John Kerry Closure
Like many, I'm trying to get a handle on the post-election blues. Actually, I handled this election relatively well. I mean, I didn't get depressed by the result, just frustrated and a bit shocked. I guess I could still be in denial though.
I have to admit, I kind of lost it for a minute when I saw Kerry giving his concession speech. His voice trembled a bit a couple of times, especially when he said, "I wish that I could just wrap you up in my arms and embrace each and every one of you individually all across this nation." I'm not trying to be melodramatic here, but you could tell that he felt helpless. I don't think I was ever under the delusion that Kerry would fix everything, or anything of real importance. In fact, I disagree with him on many issues. But during his speech, I really felt a bond with Kerry, probably for the first time since his campaign started. I saw him as one of us--visibly shaken and not knowing how help make things better.
Any chance we can do the election over again? A do-over? I mean, if the Republicans really have a mandate, then what are they afraid of?
posted by The Decider @ 10:25 PM
82 Comments:
Why hello! Welcome me, as I am your first post. Well, besides your own posts.
I was going to write about this on Alex's blog, but I know a lot of republicans read that (including some family members and close friends that may take offense to some of what I want to say). It would be the tits if some of your republican readers came down on me as I unwittingly write all about my hurt feelings and general lack of composure and sensitivity toward 51% of my compatriots after the election. The tits because I won't know who they are (since I have never met a friend to either of you who is conservative), and I can write back honestly and take some cheap shots in the meantime. Because that’s just how I do, sucka.
Let’s be honest here. Blogs deserve harsh honesty, that is why God created them.
Days before the election I started to feel a profound sense of desperation because the realization that Kerry was not going to win would hit me suddenly and hard throughout the day. My common sense told me that it would all turn out alright, but my stomach and duodenum knew otherwise. So, as the vote counts were pouring in on Tuesday night, I considered praying. I’ve only prayed three times in my life: once when I was maybe 8 and I was all but certain that mom and dad would not follow my christmas list and buy me the articles of clothing (that probably totaled somewhere around 500) that I thought were necessary for my cabbage patch dolls (I didn’t get any of it—so God failed me there), and two more times for friends (those times things worked out better). Anyway, I didn’t pray and we lost. So…sorry. My fault. God probably wouldn’t have heard me anyway, since apparently he was busy telling 59 million other people that it’s okay to be homophobic, like him.
I really didn’t think I would feel so bad about the whole thing—and was even a little shocked by some people’s reactions to cry. But then on Wednesday evening, after a pretty gloomy day at work, I verbalized for the first time exactly why I was disappointed by the Bush win (and also by the Kerry loss, because I actually thought he’d do a good job), and I completely lost it. For me, it really comes down to this: I know that tomorrow and next day things will still be okay. Sure, eventually civil liberties will degenerate, the environment will be shot to shit (because we “practiced our love” on our forests too much), the new generation of terrorists will be attacking us, the rest of the world will be glad to see it happen, and there will be no more jobs. But it’ll all happen so slowly I won’t notice (and at least I’ll have a whole new slew of English words to choose from --thanks to our fearless leader--to be able to express my confusion and dismay). When people tell me things will be okay, all I really hear is “Yes, you’re going to get punched in the neck repeatedly, but it won’t hurt THAT bad—besides getting punched in the neck is cool these days.” So, regardless of the degree to which I’ll be “spared”, I find that there is little to look forward to.
And, that’s just the worst—to want your reality to be entirely different, but to be so impotent. With this election came the brutal realization that this country is not what I thought it was and that it’s full of people who are not who I thought they were. Fine, I’ll have to just accept that. But with it comes the feeling of hopelessness and a general profound shame that I am a part of that country (I would bet that my parents were hoping for exactly the opposite when they came to the US 10 years ago—they’re only 39 and 40).
So, I’ll do what I can in the next four years and forever to let eveyone know that I am not one of them (and officially no longer from Ohio—I’m from Pennsylvania now), but unfortunately, unlike many of the Bush supporters, I don’t believe it is morally acceptable to impose my beliefs, opinions, and lifestyle onto other people. So I can only hope (which is exactly what I find impossible to do this week), that somehow this country will turn around and elect a leader who reflects a sensibility that I can stand behind. I suspect it will happen after four years of people getting what they asked for—and realizing that things have gone to shit. A catch-22.
On a lighter note, Nan and Carl, thanks for starting this blog! I have a question: what is your policy on cussing?
JB
OK Nan & Carl, you got me!!!
This is my first comment to a blog other than one that I posted on Alex’s on occasion of his birthday. I had so far, refused to express my opinions for the following reasons (in case you care, and of course I am specifically referring to posting comments in Alex’s blog. I really don’t care about anybody else’s): 1) I found myself in disagreement with his opinions so frequently that I didn’t want him to feel harassed by the Bozzolo liberalism that bad, 2) I feel really intimidated by the outstanding writing skills of most of the people who do make comments. Alex’s are also exceptional and 3) I really never felt the rage or need for that matters to let say…bitch which is what makes a comment juicy and interesting.
Sooooooooooooo, having said that, now watch out! I’m unstoppable!
I fully identify with Nan’s feelings since I can say I went through pretty much the same process. On Election Day I had a number of panic attacks that sadly materialized and got justified the next day and so then I went through a total depression. Today, I am definitely ANGRY - though the “other Dr B.” would say that that process got initiated much earlier and would probably remind me that I expressed my deepest whishes to Carl Rove for getting a bad decease in the ass within hours of having heard Kerry’s concession speech-.
I am angry because none of this makes sense. My rational mind is desperately looking for THE reason for this turnout and constantly fails. This is not to be a bad looser. This is my probably pointless attempt to understand how ½ the country sees things. But what really shakes me is the thought that this government is now one and that, though Bush is preaching unity, the US of A is Republican and Conservative. Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches will have all the same agenda with no room for challenge and no chance for controversy and different ideas. This is how we are going to make policy, at least for the next 2 years, and how we are going to be seen abroad and so, I have to confess, that I have a hell of a time accepting that other countries see MY country that way.
I agree with JB. I feel disgusted by the Ohio constituents and should start thinking of moving to at least Pennsylvania.
I’d like to say that Fantastiko looks very promising. Thank you for offering me the chance to express my thoughts this way and from now on, I’ll change the tone of my postings. It’s a promise. You guys have the potential for producing something very interesting and entertaining so, keep it up.
Mom/Nora
Nan/Carl, or Narl, as I will call you affectionately from now on...
While Ohio as a whole did poorly, I think we have to give props to the northeast corridor of Ohio. Lorain county, for being as hick-ish as it is (sorry Welllington, that's just the way it is) carried Kerry by 16-some thousand votes. Way to go! When you consider that everyone in Oberlin voted for Kerry, that leaves a solid 6 thousand other people in Lorain county who aren't afraid of being raped by and married to gay terrorists from Iraq.
Solid.
I had dumb hope on Tuesday that it was all going to come out right. I work for a fairly conservative organization, as many of you know, and have been harassed on a consistent basis for my un-liking of W. As the returns started pouring in, I only cared about Ohio. I actually went to all of the counties in Ohio and watched the returns come in faster than CNN was reporting them. (You should all be impressed to find out even Lorain county had a "live" reporting of the ballots.)
At three in the morning, I realized it wasn't going to happen. I had some pretty desperate thoughts, but I pulled it together and mentally wrote my speech that I would give to all of my work-mates who would be harassing me the next day.
Luckily, not one person said anything -- directly to me. During Kerry's concession speech, which we watched together, several comments were made about how he'd torn our country apart -- divided us, and it was then that I realized that Republicans blame Kerry.
I'm seriously depressed, but what can we really do about it. The bright side is that W can only be in office another 51 more months. We'll get through it. Another Democrat candidate will come along and tear the country apart again.
Maybe he'll tear the giant red stain out of the center. Maybe he'll not only undo the constitutional damage that will be done in the next 51 months, but will mandate things like tree-hugging on ever other Friday and that every third male in a family MUST marry another man.
We all know that's what Kerry would have wanted.
Much love from Conservativeville.
Population: Joe (Khalil)
PS: Narl, what is your stance on made-up words like un-liking. I asked god, but he said he was "too busy advising Bush to deal with [my] bitch-ass questions."
http://tinyurl.com/529xa
It's a newspaper story about the impossible! (i.e. problems with voting machines giving W too many votes...)
Lorain County deserves a lot of credit. You're right, Joe. Well said.
Ass diseases notwithstanding, I do think we're in for a butt kicking for the next four years by Mr. Rove (not so much my butt, but other less white, more homosexual butts).
I think that mom/Nora is also right about the shame this brings. I'm ashamed to tell other Americans I'm from Ohio and I'm ashamed to tell people in other countries that I'm American. I told Carl the other day that I had no problem traveling to Europe after 9/11, at the height of the terrorism scare, and after the Iraq invasion. This is the first time in my life when I'm hesitant to leave the country.
- Nan (half of Narl)
The following is a letter from a friend of a friend of a friend...
Subject: To My Friends from Other Places
It would be difficult to fully communicate my disappointment in a simple email. On the other hand, slipping out into the hall and drowning myself in the mop bucket would mean that someone else would have to feed my dogs.
Even if someone finds that crate full of votes for Kerry bobbing down the Cuyahoga River, the American people have spoken, and they have sent the world a message: "We're
barely bright enough to chew our own food."
Incompetence, incoherence, inarticulateness, pettiness and random savagery apparently do not deter the majority of Americans. The thing that really, REALLY matters to Americans? Homos. And foreigners. Both must be stopped at any cost.
Americans voted overwhelmingly in favor of bigotry, amending state constitutions around the country to prevent same-sex couples from having any rights beyond the right to live on the margins of society. We clearly have far more to fear from The International Homosexual Conspiracy (tm) than we do from North Korea and the collapse of the American health care system.
Apparently, we are truly a nation of slackjawed yokels, awed only by grotesque displays of wealth and violence, reverent only of the bossman and beholden not even to our children, since we seem content to mortgage their future in favor of a $300 tax refund that we have traded for decent jobs, healthcare, and a just society.
We make pious noises about worshipping a Just and Merciful God, while doling
out destruction and horror upon the innocent, pausing only to pat ourselves on the back for waging a "just" war to rid the world of tyrants that audaciously aspire to exist after they lose their utility to us in endless low-level conflicts to control the world's oil supply.
We seem to have become cheap, venal, vulgar and petty while we apparently don't have the ability to reason our way out of the dilemma of taking care of the sick, watching out for the elderly, and teaching our children not to be credulous, callow dupes.
To my friends from the UK, France and anyone to whom they choose to forward this, I feel that I owe you an apology. It is as if I have brought an orangutan to high tea...While he flings shit at you and tries to snatch pastries from your plate, I am left wondering how I might make it up to you.
The world's richest and most powerful nation seems to have lost its moral compass. We have lost interest in leading by example in favor of taking by force. I would like to say that I believe that one day in the future America might regain its senses. Unfortunately, I am not terribly optimistic. The best I can offer you is to remind you that Nixon
also won a second term.
Your friend,
Patrick
Many of you have forwarded me the New York Times Op-Ed by Paul Krugman. Have a look if you haven't already. It's uplifting...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/opinion/05krugman.html
- Nan
Man, I guess I'm quickly becoming Fantastiko's "that guy," but what's the problem with what GWB said?
Prognosticate: (v) To predict according to present indications or signs; foretell.
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If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.
640K ought to be enough for anybody. - Bill Gates 81
A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.
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What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?
Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!
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All generalizations are false, including this one.
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