Thursday, November 04, 2004
A day removed from the disappointment
Yesterday was it. That was the day for venting and frustration over the result of the election. By the time I went to bed last night, I realized I was "over it." I'm not happy about the direction the country is headed. I'm not happy about the results of the election. I'm not happy about the election being determined by riled up evangelicals driven by fear and ignorance. I'm not happy about any of these things. The Daily Mirror, a British newspaper, even went so far as to run the headline: "60 million idiots voted for Bush." There's a clue as to how this is all preceived internationally. Do I think Kerry could've united the world? No, I'm sure he'd face many of the same obstacles. Thing is, though, that I had no confidence in Bush's ability to inspire good foreign relations and he's proved incapable of doing so. What's the harm in letting Kerry take a shot?
Thinking about all of that, though, I remember that I was never sold on John Kerry and that there are still plenty of problems with the democratic party. Obviously, I'm not alone on that and he was a tough sell. My vote for him was more of a vote against the alternative. Even though Kerry won the democratic primaries, he was a relatively weak candidate to trot out. The debates proved to me that he was more competent than Bush, but the harsh reality is that no one pays attention to the debates (see: election result). There's a cultural gap in this country the size of which we haven't seen since the Civil Rights Movement. If it was on the ballot, I'd just as soon vote to have California secede from the rest of the country. How else could I deal with monsters like Tom Coburn of Oklahoma being in the senate? I can't vote against him. It's something that's completely out of my power.
For my own sake, maybe it's better that I scale back the political emotions. At least if, say, the Lakers get blown out (as they did last night to Utah by 24 -- ouch), yeah it'll sting, but ultimately won't affect anything. Yesterday, on the drive home, traffic was all sorts of hellish. I come to find out later that it was primarily caused by a giant protest of Bush on Hollywood and Highland. Yesterday. After the election had been determined. Look, free speech and all that, I get it. Right to assembly, I get it. But as best as we can tell (for now), there was no rigging in this election. There is no one to blame for it's result. There's no Ralph Nader, there's no Katherine Harris, there's no hanging chads, there's no recount, there are no lawyers. It was a clean vote and a clean Bush victory. So why whine about it now? Yes, half of us are bitterly disappointed and we recognize how manipulative the Bush campaign was in drumming up the most negative of human emotions to rally his supporters, but what does it solve or accomplish? Virtually nothing. It's never been my thing anyway, but activism like that irks me. I'm not saying there's no point and everyone should just fall in line with Bush, but the timing and circumstances are incredibly poor for such a demonstration. I heard some of Bush's press conference this morning and he was harping about a future of peace and democracy in Iraq. Sounds great. Those are simply words and probably ones he will never see realized in his presidency. If you're still protesting the war, fine. It's just strikes me as stupid and petulant to protest the outcome of a fair election.
Anyway, I suppose the point of all this is that I'll be happy regressing back to casual, yet informed observer rather than the live and die with every blunder of this administration type. It's no way to live. I've done that routine with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and it's just not worth the anguish. It's depressing. It shouldn't be ignored, but you can't let it consume you whole. Soon, you find yourself maintaining your core beliefs while detatching from your emotions. I suppose that's an evolutionary process because no one would be able to cope with that much worry and anxiety on a daily basis and be mentally healthy. So, as I've done with so many other things in my life, it's time to emotionally detatch.
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Thinking about all of that, though, I remember that I was never sold on John Kerry and that there are still plenty of problems with the democratic party. Obviously, I'm not alone on that and he was a tough sell. My vote for him was more of a vote against the alternative. Even though Kerry won the democratic primaries, he was a relatively weak candidate to trot out. The debates proved to me that he was more competent than Bush, but the harsh reality is that no one pays attention to the debates (see: election result). There's a cultural gap in this country the size of which we haven't seen since the Civil Rights Movement. If it was on the ballot, I'd just as soon vote to have California secede from the rest of the country. How else could I deal with monsters like Tom Coburn of Oklahoma being in the senate? I can't vote against him. It's something that's completely out of my power.
For my own sake, maybe it's better that I scale back the political emotions. At least if, say, the Lakers get blown out (as they did last night to Utah by 24 -- ouch), yeah it'll sting, but ultimately won't affect anything. Yesterday, on the drive home, traffic was all sorts of hellish. I come to find out later that it was primarily caused by a giant protest of Bush on Hollywood and Highland. Yesterday. After the election had been determined. Look, free speech and all that, I get it. Right to assembly, I get it. But as best as we can tell (for now), there was no rigging in this election. There is no one to blame for it's result. There's no Ralph Nader, there's no Katherine Harris, there's no hanging chads, there's no recount, there are no lawyers. It was a clean vote and a clean Bush victory. So why whine about it now? Yes, half of us are bitterly disappointed and we recognize how manipulative the Bush campaign was in drumming up the most negative of human emotions to rally his supporters, but what does it solve or accomplish? Virtually nothing. It's never been my thing anyway, but activism like that irks me. I'm not saying there's no point and everyone should just fall in line with Bush, but the timing and circumstances are incredibly poor for such a demonstration. I heard some of Bush's press conference this morning and he was harping about a future of peace and democracy in Iraq. Sounds great. Those are simply words and probably ones he will never see realized in his presidency. If you're still protesting the war, fine. It's just strikes me as stupid and petulant to protest the outcome of a fair election.
Anyway, I suppose the point of all this is that I'll be happy regressing back to casual, yet informed observer rather than the live and die with every blunder of this administration type. It's no way to live. I've done that routine with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and it's just not worth the anguish. It's depressing. It shouldn't be ignored, but you can't let it consume you whole. Soon, you find yourself maintaining your core beliefs while detatching from your emotions. I suppose that's an evolutionary process because no one would be able to cope with that much worry and anxiety on a daily basis and be mentally healthy. So, as I've done with so many other things in my life, it's time to emotionally detatch.
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