Electoral Headache 11/3/04

Hungover without the pleasure of getting drunk, we've gone from yesterday afternoon's giddy exit poll driven optimism, to the bleak realization that we will endure four more years of governance by religious extremists, the entitled, the fear-driven, outside-the-mainstream, freedom-eclipsing, unquestioning right. It's easy to despair. We hear of phrases like "conservative agenda" and "moral values" motivating voters, but I don't buy it. This is the most immoral president in our history. We have been ignited to activism leading up to this election and we must keep the fire burning. The fiscal policy of this administration has not been conservative, and neither the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqis nor the wholesale raiding of the U.S. Treasury to fill the already overstuffed pockets of our richest citizens is moral. We must keep talking, keep working, keep writing because our nation needs our voices. The good news is that Bush is, during his second term, likely to come face to face with some of the policies of his first term (*sophmom dreams of perp walks*). "It seems almost impossible for him to do well, over the next two years, in Iraq," said Mario Cuomo on CNN, speaking of Bush, and then he called for the Dems to "stand fast" and look towards the future. I might add that we keep our computers handy and our wits sharp because Bush will eventually step into his own droppings and we need to be ready to spread the word about the smell. We must be ready to start working now for a different outcome in four years, determined to keep opposing the ineptitude and slaughter in Iraq, determined to fight with everything we can muster for the lives of our children at the first mention of a draft. I have a headache. I'm sure I'm not alone. I'm tired and I feel like crying but I won't, at least not about this. I will turn and face the shambles that is my life and start by changing what I can change. I will work hard to stay informed and continue to write about it. If we all do that, our community will grow and we will be stronger in two years, and ready to fight for kindness towards our fellow humans, with goodness, honesty, intellingence, and whole sentences in 2008. Kerry and Edwards fought the good fight. They started something. We will finish it.