obligatory election post

[cellio]

I'm disappointed by Bush's win, but I don't think it's the end of the world just yet. I'm more frightened by the strangle-hold that the Republican party now has on the federal government. I don't want any party to control all three branches. With a Republican congress, a Republican white house, and several Supremes likely being appointed during the next term, this is a far cry from the balance of power that was designed into the system. Supremes are for a long, long time, compared to presidents. We need to work hard in the mid-term elections, and we need to make sure our so-called representatives hear from us, frequently and numerously.

I'm not about to flee the country like some people are discussing; that just makes things worse for those left behind. And it lets the Bush camp win. While it's tempting to say to the south and heartland "you made this mess; you deserve the results", I'm not ready to let them destroy my country without opposition. The 51% don't have more rights to be here, and to be heard, than the 49%.

By the way, I've heard people saying that the Democrats didn't do enough to get the vote out. I don't know about elsewhere, but I have been bombarded with phone calls, flyers on my car, and flyers stuck in my front door reminding me to vote, and almost all of them have been identifiably from Democrats or affiliated organizations. A couple were anonymous. No obvious Bushites (though I did get some calls supporting the Republican senate candidate). Just a data point.

Comments

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

From what I've been able to find so far, the Democrats were very successful at getting the vote out, and unusually successful at getting younger voters out compared to the average election. What wasn't expected was that the Republicans were very successful at GOTV as well, so the percentages didn't change the way folks expected. Plus, some of the demographics (Hispanics are the one I've been seeing most often) didn't break nearly as much toward the Democrats as had been planned.

Meh. People are going to be wonking and second-guessing the details of this election for a while; I've already heard rumors of "Hilary's people accusing Edwards of posturing with his 'continue to fight for you' speech from this morning in a run-up to the next primary," as well as a lot of folks (including an anonymous contributor to an elevator graffiti whiteboard at work) calling for Dean to take over running the DNC.

I'm not as convinced that's the most productive focus to take, but people deal with trauma in their own ways and this does beat the "watching the curtain of a dark national night sweep across America over the course of the evening, as it was driven home that not only weren't we winning, but we'd never win anything again" school of response.

[nsingman.livejournal.com]

The Democrats did a fine job turning out the vote. However, the Republicans capitalized on a few critical issues, including gay marriage amendments. President Bush, when expressing his gratitude to his campaign team, should probably offer thanks to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which made gay marriage a national issue.

The Bush/Cheney ticket was eminently beatable (not an unpleasant prospect to this libertarian), but not by a dour hard left northeast liberal coupled with an ambulance chaser (a worse prospect).

The South

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

Not everyone in the south contributed to making the mess. I did my part to make a change. :-) And I plan to continue living in the south. I happen to like living near the Appalachians. I do admit to be more afraid of openly expressing my opinions than I have ever been in 40 years (less the 3 in New York state) of living in the North and South Carolina. I'll continue to vote though.

[lyev.livejournal.com]

No obvious Bushites

Somehow, the pronounciation of that phase is amusing ;-) The thing that did bother me about the election was the number of states that passed a gay-marraige ban (and all apparently by a wider margin than the Presidential vote, which implies some Kerry supporters voted in favor of a ban). On one hand, a democracy involves people being allowed to vote for candidates or laws that I disagree with (or have them voted out next time around). But I'm going to be following this topic closely.

[alice-curiouser.livejournal.com]

Are you a register democrat? Because I'm a register republican, and I got stuff to urge me to get out and vote, but for rebublicans... you know, before the evil democrats force me to have an abortion and marry gay people.