1984 arrived 20 years late last night. It didn’t come with violence and guns and tanks, all it took was an unholy alliance between three things:
- a political party that will do anything to win, from lying to massive voter disenfranchisement, and which is so full of their own lies that they use “reality based” as a perjorative.
- a media that follows the orders of their owners, who know that they personally are better off even if the country and the world are considerably worse off under that political party.
- a public who swallows their lies and does what their told without thinking. A public that believes that one man is better on fighting terrorism even though it was his opponent that was fighting terrorism 20 years ago when he was snorting cocaine in Camp David, a public that believes that one man is a better war president even though it’s his sole and complete fault that we’re even in this war, that this war was entered because of his lies and every major decision he’s made on this war has been wrong, a public that thinks that because they got a $300 check a few years ago that they’re reaping the benefits of these tax cuts that are really only helping the incredibly rich (and whose economic policies are actually reducing their chances of becoming incredibly rich themselves).
I weep for America.
I wonder if I could get a job back in Canada.
Ah, well said.
Personally, I’m mortally embarrassed by the results. I get the impression most of the free world thinks we’re a joke now, and what do we do? We re-elect the guy responsible. Not only that, we’re so disturbingly hypocritical. Supposedly one of the deciding factors in this race was the ‘moral issues’ — so that means we’re for discriminating against gays and killing people on a whim? Oh, what a proud nation!
At least after the 2k election we could claim he wasn’t actually elected by the people, so we weren’t responsible. This time, we endorsed him.
America is beyond a joke – I just can’t laugh at something that frightens me that much. And I’m on the other side of the world…
I stayed up until 2am GMT (9pm EST) watching the TV coverage, and when I couldn’t stay awake any longer and went to bed with the World Service on the radio, everyone was predicting a Democrat victory. It was reassuring – at last, everything was going to be all right.
I woke up this morning, and thought I was still asleep. The BBC announcer on Radio 4 was telling me that Bush was going to win after all. It felt as if someone had sneakily rearranged a few subtle things while I slept, and that I had somehow woken up in the wrong world.
Four more years. I can’t even bring myself to imagine what they might contain. Or how long the aftermath could last.
And I don’t even live there.
meh… whoever you vote for the Government always win…
seriously, they keep saying that bush won with the greatest number of votes ever…
…but i aint heard many people say that kerry lost with the second greatest number of votes ever…
i’m just gonna go stock the cellar up with tinned food and see if i can sit it out till 2008
51% – what a tremendous mandate.
Just remember, Nixon was re-elected in a landslide, and two years later he was toast.
Today’s quote from scripture is for the chimpleton: “Be sure your sin will find you out.” – Numbers 32:23