Category: General

Kerry Presidency would be damage control at best now.

I would be very happy to see Kerry take the presidency after all, because I believe that a Bush presidency will mean significantly more war, torture, killing, exploitation of the poor for the sake of the rich, and assault on civil rights than a Kerry presidency. Not to mention the scary Supreme Court possibilities under Bush.

But that said… America has spoken, and it has spoken with a voice of fear and hate. Bush has the popular vote, even if Kerry pulls Ohio out of his ass by some miracle. The Rethuglicans have a stranglehold on Congress. 11 states passed proposals in favor of discrimination against homosexuals.

In the big picture, the illiberals have won and decency and civility has lost, whichever way Kerry goes.

And while, again, I would be thrilled with a Kerry presidency for the reasons given above, it would be damage control, and it would set Kerry up as a scapegoat, framed to take the blame for the myriad economic and military fiascos of the Bush administration. And the Rethuglican congress would prevent him from doing anything worthwhile. I would not enjoy seeing that.

So either way, America and the world loses.

Gillmor on the Election

Dan Gillmor writes:

The networks, falling into line under pressure from the Republicans, have all but declared a Bush victory. If the numbers hold up, as they seem likely to do, that will be accurate.

The Republicans have almost certainly expanded their congressional majority. (As I write, the Republican in South Dakota has declared himself victor without all the votes all being counted.) There is nothing good about this election for the Democrats.

More tomorrow. But I sign off with this thought: We will not recognize America in four more years. That will make half of America giddy. It will terrify the other half.

Fat Lady Has Not Sung

Bush win still seems most likely, But Kerry is making the reasonable demand that in a close race in Ohio which could decide the election, nobody gets to declare victory till all the votes are actually counted.

Works for me.

Still kind of expecting a Bush victory. Nice to have a tiny shred of hope for America for a while though.

Trying to remember

I’m trying to remember what things were like under Reagan and the first Bush, when it seemed like there would be Republicans forever, the country would be all about war and fear and hatred of anyone who was different.

Clinton gave us hope but we should have known from the Republican death-grip on Congress that it wouldn’t last.

I’ve got to stop caring about what state the country is in.

But it’s so much harder now. I have children whose future those bastards can ruin, it’s not just my own future anymore.

The “funnel all the cash to the rich” Republicans were in power for 12 years, running the economy into the ground with their deficit spending, their weapons and wars, and it took a Democrat to bring some fiscal responsibility to the nation, and that was not to last.

I’m trying to remember back to that bleak time when I managed to just not think about where the nation was going when I could help it, because it was clear that the trajectory was downward and we were riding in a handbasket. I didn’t used to care about politics like I do. I didn’t used to think about it. I used to just assume that everything was going to shit in a few years and I’d do my best to have as non-miserable a life as I could in the meantime.

But damn Clinton he gave us hope.

And it was a false hope. Things are going the same way they’ve been going since Carter went down in flames: right and farther right and farther and farther and farther right, a gigantic scam, a joke at the expense of all but a tiny rich and connected elite…

And now I’ve got a family, and it’s their future that’s damned, not just my own.

I’m trying to remember how I used to avoid thinking about it and avoid caring.

But it was a long time ago.

Damn you, America, for letting me believe in you for a while and then taking it away.

I should have known better.

I should have known better than to hope.

Bed soon. Things look very bad.

Things are sounding pretty grim from the exit polls and results that are in, though it’s still a toss-up. It’s looking a lot more like Bush has indeed given us the finger. May be a while before we’re sure, unless Rehnquist’s zombie corpse rises from the grave and pronounces Bush Dark Lord Evil Dictator-For-Life and makes it legal to shoot anyone who tries to do a recount.

But it looks like things are going to go from bad to worse.

I’m chatting with someone who is in complete despair about how rotten people must be to vote for a murderer and torturer like Bush, but you know, this is nothing we didn’t know before. About half of America wants badly to reelect this monster. A tiny deviation well within the statistical margin of error determines whether or not he is in fact elected. It’s a coin toss, with global consequences, and it’s starting to look like most of us are the big losers.

UPDATE: Everybody’s calling Florida for Bush. Thanks, Jeb.

UPDATE: (hour later. couldn’t sleep.) I can’t believe this. I am going to walk around tomorrow and look at everyone I see and think “there’s about a 51% chance that this is your fault. There’s about a 51% chance that you are one of the people who ruined America.”