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November 03, 2004
See Holohan's title. Rinse, repeat.
Another election come and gone. I console you Bush haters with this thought: America can survive this. We survived the Reagan years, after all. (Though much of Central America, tragically, did not.) Just be sure that for the next four years you are careful not to be gay, poor, a woman, or of color. And if you are all of those things, well, clearly you have bigger things to worry about than who's president.
Speaking as a member of one of the four prohibited groups, I, too, feel the pain of this election. I haven't been this upset since Oz left Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. By the time we get a new president, I will be 29, which as you know is almost 30, which as you know is the end of life as we know it. So basically I will be living with this president until I die. I will continue to write term papers and take vacations and work on this heady, difficult thing the poets call true love, but fundamentally my life will be...well, the same life it's been for the past four years.
In all seriousness, I hate that my tax dollars will continue to be used to piss off part of the world and slaughter the other part. But you know this too shall pass. All I can suggest for the interim is this: use your money. No one is going to listen to your voices, or pay attention to your bodies blocking traffic on pre-arranged Sunday marches. These things are tools of the past. But find a group or a person you can believe in and give them your money. Your time too, if you have any: most places can use volunteers. But the most effective megaphone in America is cash, and that is what you have to give.
Tens, twenties, fifties. Ulysses S. Grant is my only president now.
Posted by didofoot at November 3, 2004 10:12 AM
Comments
It might take some doing, but I'm going to be a poor black lesbian working in an abortion clinic within four years.
If only to spite the half of my family who made "mistakes" at the polls yesterday.
Posted by: Danny at November 3, 2004 01:22 PM
This post was so funny.
Posted by: jason s at November 3, 2004 05:03 PM
The problem is not that we can't survive four more years, but that after four years we still won't be out of the woods. This latest election is more evidence of the vast transformation of American politics that began with Regan and is now culminating. Republicans picked up House and Senate seats in addition to a solid victory in the presidential race. When the next election occurs in four years, the likely outcome is more of the same. Those that voted for Bush cited "moral values" as the most important issue. Democrats reacted with surprise to this...which I find silly because that's all Republicans have been talking about for the last ten (and, more accurately, thirty) years. Democrats still don't get it. People vote their identities not their interests. George Lakoff deeply understands this and has laid out a plan for Democrats to take back the country -- by highlighting progressive moral values. This means that you don't ever use phrases like "war on terror". These phrases are created by Republican think tanks to emphasize their moral vision of the world. Every time Kerry said "I'll fight a more effective war on terror", he was shooting himself in the foot. He should've reframed the issues in a progressive light -- by emphasizing that he would protect America from terrorists rather than go to war with them. Instead, Kerry chose to play by conservative rules and with conservative language. Hopefully, Democrats will wake up soon because Republicans have a 30 year and multi-billion dollar headstart. And, clearly, the country cannot afford to have a politically clueless Democratic party any longer.
Posted by: dr v at November 4, 2004 04:24 AM
I was just reading the same thing, that the Democrats have to stop talking policy and start talking morality. Sad, but probably effective.
Posted by: jason s at November 4, 2004 04:58 PM
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