he wanted, a gift from us to him: an
unapologetic Christian Crusader in the White House whose reelection
giving lie to the notion that Abu Ghraib was an aberration and that
the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians weigh upon America's
conscience. This morning America could not look more like a grinning
aggressor to the Arab world, an aggressor with fresh marching
orders.
That's what bothers me most -- Americans now looking like the
cheering masses behind the evil imperialist.
Bull Moose has
this to say.
The Moose has no doubt that the Elephant will
over-reach in the second Bush term. Second terms have been
historically ugly for Presidents...
All of this is not to mean that the donkey can relax and watch the
elephant implode. Far from it. As the Moose has mentioned, Democrats
need a major overhaul. They cannot concede the south and expect to
lay claim to the White House and Congress any time soon.
Organization is fine - ideas and message are far superior. It also
wouldn't hurt the donkey to get in touch with rural voters and the
exurbs... And ... it wouldn't hurt if some Democratic elites
attended Pentecostal camp meetings.
And he goes on to say
this:
The Moose notes that the power of social
issues far outweighed the factors of the youth vote or the "wired
revolution." Obviously, the Moose is fond of the internet, but
neither cyberspace nor 527's are substitutes for finding a way to
reach middle and lower income voters who are motivated to vote by
their perceptions that Democrats are "soft" on moral values. Without
changing their principles, Democrats must find a language and a
sensitivity to communicate to voters of faith who might agree with
the party on economic concerns. And where were the youth voters
inspired by the Deaniac Revolution and invisible to pollsters
because they own cell phones rather than hard lines? Joe Trippi call
your office.
Damn, it's ugly.
Andrew Sullivan
adds this:
A lot of gay people are devastated this
morning, and terrified. We have seen, and not for the first time,
how using fear of a minority can be so effective a tool in building
a political movement. The single most important issue for Republican
voters, according to exit polls, was not the war on terror or Iraq
or the economy. It was "moral values." Karl Rove understood the
American psyche better than I did. By demonizing gay couples, the
Republicans were able to bring in whole swathes of new anti-gay
believers into their party. With new senators Jim DeMint and Tom
Coburn, two of the most anti-gay politicians in America, we can only
brace ourselves for what is now coming.
I'm not feeling any better. The dough-faced
Karl Rove is an evil man who cares nothing for the principles this
country was founded on. He sees no immorality in building a path to
power that taps into people's deepest insecurities about anyone
different from themselves. Since when did intolerance and fear-mongering
(which is hate-mongering in sheep's clothing) turn into "moral
values"?
The pendulum always swings. Evil snarls and
marches triumphantly. Eventually, it collapses... but how long will it
take and what price will be paid.
No comfort.
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mad
in pursuit: greed & arrogance