we've destroyed it, and we have no excuses

Can you sucker yourself? Maybe, if you're an incurable optimist. For a few days I actually had convinced myself that this country would redeem itself, and yesterday evening I was bursting with such confidence that I posted this almost giddy secular Te Deum. I'm now cured, almost certainly for good (or evil).

NEWS FLASH: Kerry has just conceded* (Didn't he repeatedly say something about making sure all the votes are counted this time?)

Right now I'll only add a few words to the piles accumulating everywhere in reaction to yesterday's debacle.

Americans have destroyed their own country out of ignorance, superstition, bigotry and fear.

And we have absolutely no excuse. Unlike other nations which have resorted to autocracy, fascism, dictatorship (by party, cabal or leader) our majority decision to endorse this regime was done with eyes wide open, without threat of invasion, not prostrate in defeat, and even absent economic depression or civil war. In fact the U.S. stood on top of the world, the most admired, the richest and most powerful state of all time, and that's when we blew it, big time:

For four years the gang we have now installed legitimately (although by only a narrow majority), in full view of the rest of the world, has shown that it really believes in our balloting system of "winner-take-all." Since the beginning of 2000 the Republicans have operated as if there were no interests other than their own; Never before in American history have the welfare or the concerns of the "losers" been so totally eliminated from the agenda of the party in power, and it's now going to get worse.

From today we will be living in a nation whose Republican executive will have no restraints, whose Congressional Republican majorities will soon be larger and therefore more alarming than ever and whose courts, above all the Supreme Court, will be in the posession of a radical Republican Party for decades, regardless of the longevity of its dominance elsewhere.

And it gets still worse. The more alarming consequence of this election will be the real evil its winners do here and abroad, and attract, here and abroad. But the most depressing thought of all is that things will absolutely have to get much worst before they could get better, and there's no guarantee of that.

Although the blue sky I included in yesterday's post is still there (I cannot strike a line through it, like I did everything I wrote), and it is still above New York this afternoon, the heavens never did care what was happening down here. We're on our own.

Listening to: Gustav Mahler, Adagietto (Sehr Langsam), Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor (Haitink, Berlin Philharmonic)


*They used us, the Republicans did, to swing their cultists to the polls. So Bush's victory is ultimately my fault and the fault of every other faggot for choosing our "lifestyle," even if only some of us were bent on shredding into pieces the other 50 percent of the precious marriages they hadn't already destroyed themselves.

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anti-gay from seanbonner on November 3, 2004 7:49 PM

James and Barry have some thoughts on this. In 2000 I was outraged. Today I'm just deeply disappointed. I still... Read More

David Neiwert at Orcinus Ohio was a sea of red with urban islands of blue numerical strength. And all those red counties were, again, a deeper red. This tells you that, in particular, Bush gained real strength -- more than enough to offset Democratic g... Read More

Nothing much to add to your sad conclusion. In one of the comments left by me someone noted: "pensée déprimante : les peuples ont, en général, les dirigeants qu'ils méritent." We get in general the leaders we deserve. No more excuses, and when something horrible happens again, we'll know why.

Re: *They used us, the Republicans did, to swing their cultists to the polls...

They used us, they used that, but I think to ascribe their victory to that alone is a mistake. I think it's really about the war, and the illogic of Americans who won't switch horses in the middle of one no matter what. As far as I know it's never been done. I think things will get better after it all gets worse--and you know it will get worse.

I really do believe they, these rad Republicans, will go down. I think it's telling that we got SO close (which is why it hurts so much) despite their superior media/propaganda machine. The tide has already turned, ironic you say because of the popular vote, but it has turned, and it will keep turning as things get worse.

Just my humble op. Sorry to try to cheer you up by forecasting disaster.

best,
Joy

Actually I never intended to ascribe the Republican victory to one pink herring. "They used us" is a footnote, while I describe "ignorance, superstition, bigotry and fear" as the fundamentals of their victory.

I totally agree with your predictions, and I'd go even further on the one about things getting worse. On August 23 I wrote [ https://jameswagner.com/mt_archives/004279.html ] about something I had already been thinking about for some time. Repeating a quote from union leader Andy Stern, "another four years of Bush might be less damaging than the stifling of needed reform within the party and the labor movement that would occur if Kerry becomes president." Stern later took it back, but I wondered aloud about whether he should have. We'll probably have to go through hell on earth before voters will look up from their bibles.

Hold onto those red cockades in the meantime.

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Published on November 3, 2004 11:55 AM.

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