The Election - sigh...
It is now November 4th and I'm finally thinking
about writing something about the election. But what to say... first off to
all of Europe and the rest of the World. I'm sorry. Really, all Americans
are not like "W". 50 million of us don't agree with him. There is no way to
explain Americans to Americans not to mention the world at large.
Who voted for "W"? Not many people I know. A
lot of Americans are easily led by advertising and sound bites. Many of them
believe that Fox News is really news. Many believe that 'Reality TV" is real.
A lot of Americans don't read. A lot don't look at more than one source of
news. So, some of the "W" supporters were just easily led by sound bits. A
report here (http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_14657.shtml
) shows that many Americans still believe that Iraq has weapons of mass
destruction and that Iraq was providing substantial support to al
Qaeda.
A lot of Americans have tied voting for "W" to "supporting our troops". Which seems strange to me. If you support our troops, then you should want to keep them out of harms way and only put them at risk where there is a truly clear and present danger.
A lot of "W" supporters are single issue supporters: they are voting to outlaw abortion, block gay marriages or cut taxes. A lot are fundamentalist Christians who believe that "W" is the more Christian candidate.
What is scary about all of this is that "W" has the chance to appoint as many as three supreme court justices over the next 4 years. It is also scary that the far right seems to think that they are centrist - I heard a senator from California on BBC radio denying that Bush has a NeoCon agenda and that in fact they are squarely in the middle.
I'm glad that Wisconsin went to Kerry and that we kept our Democrat Senator - Russ Feingold and Tammy Baldwin in the House. Speaking of which, what the hell is up with South Dakota? Do they know how much political clout and power they lost by voting out Daschle? Maybe they traded their souls for farm subsidies.
So what to do now?
(1) Organize and communicate with others who are left of the New NeoCon center.
(2) Support my gay and lesbian friends. Let them use my house or backyard for a commitment ceremony even if they can't get married.
(3) Hope that in 2 years, the Democrats can take back the House.
(4) Hope that the FBI investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent burrows deep within the "W" administration and some people go down for treason. According to Bush senior, leaking an agents name is treason and those who out an agent should be shot. Maybe it was Ashcroft.
(5) Hope that the administration implodes because of infighting between the fiscal conservatives, the war hawks, the tax cut fanatics and the religious right. Maybe they will begin to snip at each other's heals.
Another scary fact - there is a faction of the far right who see the only way to rid ourselves of government is to raise the deficit to a point where the government must cut all but the minimum services. They see deficits as a way to eliminate the social programs and targeted entitlements. They are a scary scary faction. Crazy scary. And they just got one step closer to their dream state.
sigh...
- jjp
A lot of Americans have tied voting for "W" to "supporting our troops". Which seems strange to me. If you support our troops, then you should want to keep them out of harms way and only put them at risk where there is a truly clear and present danger.
A lot of "W" supporters are single issue supporters: they are voting to outlaw abortion, block gay marriages or cut taxes. A lot are fundamentalist Christians who believe that "W" is the more Christian candidate.
What is scary about all of this is that "W" has the chance to appoint as many as three supreme court justices over the next 4 years. It is also scary that the far right seems to think that they are centrist - I heard a senator from California on BBC radio denying that Bush has a NeoCon agenda and that in fact they are squarely in the middle.
I'm glad that Wisconsin went to Kerry and that we kept our Democrat Senator - Russ Feingold and Tammy Baldwin in the House. Speaking of which, what the hell is up with South Dakota? Do they know how much political clout and power they lost by voting out Daschle? Maybe they traded their souls for farm subsidies.
So what to do now?
(1) Organize and communicate with others who are left of the New NeoCon center.
(2) Support my gay and lesbian friends. Let them use my house or backyard for a commitment ceremony even if they can't get married.
(3) Hope that in 2 years, the Democrats can take back the House.
(4) Hope that the FBI investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent burrows deep within the "W" administration and some people go down for treason. According to Bush senior, leaking an agents name is treason and those who out an agent should be shot. Maybe it was Ashcroft.
(5) Hope that the administration implodes because of infighting between the fiscal conservatives, the war hawks, the tax cut fanatics and the religious right. Maybe they will begin to snip at each other's heals.
Another scary fact - there is a faction of the far right who see the only way to rid ourselves of government is to raise the deficit to a point where the government must cut all but the minimum services. They see deficits as a way to eliminate the social programs and targeted entitlements. They are a scary scary faction. Crazy scary. And they just got one step closer to their dream state.
sigh...
- jjp
Posted: Thu - November 4, 2004 at 09:27 PM
