Election Aftermath. Faith vs. Reason. Did anyone really win?


Like most progressive-minded people, I was stunned by the results of November 2.

We're all at a loss to explain how anyone, let alone 59,283,101 people, would be willing to vote for four more years of the Bush II regime. Even in the face of so many lies, so much hypocrisy and so much arrogance, the majority of Americans voted for a man for his 'moral values'.

If moral values means loosening pollution standards, torturing prisoners of war, engaging in imperialistic wars of profiteering and dooming future generations to pay for an ever growing deficit, then yes; George W. Bush was the man for the job.

His administration has been truly reactionary by definition: they have turned back the clock on America, and have the power to throw the clock out the window if they so please. Let's move forward into the past... back before the Bill of Rights, back even before the Constitution; they have no use for the separation of church and state or the system of checks and balances designed to keep any one branch of government from gaining too much power. If W is left unchecked, we could end up in a very similar position as the thirteen colonies were in 1776: chafing under the oppression of King George, this time George II.

Wednesday night I spent trolling the internet, like so many other progressives, looking for even a glint of hope. Like everybody else, I didn't find much, or even any.

Based upon the disparity of people voting for a President who behaves in such an amoral manner, but wraps himself in the wolf's clothing of fundamentalist morality, I reached a conclusion. Call me naive (you wouldn't even be the first), but I just realized that Bush voters want nothing to do with truth, fact or reality as defined by modern scientific principles. For them, spin and disinformation is forgivable, a necessary evil to attain their goals.

They based their decision, their vote, on faith.

Faith, that keystone of religious dogma, the intangible idea impossible to prove or disprove, a concept beyond human experience. Not many progressives are willing to mix politics, a dirty, complicated, sell-your-soul-to-special interests affair, with something as abstract as Faith.

However, 59,283,101 Americans are.

Is that a bad thing? Only the next four years will tell. If four more years of unwarranted military and civilian casualties, gross federal mismanagement, and stratospheric energy prices don't make an impression on Bush II voters, perhaps nothing will. I wonder how government will pay for a strong, high tech military as the deficit grows larger and conservatives want to reduce tax rates yet further. Where will the brave men and women who protect us come from? Where will the buck stop? Who'll get stuck with the check?

This has been a long and cathartic posting. To reward you for plowing through my verbal dysentery, I'll leave you with a bit of humor.

As I was websurfing the other night, a slow but inescapable realization crept over me. I'd felt this way once before... It was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... The last time I'd felt this sense of moral indignation at the hands of forces outside my control was at the end of 'Star Wars II: The Empire Strikes Back'!

You can't stop here! This isn't a happy ending! What will Luke do now? There's just gotta be a SEQUEL! Fortunately for Luke, there was a sequel, and even several prequels.

Let us hope and pray there WON'T be a Bush III.

Posted: Thu - November 4, 2004 at 06:51 PM          

©