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Posted November 3rd, 2004 by MichelleI might be the last family member awake. It’s 1 AM in California, way past my bedtime, and only now did I finally get up off the couch and turn off the TV. When Kerry hit 242 electoral votes, I had spasms of hope, but they are gone. There is still a chance, I know, but the fact that Bush is 5 million ahead in the popular vote, and that he has led this race from the minute the polls opened is telling.
In 2000, I hardly took the election seriously because I thought it laughable that Bush would get elected. I predicted a minor landslide this year in favor of Kerry. And while I know that there are a thousand things more important, I can’t help but think about the opinions of people in every other country in the world- what must they think of us, we who had a chance to right a horrible wrong and instead stuck our heads in the sand.
I will try not to despair, I will try to take Sean’s advice and be incredibly artistically productive tomorrow. I’m sad, ashamed, demoralized… but mostly I am really, really pissed off that the madman is around for another four years. I’m really pissed off that he’s frightened over half of my fellow Americans into voting for him. And now, I’m going to finally go throw up and go to bed, and then wake up and try to figure out what to do.
I mean, seriously, what exactly went wrong?
I think that maybe we spent to much time listening to like-minded progressives and grew out of touch with the reality that most Americans are simpleminded and easily swayed by fear. The reality (as I see it, which may have nothing to do with your reality, but hey, who’s counting?) is that most Americans are afraid of anyone different from themselves and beleive that they are righteously following the will of God. Iraq becomes simply a matter of defending ourselves from the towelheads, France becomes evil, liberals want to eat your unborn children with their cereal at breakfast and gays are trying to turn the quarterback of the local football team into a model in New York where he will become the next hapless victim on Law & Order. It’s all about keeping people’s minds closed and making them feel that their way of life (the *right* way) is under attack. Uggh.