How Bush won...and why America is still great

Ok, I think I'm returning to normal.

My last post was a bit (very) reactionary. Like many Kerry supporters, I took his loss very hard, which was made doubly difficult because of the manner in which it occurred(popular vote, Southern vote). It made us feel divided as a nation, and ostracized from our Southern brothers.

This view is one that is perpetuated by both sides of the media. The right tells us that this was a "great victory" for morals in America, while the left tells us that "It's those dammed bigoted Jesus-loving rednecks that stand in the way of progress in America." The fact is, both sides are wrong. They are wrong because neither one truly embraces the truth about what this election, and this country are about, and it's wrong because it takes the humanity out of Democracy.

Instead, this division-baiting tactic increases what we (and when I say we, I mean rational people in both parties) have been battling all along: fearmongering and preying upon the worse in people rather than the best in people. Since the election many (myself included) have fallen into a bitter hatred of what we consider "the other side." This other side, much like the "other side" when we talk about "terrorists," is some nameless, faceless entity that exists in a particular area. It excludes individuality, and thus it becomes impossible to win "the hearts and minds" of the same people you wish to erase (as in when people say such things as "If the south wants to leave--let them go! Or I wish Lincoln hadn't fought the Civil War at all--they hate us.")

While watching Real Time with Bill Maher last night I saw this method of thinking up close, and by many people who I thought might be above this type of thing. Andrew Sullivan, who I often disagree with, described the result of this tactic the best when he said: "You may not have to agree with them, you can even make fun of them, but don't get upset when they don't vote with you." And that's the issue here. By doing what the Bush administration do (ala Karl Rove): demonizing people and their beliefs, you create a separation. They do it to Middle Easterns and Homosexuals, but remember--they aren't looking for the Middle Eastern or Homosexual vote--they're looking to stoke peoples' biases and fears about that population in order to get their vote. We demonize the South, but then, we hope that the South will come to our side. In fact it does the exact opposite, it drives those in the South who might vote Democrat back to Bush.

And that is what we did wrong--instead of practicing methods that ran counter to the Rove tactic of demonization we ran the exact same method, against a large voting constituency .

The second thing we did, was become so immodest and proud of our cause that our arrogance drove people away. They say moral messages were the primary reason people voted in the South and we Northerners say "OH MY GOD HOW DARE THEY! DON'T THE REALIZE THAT THE WAR IS MORE IMPORTANT THAT HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS!" And yes, I believe that is the truth, however, what we forget is that maybe it might be more important for us...because we live in sections that would be the terrorists' first target. We've often thought that the South and Midwest shouldn't really be fearful of terrorism because they aren't going to be attacked, but does that mean that they shouldn't vote about the president? Or have feelings regarding morals?

And on that subject, let us not forget that we also can be just as fanatical about our morality than any evangelical Christian. Many of us are so crazy about gun control, including myself, that we want to ban all guns. Maybe people we consider "gun nuts" don't want assault rifles on the streets, nor want criminals to own weapons either. Most just want to have the rifle that their grandfather owned to be passed on to their child to go hunting with (A pastime that Kerry enjoys). I am extremely pro-choice, however the lines are so thickly drawn that to even question whether any limitations should be put on a woman's right is bound to draw a riot in some liberal circles. I mean, maybe-just maybe-it was right to put some limitation on partial birth abortions. Maybe it wasn't the ones that the GOP endorsed, but to have a closed mind means that even positive ideas can be lost in partisan rhetoric.

When you point a finger, three fingers point back at you. This means that for all our howling at Southerners for voting the way they did, maybe we voted the exact same way. They voted to block us, and we voted to block them. After all, what did the liberal motto seem to morph to in the last four years? "Any one but Bush." Did we vote for someone who we thought could best lead our country? No, we voted for someone who we thought could beat Bush. What? Did we think we could be so transparent and still fool those "local-yokels?" Maybe, just maybe, people still stand and stick with someone who stands for something and MAYBE(Maybe being how they see it, I personally KNOW) is wrong, then someone who stands for whatever the poll issue of the day is. This leads me to my next point.

John Kerry should not have been the Democratic nominee--it should have been Howard Dean. Dean energized the party, he got out the youth vote, he raised money through the Internet that was an untapped resource, and he also stood his ground on such issues as homosexual marriage and the Iraq war. Remember, that was what we stood for...when we were standing for it. Shame on us for not sticking with him when the media cut him to shreds. Shame on us from dropping him when all he did was get enthusiastic at a rally of his own group. I still believe that John Kerry ran the best campaign he could, but the real flip-floppers in this election wasn't the candidate, it was us.

People tell us that now is the time for healing. Some say that its time to rally around our leader. I say screw that. I say now is at time for scrutiny, and participation. Now is the time to watch our leadership more than before. Now is a time to challenge and prepare. But at the same time, now is not the time to divide or to alienate. Yes, we might feel cut off from the South, but, if anything, its a time to realize how far we have come in civil, and liberal rights in the South.

I recently told friends that I felt like I was back in 1955. I was wrong. In 1955 blacks were getting lynched for trying to vote right along with whites who were trying to help them. In 1955 mayors and congressmen were validating turning fire hoses on people, and mass arrests of demonstrators, and even if people were pissed off at what happened in NYC during the Republican National Convention, I didn't see any of them coming out with bloody heads, and broken jaws. In fact the election of Obama to the Senate (The first black since Reconstruction to sit on the Senate) shows how far we have come. We have to remember that America is great because our system does get better, and we have ways of settling problems that are non-violent.

If we truly love freedom--if that's the ideology that drives us--then we have to remember that peace and choice must co-exist side by side, even when those choices go against what we believe in.

We have a long way to go to learn this at home before we can even think of spreading it to the world, on both sides of the Mason-Dixon.