# I am in despair **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2002, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521 "2002-11-06T07:53:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/21 "2002-11-06T14:38:01Z")
_Evil gloating laughter from the Republican._ **Stoid** is absolutely correct - from here on in, every judicial appointment Bush submits will sail thru without a problem. All abortions will be illegal within sixty days of the convening of the new Congress. Baghdad will be radio-active glass by dawn tomorrow. The homeless will be shot on sight. Everyone with a yearly income under $50,000 will be rounded up as slave labor to work on the estates of former Enron executives. All funding for AIDS research will be redirected to subsidize make-overs for Katherine Harris. Kenneth Starr will announce the re-opening of the investigation into Bill Clinton’s conduct while in office. The New York Times and the Washington Post will be subject to military censorship. Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, Hilary Clinton, and the entire Florida Supreme Court will be held at Guantanamo Air Force Base indefinitely. And there **will** be prayer in schools. Bwahahahaha! Regards, Shodan Or maybe you might be getting just a little hysterical - do you think? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/22 "2002-11-06T14:39:53Z")
God, political partisanship turns people into such idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/23 "2002-11-06T14:44:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JDM \* > \*\*I think Stoid was understating. Many of us are seriously fucked. Our lives are now in the hands of the Ken Lays of the world. And there will be few if any checks on their power. > And to the non-conservatives who had said it’s not that significant, well, GWB now owns the judiciary. All the vacancies that the Republicans kept from being filled by Clinton are now his. If O’Connor resigns, Roe v. Wade is gone. The effects of Bush’s ability to fill the judiciary will be felt for decades. \*\* Wow JDM, you really believe that the world is going to hell in a handbasket! I would like to hear some of these ghastly predictions (not just from JDM) of the horror that will befall mankind because of these election results. Then later, we can all look back and realize that none of the horrors actually happened. I think people are over-reacting. Seriously though, post some predictions. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/24 "2002-11-06T14:48:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Tim \* > \*\*That is of course supposed to be ballot. \*\* At first I thought you were advocating civil war! ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/25 "2002-11-06T14:52:12Z")
I wake up this AM to find that a majority of the voting electorate has Stockholm Syndrome? What a bummer. > [@](#): > > I’d like to point out to those who think we are seriously fucked that the government currently allows us a more powerful vote than a ballot or a buck, it’s called a bullet. Applied properly and in sufficient numbers these sorts of votes seriously alter the course of history. Great plan, Mr. Heston … I love tanks, and can’t wait till one shows the flag on **my** street, looking for members of the “opposition” to slaughter. And I just _know_ that they will be real, real careful to tell the difference between “freedom fighters” and ordinary protestors! ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/26 "2002-11-06T14:55:25Z")
Ok, it’s official, the vote is in. I’m a dumbass. There is a thread already about predictions… You may beat me with a hammer now… ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/27 "2002-11-06T14:58:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*At first I thought you were advocating civil war! \*\* I still don’t know what **The Tim** was saying, but it sounded like was either advocating assasination or suicide. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/28 "2002-11-06T15:01:50Z")
Don’t get me wrong, I’m unpleasantly stunned at how things turned out in a number of these races (not that they turned out the way they did, but how much of a walk it was) – still, something very similar to this happened 22 years ago and we lived through it. As mentioned before (I seem to be using that phrase a lot these days), _ **if** _ the GOPans get too giddy and try to go whole-hog on the rightwing agenda they’ll get b\*tchslapped back into line by the electorate in 2004. (Yet, **Shodan** why do I have this uneasy feeling that a certain Mr. Ashcroft would not really “get” that some bits of that nightmare scenario are supposed to be parody…?) ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/29 "2002-11-06T15:03:07Z")
The only thing I’m worried about it Roe v. Wade. I hate abortion, but I’m pro-choice. I want abortion to disappear as the result of a mass shift in public thinking on the topic, not by declaring it illegal. I fear that reversing that decision will tear a serious rift in our society. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/30 "2002-11-06T15:04:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stoid \* > \*\*…that the republicans will be so drunk with power that they will become giddy and mad, and show their truest colors, gladdening the hearts of some, but horrifying more, and the whole damn lot of them will be out on their asses in 2004. > \*\* Because they aren’t really Republicans. They are radio-active flesh eating zombies from outerspace!!! Be very afraid. An over-reaction from **Stoid** and some others, yes. But it is just so funny! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/31 "2002-11-06T15:05:47Z")
What this election should be is a wake-up call for the Democratic Party. Playing “me-too” games and cautiously trailing in the wake of the G.O.P. without any real message or convictions gets you a butt-kicking, and deservedly so. With only narrow majorities in the House and Senate, the Republicans are not going to be able to run roughshod over our (sob!) civil liberties even if they wanted to. A recipe for further disaster for Democrats and the leftists who turn to them out of desperation, is to wail incoherently about the evil demonic tendencies of their opponents, rather than acting as a tough and rational opposition. My only fear is that we are going to be plunged into a black pit of overwhelming bullshit from partisans who should know better - the post- 2000 election blather all over again. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/32 "2002-11-06T15:14:07Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by JRDelirious \* > \*\*Don’t get me wrong, I’m unpleasantly stunned at how things turned out in a number of these races (not that they turned out the way they did, but how much of a walk it was) – still, something very similar to this happened 22 years ago and we lived through it. As mentioned before (I seem to be using that phrase a lot these days), **if** the GOPans get too giddy and try to go whole-hog on the rightwing agenda they’ll get b_tchslapped back into line by the electorate in 2004. > \*\* Republicans did not have control of the House in 1980. They do now. Although you are probably correct that extreme measures will not go over well with the electorate, and the GOP would be rebuked by the voters next time up if they tried any. Although doubtless the media will present everything that passes for the next two years as “extreme”. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JRDelirious \* > \*\* > (Yet, **Shodan** why do I have this uneasy feeling that a certain Mr. Ashcroft would not really “get” that some bits of that nightmare scenario are supposed to be parody…?) \*\* What parody? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/33 "2002-11-06T15:14:38Z")
I heard that Republicans eat babies. ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/34 "2002-11-06T15:19:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \* > \*\*I heard that Republicans eat babies. \*\* Could be worse. The elections could have been swept by the Scientologists! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/35 "2002-11-06T15:24:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Stone \* > \*\*I heard that Republicans eat babies. \*\* That is why they are against abortion. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/36 "2002-11-06T15:25:10Z")
you is in de spare room? ---
**Author:** ![ouisey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@ouisey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouisey)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/37 "2002-11-06T15:27:36Z")
I have not hit the levels of despair that Stoid has, but I think its a mistake to be nonchalant about changes in the government. Perhaps I’ve read too many books like Margaret Atwood’s _Handmaid’s Tale_, but I think only a fool counts on the current state of affairs remaining the same indefinitely. Everything changes, and I believe that voter apathy is a good way to make sure it changes for the worse. I believe that our government’s success relies on people actually giving a shit about what happens in elections. Doesn’t it worry people that Bush’s Homeland Security Act pushed for INS hearings being closed to the public or American citizens allowed to be held as enemy non-combatants? I heard this on NPR. Do you think we can safely sit back in your chairs while we watch other countries being repressed by dictators and think “it can’t happen here”? I’m not saying Bush is another Mao Ze-Dong, but statements such as The Tim’s “Your vote means nothing. This election means pretty much nothing.” worry me. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/38 "2002-11-06T15:32:04Z")
Let’s give **Stoid** the benefit of the doubt. He said that this is the second election day of his lifetime, which would make him two years old. He is to be forgiven if his opinions seem a little immature. Would a lollipop help? ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/39 "2002-11-06T15:39:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*Stoid, honey, as a veteran of elections going back to 1974, allow me to reassure you that this isn’t the End Of Civilization As We Know It … \*\* Georgia just elected a Republican governor. If that isn’t a portent of the Apocalypse, what is??!? ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521/40 "2002-11-06T15:41:11Z")
C’mon people. This is an unmitigated disaster. We now have a single party full of scheming idealogues in complete unassailable control of both the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal government. We have to expect forced redistribution of wealth, pandering to special interests, and unprecedented intrusions into our private lives. Not to mention the spectre of extended, bloody war. Plus, we still have a drawling Texas cowboy as President. Damn that Lyndon Johnson! Wha…? Oh, sorry. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-in-despair/135521.md?page=3)