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I voted. I talked to people. I signed petitions.
I didn't get out to volunteer anywhere, I didn't go across country, working for the Kerry campaign, I didn't do anything outside of Illinois.
Illinois went to Kerry with about a 10% margin, pretty good considering. But it wasn't enough to balance the rest of the country.
Now what?
I'm not sure. I'm not going to tear my hair out and rend my clothes. That's not going to help. Ranting and raving and screaming about the unfairness of it all isn't going to make it not have happened. And when it comes down to him, though I don't like him and I don't trust him, and I'm afraid of what's going to happen over the next four years, Bush won not only the electoral votes, but he actually won the popular vote this year. Which, given the last four years, scares me almost as much as Bush does himself.
I'm hoping that some of Bush's Axis of Yes Men (and women) and other evil wil step down, and I'm hoping that he won't replace them with worse. I won't be surprised if Colin Powell quits, which will lose us the only member of his cabinet that I had any respect for at all. But maybe we'll lose Ashcroft and Rumsfeld and Rice, if we're lucky.
What's really been bugging me is the fact that Bush is running around saying that he's got a mandate, because more people voted for him then ever voted for any other candidate before. Well, Mr. Bush, remember that more people voted AGAINST you than any other candidate before, too. You don't have a mandate... You were elected in a VERY close race, and while you won, you won by a pretty damn small margin. That doesn't give you free rein to start making sweeping changes.
I guess I need to start looking forward to the next Congressional races. It's not just that Bush won, though that's frightening enough. It's that the Republicans ended up with an even stronger hold on Congress than they had before the election. These are the people who make our laws, people! If you want the laws changed, don't focus on the president... Go after the lawmakers themselves, and make yourself heard!
As for those talking about leaving the country... I'm sorry to lose you. If you go, you make it that much harder to change the way things are here, because that's one more vote against the status quo that leaves the country. If you feel so strongly about how bad things are, don't leave. Work to change them.
I didn't get out to volunteer anywhere, I didn't go across country, working for the Kerry campaign, I didn't do anything outside of Illinois.
Illinois went to Kerry with about a 10% margin, pretty good considering. But it wasn't enough to balance the rest of the country.
Now what?
I'm not sure. I'm not going to tear my hair out and rend my clothes. That's not going to help. Ranting and raving and screaming about the unfairness of it all isn't going to make it not have happened. And when it comes down to him, though I don't like him and I don't trust him, and I'm afraid of what's going to happen over the next four years, Bush won not only the electoral votes, but he actually won the popular vote this year. Which, given the last four years, scares me almost as much as Bush does himself.
I'm hoping that some of Bush's Axis of Yes Men (and women) and other evil wil step down, and I'm hoping that he won't replace them with worse. I won't be surprised if Colin Powell quits, which will lose us the only member of his cabinet that I had any respect for at all. But maybe we'll lose Ashcroft and Rumsfeld and Rice, if we're lucky.
What's really been bugging me is the fact that Bush is running around saying that he's got a mandate, because more people voted for him then ever voted for any other candidate before. Well, Mr. Bush, remember that more people voted AGAINST you than any other candidate before, too. You don't have a mandate... You were elected in a VERY close race, and while you won, you won by a pretty damn small margin. That doesn't give you free rein to start making sweeping changes.
I guess I need to start looking forward to the next Congressional races. It's not just that Bush won, though that's frightening enough. It's that the Republicans ended up with an even stronger hold on Congress than they had before the election. These are the people who make our laws, people! If you want the laws changed, don't focus on the president... Go after the lawmakers themselves, and make yourself heard!
As for those talking about leaving the country... I'm sorry to lose you. If you go, you make it that much harder to change the way things are here, because that's one more vote against the status quo that leaves the country. If you feel so strongly about how bad things are, don't leave. Work to change them.
