Category: General

So as of just an hour or so ago, Kerry has conceded the election to Bush. I’m in kind of a strange place right now. I’m dissapointed, sad, frustrated, and exhausted. I’m not all that optomisitc about the next four years, and I’m worried for my country. With the national vote though, it looks like I’m in the minority. It’s a very crushing feeling. Very.

This has been the first time I felt personaly involved in politics. I’ve never really cared much about the outcomes, or the elections, beyond the superficial sound bites available from the news channels and newspapers. I was not making an informed descision before, I was making a surface decision. That changed very much this year. I watched each and every debate, I read on-line and in the papers, I saw interviews and biographies on the candidates. I invested myself in the outcome of the election. It’s a new thing.

I’m telling myself that America made a surface descision, and that those who don’t really take a look at what their president is doing, but are going on what he tells them is why Bush has won. When you belive the soundbites and don’t look into what the facts and plans and records really are, you are not making an informed descision. I’m not saying that if you were informed you would have voted for Kerry, but that so much of America voted from the hip and not the head. Unfortunatly this isn’t going to change anytime soon, and I personally don’t have a solution, other than to tell people to get off their ass.

I also saw some polls about how so many Americans voted on who they thought had better “moral standards.” A friend of mine had this to say:

So you’re telling me that the 200,000 people unemployed in Ohio, sitting around their kitchen tables, splitting a can of cheap baked beans with their family, sad because their son died in Iraq, said none of that matters, because Bush is a stand up guy. He’s a good person and that matters more than my job, terrorism or the war on Iraq.

What can you say. We all knew it would be a close race, and it turned out to be. America hasn’t fallen apart just yet, and if anything this election and this awakening of politcal feelings that I didn’t know about, really has gotten me thinking. I’ve been reading other reactions to the election on the web, both sides, positive and negative. Alot of the Kerry side is saying what I’m thinking:

Yes, we lost. Okay, not the end of the world. Let’s sit down and figure out what mistakes we made, what we did right, and start getting back our country. Kerry was great, but didn’t connect well with America. Democrats need to find a way to appeal again to the so called “common American” and not just be the anti-Republicans, but be a party that more people can identify with. There needs to be for the Democrats a way of getting back momentum in their platform, being first to the punch instead of reacting to what the Republicans say. And hey, if things keep on going the way they are with Bush now, I’d like to think that we won’t have to worry about a neo-conservative candidate in 2008 at all. I’d really like to think that Bush will really try and unite the country again, and try to bridge the gaps. I don’t think it will happen, but it’s a nice dream.

I’m not a party voter, and prefer to stay that way. I want to make sure, now and always, that the candidates I choose for national, state and local elections are chosen on their ideas and plans and history, not their parties and not their political lean.

Boing Boing has some interesting comments on the recent events.

Part of me want’s to say, “If America falls apart don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him,” and so I’ll leave it at that. America has four years. We’ll see what happens. In the meantime, I’ll do what I can to make a difference. It’s what this whole democracy thing is all about.

In a recent poll it seems that 3 of 4 Bush supporters still thought that pre-War Iraq had WMD’s, despite all the well publicized evidence to the contrary. The article goes on to show a few more differences in opinion in the views of the supporters and the actual policies of Bush. Somehow, and I wish I knew how, they all buy into this view that Bush is good for our country.

You know, I voted for him in 2000. Why? Because I belived in what he said, he would unite the country, bring back respect for America in the world and generaly be someone who would be a moderate in a country of extremes. He had his chance after 9/11, I worried but was generally supportive when we went in and took on the Taliban and Al-Quida. What happened from there was an intense and sickening display of deception and misdirection for all of America. With the war in reguards to Iraq, Bush and his advisiors made the country divided in such a way as to make you feel that if you didn’t support the unprovoked and unnessicary war on Iraq you were un-patriotic. Now in a country that was riding a wave of patriotism after 9/11, I have to give it to him that he played his cards well, giving him support with the most flimsy reasons, and complete lack of evidence.

In retrospect, I’m unhappy that I voted for Bush, who has divided, sperated and isolated me from other Americans, America from the world (and yes I know Poland supports us), and the entire politial system. I see him as dishonest, or maybe not even that, but so focused on creating his own reality, where he is never wrong, and that scares me. I want a leader who is willing to say, “After recieving more information, I discovered that we were wrong, sorry,” not, “I would have gone in anyways and taken out Saddam.” What does this show us? That Bush wanted to change the view of America in the World forever. Thanks, glad you asked me if I wanted to go along with it. I know there are Americans out there who say, “who cares what the world thinks of us?” Good question, easy answer. This is a world we live on. We cannot continue to be an island and piss off the rest of the world. Sorry, but everyone is conected, and if your neighbor isn’t fond of you, then don’t expect to be invited to the block party or have them help you out when you need to borrow something, or keep an eye out for you. Sorry but it’s common sense.

Look, I don’t claim to have all the answers, and even I wasn’t sold on Kerry until recently. Before that it was because I just knew I didn’t want Bush, now I believe that Kerry might just be the chance we need.

I know, I said no politics, but when your country is on the line and you can’t see four more years of what it’s turned into, you can’t sit silent. As an American I feel I must say something.