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Nov. 3rd, 2004 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grinninfoole1) Today, I drove two hours to Nashua, NH to volunteer for Kerry. I stood around holding signs for a few hours. Then, I drove home. I'd like to think I made a difference. Probably only made myself feel better. Except for a few at the precinct 5 polling station, I saw no Bush activists, and I saw a lot more Kerry signs around town. (Most of the volunteers were from Massachusetts. :)
2) The Daily Show's election night special was amazingly cool. I officially like Bill Weld. I would much rather he were still governor than Romney. Favorite line: "Right now, in Iraq, people are asking: you invaded to bring us this?"
3) I suspect that Bush is winning. I am sad, depressed even, about this. I really don't understand how someone who has, over four years, so patently demonstrated his unsuitability for the office can command such loyalty from so many voters. With a turnout perhaps 10% higher than last time, which means that many are moved to act because of dissatisfaction with the state of the nation, how can so many still be rallying in support of Bush? I shan't bother to list his failures, which are numerous and should be obvious to all. How many more dead Americans will it take? (We're over 4,000 and counting.) How much of an economic collapse will it take? (We've had three years of heavy stimulus, and we're only eking by.) How many more international crises must be bungled? (What will Bush do when Iran or North Korea confront us?) I suspect that most Americans won't notice it for years, but Bush's re-election means, I think, the end of our status as a great nation and world power within the next four years. (Yes, we'll have the best weapons, but we'll be too broke to use them.)
4) M was just sharing with me that all of her GED students that support Bush do so because he is "strong". Apparently, the latest bin Laden video has convinced them that they need such a leader to protect them from al Qaeda, and they don't feel Kerry (the combat veteran) will do that as well as Bush (the draft dodger.) That bin Laden is still at large after three years does not, it seems, impress them as evidence that Bush is all hat and no cattle. Somewhere, Benito Mussolini is grinning smugly.
2) The Daily Show's election night special was amazingly cool. I officially like Bill Weld. I would much rather he were still governor than Romney. Favorite line: "Right now, in Iraq, people are asking: you invaded to bring us this?"
3) I suspect that Bush is winning. I am sad, depressed even, about this. I really don't understand how someone who has, over four years, so patently demonstrated his unsuitability for the office can command such loyalty from so many voters. With a turnout perhaps 10% higher than last time, which means that many are moved to act because of dissatisfaction with the state of the nation, how can so many still be rallying in support of Bush? I shan't bother to list his failures, which are numerous and should be obvious to all. How many more dead Americans will it take? (We're over 4,000 and counting.) How much of an economic collapse will it take? (We've had three years of heavy stimulus, and we're only eking by.) How many more international crises must be bungled? (What will Bush do when Iran or North Korea confront us?) I suspect that most Americans won't notice it for years, but Bush's re-election means, I think, the end of our status as a great nation and world power within the next four years. (Yes, we'll have the best weapons, but we'll be too broke to use them.)
4) M was just sharing with me that all of her GED students that support Bush do so because he is "strong". Apparently, the latest bin Laden video has convinced them that they need such a leader to protect them from al Qaeda, and they don't feel Kerry (the combat veteran) will do that as well as Bush (the draft dodger.) That bin Laden is still at large after three years does not, it seems, impress them as evidence that Bush is all hat and no cattle. Somewhere, Benito Mussolini is grinning smugly.
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Date: 2004-11-04 11:21 am (UTC)I used to feel comfortable sharing America with religious people. Now, I see ardent Christians as a threat to our nation, not merely because of their attack on other people's liberties, but because they honestly believe that, as Jon Stewart put it, 'two dudes kissing is a bigger problem than the botched war on terror.'
Kerry could have run away with this election if he wasn't such a wet blanket, and I may vent my spleen in vindictive constituent letters in the months ahead until I feel better. (Republicans take note: run a non-crazy candidate and you can pick up senate seats here in MA. Perhaps Bill Weld should try again.)
And, while he didn't win the majority in 92, I miss Clinton's presidency. I still have real problems with his tenure in office (about his support of the drug war and his tepid environmental record), but I miss the possibilities that he opened up in his presidency. The national discourse was more diverse, and the range of possibilities for our nation was wider, and the REAL issues we face (over-population and environmental degredation leading to our extinction) were on the table. Now, thanks to Bush's incompetence and inability to imagine a world that isn't us versus them, we've got a 'war on terror' dominating people's thinking, and a brand new 'them' getting more firmly fixed in people's heads. (I'm doing it too, except for me the 'them' in question are Christians like Bush, and it's just as damaging as demonizing muslims.)
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Date: 2004-11-07 03:37 pm (UTC)