It took me a little over 24 hours, and a LOT of thinking on our political system, but I’ve calmed down from the heights of fury and general mystification I was feeling when I realized that Bush had won.
Yes, Bush won. Yes, we have four more years of George W. Bush as President of the US. We’ll live.
I realized that democracy doesn’t determine who’s right or wrong. It has absolutely nothing to do with questions of correctness or moral superiority. All democracy does is decide by majority vote what actions we’re going to take in the near future.
The fact that Bush won isn’t some sign of the moral or objective correctness of the conservative platform. It just means that more American citizens favor it as a course of action. I can live with this for the next four years. I may not live with it quietly. I may not acquiesce to it with grace. I’m not required to, though, so that’s not really a wash, either.
On the other hand, it’s not the end of the world. It’s not even the end of America. America is bigger than George W. Bush. We’ve survived worse in our history. We’ll survive this.
I’m still firmly convinced that in 50 years we’ll look back on this president’s terms of office as a low point in 21st century American history. But it’s a done deal. The trick now is to keep a sharp eye on the party in power to make sure it doesn’t run away with the whole shop. Then we can bring in someone in 2008 to clean up the mess.
So, I concede this election. George W. Bush is President of the United States. The Republicans control Congress. It’s going to be a hell of a mess. But we’ll get through it.
Did Republicans flip out as much when he was first elected? There was Democrat majority in the Congress then, too.
People gotta realize that the Democrats’ alarmist rhetoric was just as much horsefeathers as the Republicans’ self-congratulations over the economy and Iraq.
It’s ok, jayjay. I know enough of American history to know we’ve survived worse, and even more rancorous campaigns. I’m still amused by the woman who asked a friend to look after her family Bible if Thomas Jefferson were elected because she’d heard that if that happened, all the Bibles in the country would be destroyed. When her friend asked why, then the Bible would be safe with her, she told him they’d never think to look for a Bible in the home of a Democrat!
That was during the election of 1800, so things haven’t changed much.
Meanwhile, if you and your gentleman need a place to run to, I’ll be happy to head out your way with one or both gentlemen in tow and offer you a place to hide as a member of what’s looking like my real life harem. I can just see it now. “Yes, pastor, I do have 4 men in my life, and yes I do love them all, but I can assure you there’s only hanky-panky going on with one of them. At a time.”
CJ
Who really does have a photo of two men with their arms around each other on her desk at work. No, they’re not my brothers.
