OK, America. I forgive you. But not your crazy old relatives.
So, in response to my last blog entry, I received this from an anonymous commenter:
Eric, I must say that your blog has become one of my guilty pleasures. Please don't leave the United States. I am curious if the liberal left, of whom you appear to be an unhappy member are dissappointed in the election results or in the fact that W carried BOTH the popular vote and the electoral vote AND was more "popular" than Clinton and Gore.
Suck it up Eric, it'll be okay.
Who is this? I don't know. His/her IP address indicates an origin at PSI.net, which means nothing, since PSI is just a giant ISP.
I am gratified to see someone reading my blog other than my dear wife. I'm surprised that it could be anyone's "guilty pleasure," seeing as how I update very infrequently.
Still, here I am responding to this comment from a stranger. C'est la vie.
I am proud to be a member of the liberal left, a card-carrying member of the ACLU, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and to have a Human Rights Campaign bumper sticker on the back of my Volvo, along with a "Darwin fish." I'm proud to be a liberal, proud to be against the forces in this country that would turn America's clock back to the 1950s. After all, that's what "conservative" means, from a semantic standpoint: "conserving" things the way they are, fighting change, keeping the status quo and suppressing dissent.
I am, of course, unhappy that America made the wrong choice last Tuesday. Unhappy and angry, as was obvious in my last entry. But with nearly a week to reflect on things, the situation is not as dire as I originally believed. And it is certainly not as dire as the "spin" coming out of the mainstream media.
In the first place, the talk of GWB having some sort of "mandate" is ridiculous. Yes, he won the popular vote by about 3.5 million votes. And yes, due to the enormous amount of voters who went to the polls, GWB received more votes than any other candidate in history.
However, let's not forget that more people voted AGAINST George W. Bush than against any winning presidential candidate in history. A shitload of people voted, and Bush got two percent more than Kerry. Not a mandate. He got slightly more votes in a very divided country.
Secondly, this "red state / blue state" stuff is crap too. A lot of Americans find themselves in the same situation as me -- they voted for a candidate other than the one their state chose. A full 44% of Americans live in the "wrong" state -- Kerry voters in Bush states, or Bush voters in Kerry states. (Or Nader voters anywhere.)
This bitter pill is obviously easier to swallow for Bush voters, since their guy won overall. But it highlights the fact that we live in a very divided, very partisan country. America did not exactly line up in droves behind President Bush last week. If not for Americans' hesitance to evict a wartime president from the White House, I believe the Bushes would be packing up right now.
I was still pretty depressed about the election results, however, until I saw this:
Among Americans 30 and under, the choice was clear. Kerry won hands down. Why? A few reasons. First of all, this age group is the most likely to have suffered losses in Iraq. Most American servicemen and women killed in Iraq have been 18-30. This demographic is likely to know people serving in Iraq, and possibly know people killed or wounded in Iraq. They have direct knowledge of the disastrous results of this president's foreign policy.
Next, young Americans don't give a shit about the so-called "moral issues." Although they're only slightly less religious than older voters, young people aren't hung up on gay marriage -- they've grown up in a society that is more accepting of gay people. They probably have gay friends, know gay people in their dorms or at their jobs. They understand -- again with firsthand knowledge -- that if two men or two women get married, the fucking world doesn't end.
And, there's been a lot of talk post-election about the "young voters not showing up." Bullshit!! The media is misrepresenting or misinterpreting the numbers. Yes, the percentage of voters 18-29 remained at 17%, just like in 2000. However, since there were more voters overall this time, there were more young voters as well. The same percentage of a higher number = guess what, a higher number!! Duh!
The more important statistic is that 20.9 million voters aged 18-29 went to the polls this year. This is a 4.6 million increase over the 2000 numbers. In 2000, only 42.3 percent of people 18-29 voted. This year, 51.6 percent voted.
And, they voted overwhelmingly for Kerry. Jesus Christ, even Mississippi young people voted for Kerry!!! I only wish Alabama had done the same.
There is a glimmer hope for the future. I believe that by the time my children reach voting age, the American people will look back at the years 2000-2008 as a modern-day Dark Age, when America stumbled and lost her way for eight years, but ultimately recovered.
We can, we must, and we will survive George W. Bush. Start the countdown...
Eric, I must say that your blog has become one of my guilty pleasures. Please don't leave the United States. I am curious if the liberal left, of whom you appear to be an unhappy member are dissappointed in the election results or in the fact that W carried BOTH the popular vote and the electoral vote AND was more "popular" than Clinton and Gore.
Suck it up Eric, it'll be okay.
Who is this? I don't know. His/her IP address indicates an origin at PSI.net, which means nothing, since PSI is just a giant ISP.
I am gratified to see someone reading my blog other than my dear wife. I'm surprised that it could be anyone's "guilty pleasure," seeing as how I update very infrequently.
Still, here I am responding to this comment from a stranger. C'est la vie.
I am proud to be a member of the liberal left, a card-carrying member of the ACLU, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and to have a Human Rights Campaign bumper sticker on the back of my Volvo, along with a "Darwin fish." I'm proud to be a liberal, proud to be against the forces in this country that would turn America's clock back to the 1950s. After all, that's what "conservative" means, from a semantic standpoint: "conserving" things the way they are, fighting change, keeping the status quo and suppressing dissent.
I am, of course, unhappy that America made the wrong choice last Tuesday. Unhappy and angry, as was obvious in my last entry. But with nearly a week to reflect on things, the situation is not as dire as I originally believed. And it is certainly not as dire as the "spin" coming out of the mainstream media.
In the first place, the talk of GWB having some sort of "mandate" is ridiculous. Yes, he won the popular vote by about 3.5 million votes. And yes, due to the enormous amount of voters who went to the polls, GWB received more votes than any other candidate in history.
However, let's not forget that more people voted AGAINST George W. Bush than against any winning presidential candidate in history. A shitload of people voted, and Bush got two percent more than Kerry. Not a mandate. He got slightly more votes in a very divided country.
Secondly, this "red state / blue state" stuff is crap too. A lot of Americans find themselves in the same situation as me -- they voted for a candidate other than the one their state chose. A full 44% of Americans live in the "wrong" state -- Kerry voters in Bush states, or Bush voters in Kerry states. (Or Nader voters anywhere.)
This bitter pill is obviously easier to swallow for Bush voters, since their guy won overall. But it highlights the fact that we live in a very divided, very partisan country. America did not exactly line up in droves behind President Bush last week. If not for Americans' hesitance to evict a wartime president from the White House, I believe the Bushes would be packing up right now.
I was still pretty depressed about the election results, however, until I saw this:
Among Americans 30 and under, the choice was clear. Kerry won hands down. Why? A few reasons. First of all, this age group is the most likely to have suffered losses in Iraq. Most American servicemen and women killed in Iraq have been 18-30. This demographic is likely to know people serving in Iraq, and possibly know people killed or wounded in Iraq. They have direct knowledge of the disastrous results of this president's foreign policy.
Next, young Americans don't give a shit about the so-called "moral issues." Although they're only slightly less religious than older voters, young people aren't hung up on gay marriage -- they've grown up in a society that is more accepting of gay people. They probably have gay friends, know gay people in their dorms or at their jobs. They understand -- again with firsthand knowledge -- that if two men or two women get married, the fucking world doesn't end.
And, there's been a lot of talk post-election about the "young voters not showing up." Bullshit!! The media is misrepresenting or misinterpreting the numbers. Yes, the percentage of voters 18-29 remained at 17%, just like in 2000. However, since there were more voters overall this time, there were more young voters as well. The same percentage of a higher number = guess what, a higher number!! Duh!
The more important statistic is that 20.9 million voters aged 18-29 went to the polls this year. This is a 4.6 million increase over the 2000 numbers. In 2000, only 42.3 percent of people 18-29 voted. This year, 51.6 percent voted.
And, they voted overwhelmingly for Kerry. Jesus Christ, even Mississippi young people voted for Kerry!!! I only wish Alabama had done the same.
There is a glimmer hope for the future. I believe that by the time my children reach voting age, the American people will look back at the years 2000-2008 as a modern-day Dark Age, when America stumbled and lost her way for eight years, but ultimately recovered.
We can, we must, and we will survive George W. Bush. Start the countdown...
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