Confessions of a political Know-Nothing in the wake of the 2004 elections
November 3rd, 2004 at 10:33 pmI must confess: I know nothing about politics.
That much is clear after I completely misread the outcome of last week’s presidential election, one that I thought for sure was going to end up in a victory for Democratic challenger John F. Kerry.
I knew it would be close, but I thought Kerry had it in the bag. I figured he would win by 2%, 3%, or maybe even 5%, thought maybe he would pull a couple of states that went for Republican George W. Bush in 2000, and had even predicted we would have a clear winner by the day after the election. I believed it would be Kerry, and the country would come to see the wisdom of their choice and revel in our return to normalcy and understanding.
But, apparently, I was wrong.
What was it that led me down this path of error and confusion? If I wanted to, I could blame the candidates for fitting into the preconceived notions I had about them. Blame Bush, perhaps, for getting my hopes up by alternately looking like a confused puppy and an annoyed teen-ager during the debates, and sticking to a set of talking points on the campaign trail that were little more than transparent lies anyone could see through.
Or maybe I could finger Kerry for the crime of acting like his Vietnam War record was going to make a difference, and for making me believe that defending jobs and expanding health care and protecting the environment were winning messages that would resonate with a majority of American voters.
But I can’t really blame the candidates. They only did what they had to do to win. Or, in the end, not win.
Then again, if I were a pundit, the kind of person who was paid to prognosticate about the state of American politics in 2004, I could always blame the media.
And I must admit, the thought is attractive—after all, it was the mainstream media, with all of its analysts and experts and colorful graphics, that led me to believe the polls were wrong because everyone had a cell phone these days and pollsters didn’t know how to get in touch of them. And it was the media who suggested that the youth vote was going to come out in record numbers and vote Democratic, and who brought up the idea that any incumbent who was tied in the week before the election was likely to lose. And so on, and so on.
But I can’t blame the media—not totally. At the end of the day, their real job is to tell the American people what they want to hear and do it entertainingly, so that TV stations can sell commercials and newspapers can sell ad space and everyone’s ratings can go up while their bottom lines get fatter. Not to report objectively on the health of the American polity.
Which means I only have myself to blame. It was me, after all, who wanted to believe that in the face of four years of the most appalling, self-centered, and disingenuous presidential administration since Warren G. Harding and the 1924 Teapot Dome Scandal, the American voting public might, just might, have sobered up enough to realize that the country was going off on the wrong track.
For that, I plead guilty. I really did think that any president that presided over the loss of 1.8 million private sector jobs and responded by giving tax cuts to the wealthy would be looking for a job of his own soon. I thought, mistakenly, that any administration that could turn a $236 billion surplus into a $422 billion deficit in four years would be thrown out on its ear. I believed, wrongly, that anyone who could turn a blind eye to the kind of corporate scandals represented by Enron and WorldCom and all the rest would one day have to face the wrath of angry voters himself.
What’s more, I thought anyone who allowed nine million Americans to lose access to health insurance during his administration would be trounced on Election Day. I held that a government who rejected a worldwide treaty to protect the environment, like Bush did in 2001 with the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, would be rejected at the polls.
In my erroneous delusion, I assumed that if someone violated the civil liberties of an American citizen by locking him up in secret without charging him with a crime, like President Bush’s Justice Dept. did with alleged “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla, he would somehow be held accountable. And that if you rounded up 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps and didn’t find a terrorist among them, people might be worried.
Even worse – and here’s the real kicker – I thought that if the person entrusted with the highest office in the land somehow managed to get the country involved in a war it couldn’t win by invading another country with no justification whatsoever, sacrificed American lives for political ideology and revenge, created hostility and hatred for American ideals around the world, and called anyone who criticized him “unpatriotic”, well, I thought for sure the American people would tell him to go fuck himself.
After all, I was banking on the idea that Americans sickened by the images of American soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib would find some way to express their shock and revulsion over what has happened to their beloved country. And quite frankly, I thought a man who skipped service in the armed forces but managed to smear the record of a war hero – while sending American soldiers off to die – would have to pay in the end.
And I trusted that if the American people saw how their president failed to capture the one man who was responsible for ordering the greatest mass murder on American soil – Osama bin Laden – while still spending $140 billion dollars on killing innocent civilians elsewhere, they would rise up and vote George Bush out of office in a heartbeat.
But I guess I was wrong. Bush won, Kerry lost, and more than half of the country seems perfectly happy with the way things turned out.
See? I told you I don’t know anything about politics.
Mark, it’s great to see you back.
But it’s awful that it has to be under these circumstances.
You and me both, my friend, you and me both.
The worst thing about all this for me is that on Wedensday when my recently turned 9 year old son woke up and asked who won the election, I had to tell him.
But his response took me by surprise. He said “But I made a birthday wish.”
We had been folowing the campaigns together. Even taking a day off school to drive to Madison for a recent rally. He really took it well in the end. I hope there is something left of this country for my son when Bush gets done breaking this last round of promises.
–j
Although I’m Greek and not American I’m disappointed and saddened. On the other hand, 4 more years will reveal all the “qualities” of the reelected administration.
I hope the damage wouldn’t be fatal and irreparable.
The sad thing is that a notable part of the people of your vast country is possessed of religious fanaticism, old-fashioned moral attitudes, conceptions and conservative ideas.
USA of 2004 sometimes reminds me of the old ‘Far-West’! A church, a sheriff, a rich citizen, a bandit, a dusty city, whites killing Indians, whites killing whites, whites seeking for gold, guns and borders of Mexico…
I think in our days magic is lost and earth is falling apart. Maybe is our destiny and we can’t do anything about it. Even if this is truth it’s our duty to fight for a better world.
I find that you article on the ‘freepress.org’ site is doing just that. It’s fighting for a better world. I wish everyone would know about politics as you do.
PS. I’m listening to the Trio Mocoto albums ‘Beleza Beleza Beleza’ and ‘Samba Rock’ and I’m already feeling better, even here at my office desk. I strongly recommend it!
Filia
jkpd
and in the “from outer space” updates……
alan keyes is now blaming the press and the illinois rep party for his loss.
when did the take responsibility for your own bootstraps republican party become the blame the free press party? probably about the same time gw bush couldnt find any mistakes he made in his first term.
fuck em, im angry. 51 percent of the usa is gonna get exactly what they desreve over the next 4 years.
Yup, we’re going to get exactly what we WANT – screw the sensitivites of the greeks, french, brits, etc, etc… AMERICA FIRST!
:p
Hi Mark
A large number of us Canadians watched with the same anticipation for change in the leadership of our neighbors across the border. My circle of friends and colleges are not saddened nor disappointed. Most are however scared shitless that this weasel of a man and his cronies have duped Americans once again to steal the one job that a large part of the world depends on to at the very least, give the perception they are defending freedom.
i voted Republican for the first time in 16 years and here’s why:
Janet Jackson
Justin Timberlake
Michael Moore
Whoopie Goldberg
MTV et all
Partial-birth abortion (and I’m pro-choice)
Planned Parenthood and their secret abortions for 12 year-olds victimized by statutory rapists(and I’m pro-choice)
The religio-phobia of Democrats (and I’m not religious)
Gavin Newsom (and I dont “hate” gay people)
The Mayor of New Paltz, NY (and I dont “hate” gay people)
Kerry’s Senate (non)record
Teresa Heinz Kerry
Being told I hate gay people
Janeane Garofolo of Air America Radio
Mike Malloy of Air America Radio
I could go on.
But I think you get it, thanks.
Mobocracy rules again!
This is similar to a theocracy. It is sad because of the disconnect between truth and popular ideas of what’s cool. Kicking the butts of imaginary terrorists (by bombing innocent families to personburger) is cool. Asking what we did to drive people – not the ones we slaughter, but their survivors – to the extreme insanity of dying to kill us is not cool, even if it could save our lives!
We can’t leave it to anyone else, certainly not bamboozled voters, to choose our leaders for us, and we obviously can’t retire from public debate in the hope that others will argue our case. Such “faith in the system” is exactly what the power greedy want us to have!
Whoever can sway the emotions of the mob most effectively, avoiding confusing those emotions with truth, gets the vote. The sensible have no choice but to learn the techniques of effective argument and put their oar in.
The election was to continue the criminal war in Iraq and perpetuate the agenda of false religions. You know they are false religions because they want to regulate YOUR behavior! Moreover they are clearly false religions because they want to subordinate the instruments of government to propagate their false teachings!
If your blood is starting to rise because of something I’m saying, good. Ask yourself why there is no war on drink drivers – they kill way more Americans than “terrorists”. The great tragedy is that to avenge fewer than 5,000 American deaths by crazy nut-cases, (9/11, Beruit, Cole, etc.) we have deliberately directly and indirectly slaughtered over 100,000 innocent people (mostly in Iraq) just since Mr. Bush and his un-American gang took power. Once the Bushist propaganda machine had control of the Pentagon (bypassing the CIA as a source of intelligence/stupidity) and the media via such agents as Murdoc, the American public, quite unhabituated to actually seeking truth, was in the bag.
The 100,000 plus we’ve killed have uncles, cousins, aunts, parents, progeny, and sympathisers. Doing the math, that could easily total several million new blood enemies.
But in times that try Souls of men and women, we find out who the great Souls are. Signs of them: They tell the truth. They do what they say they will do, and they don’t infringe on the persons or property of others. (Iraq, like Palestine, is the property of the people who live there – not of the people invading these places.) Great Souls never try to force their viewpoint on others, although they may at times present the case for truth with vigor, inviting any and all to consider it.
Obviously the bombers of 9/11 were not “great Souls.” They were suicidal varients of the Bushist type. Bin Ladin is not a Great Soul. If he were a liar and a swindler as well as a mass murderer he would be on the same moral plane as George Bush. Is it any wonder that more people around the world are swayed by bin Ladin fatwas than by George Bush arrogant balony?
geneus: My mother called that “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
There’s an old sniper saying for the benefit of their targets: “Don’t bother running; you’ll only die tired.”
I believe there is some wisdom there for the Democrats to learn from. Right now, every pundit and his sister is saying what the Democrats have to do now after they’ve been spit out by the American people like so much spoiled milk, and most of that advice is how the Democrats can try and be more competitive in the political arena. To me, this is just putting up fresheners to cover up the stench of a rotting corpse. Sure, some measures can keep the Democrats potentially viable for a while longer, but it’s all just delaying the inevitable demise.