03
Nov
Who and What to Blame
It was the Ground War. Ir was the Air War. It was the youth vote. It was the ‘Yalla’ vote. It was the hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters. It was the millions of newly registered voters.
It was George Soros. It was the felons’ list. It was voter suppression. It was voter fraud. It was the mystery bulge, and the wired President. It was the swing states. It was the battleground states. It was the computer voting machines.
It was the media. It was the blogosphere. It was Sinclair Broadcasting. It was Dan RatherBiased. It was fair and balanced. It was Sun Myung Moon, it was Jon Stewart as a butt boy. It was Tucker Carlson as a dick.
It was ballot access. It was ballot security. It was election law experts.
It was the Bush twins. It was Vanessa and Alexandra. It was Teresa.
It was the economy, stupid. It was Iraq. It was staying on message. It was terror. It was terror. It was terror.
But most of all it was Ralph Nader.
Oops–that was four years ago.
Athough truly, it seems like just last night.
But if it wasn’t Nader, what IS the explanation for the Democrats going down, down, down this year?
After all, it’s a Republican Senate. It’s a Republican House. It’s s a Republican Supreme Court — poised to become vastly more so.
But if the Democrats can’t blame Nader, as they have in increasingly vociferous terms for the past eight years — who can they blame?
Maybe they should start with themselves.
Maybe running as the Democrat wing of the Republican party isn’t such a good idea after all. Maybe turning the convention into a four day meeting of Securocrats was a bad idea. Maybe turning the conversation into a nine month gabfest on strength and security, war and terror, terror and terror, only reminded people that they vote for Republicans in times of fear.
Maybe selling out to buy in was wrong. Maybe raising hundreds of millions from corporations means losing your soul.
Maybe being an antiwar hero who runs as a war hero was wrong. Maybe Howard Dean was right.
Maybe it’s time for the democratic wing of the Democrat party. Maybe there really IS a democratic wing of the Democrat party.
Maybe Kerry should have announced a plan to end the war. (After all, he seemed to have a plan for nearly everything else!)
Maybe it was the weapons of mass destruction. Maybe it was the weapons of mass deception.
Or maybe — just maybe — it was the Democrats.
Maybe it was the most inept press and communications staff and strategy seen in along time. Maybe it was the press secretary hanging up on the press, and the communications operation functioning worse than the department of Motor Vehicles.
Or maybe–just maybe — it was the Democrats.
Maybe it was their platform. Maybe it was their vision.maybe it was their values., Maybe it as their lack of them. Maybe it was the way they presented things.
Or maybe this is just a ‘red’ country. Electoral votes aside, three million more Americans just voted to reelect George Bush.
Maybe the Democrats need to revamp.
Maybe the Democrats need to disband.
Just do me one favor — don’t blame me! this time I didn’t vote for Nader. At the last minute,faced with Ralph on the nutty-culti-Lenora-Fulani Independence Party ticket, I couldn’t pull the lever for the only person running with a plan to get the troops out now of the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Then again, I couldn’t face pulling that lever for the Democrats either.
Solution? Simple…vote for Kerry on the third party, not nutty Working Families line.
So don’t blame me this time.
I know what– just go ahead and blame Nader again.
After all — it’s easier than looking in a mirror.
It was two issues: gay marriage and abortion.
November 3rd, 2004 at 2:49 pmYou’re right, of course, we do need to look at ourselves and our seeming inability to hit back when the competition punches us in the chest.
November 3rd, 2004 at 4:15 pmLocal Democratic campaign headquarters here in Milwaukee seemed so inept at times we felt as though it must some “other” infiltrating because how could the office be run by someone so disorganized.
When Osama Bin Laden appeared on the TV, so calm and apparently rational, all I could think of was, why is he still alive and well and why was W so “unconcerned” about him?
We should have hammered that fact to the nation.
I don’t understand the Democrats torpidity when threatened and I think we really fall down when it comes to simplifying issues with plain language. For instance the pro-life issue. Well,who do you know who is pro-death?
Why can’t we find new language to fight that battle. Democrats are supposed to be smart!
We need a firebrand like Howard Dean, whose feisty nature would have taken us down a new road. I like Sen. Kerry very much but the fire in the belly was there with Dean.
Now I feel as though we risk becoming doormats for Republicans who clearly do not believe in Democracy but who do fight hard and successfully for power and control of every facet of our lives. They are Big Brother.
Democrats Rise and Organize!
We should not be looking for someone or something to blame. We must simply acknowledge that the right has been smarter, better at getting their message across, and better at understanding who they are and where their support comes from. Now it is time to begin a long period of reflection on who we are and what we want collectively. We were trounced in this election and I predict that unless we change our ways (or Bush takes us head-on into some cataclysm) we are facing an entire generation of far right political hegemony in this country. We have the numbers and we certainly have the talent–we have not used it very well. Buck up! The next four years will be very tough. We need to spend our time building for the long-term future of this country and less time nursing our wounds.
November 3rd, 2004 at 4:36 pmAs long as we side with losing issues, we’re going to lose elections.
Sorry to be so negative about this, but I don’t think we “need to look at ourselves”. This is just our normal liberal reaction and this self instrospection has gotten us nowhere.
The country is strongly trending to fascism wrapped up pretty in the American flag, Christian fundamentalism, and the consumer society.
I think with this election, American has voted and spoken loudly. If we want to win in the future, we need to listen to America and think before we do something as stupid as ratchet up the debate about gay marriage in an election season.
We lost this election, not on November 2nd, but this past spring when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom allowed same-sex marriages. Liberal strongholds like Portland, Oregon followed along. This was the most absolute, worst time ever for such a stand to be made. This issue alone activated the evangelical fundamentalist sleeper voters to defeat gay marriage and as a consequence John Kerry. Not only that, but bans on same-sex marriage got passed every state it was on the ballot November 2, even blue states like Oregon. Just think of the impact it had in red states.
The move to put gay marraige on the national agenda in an election year was stupid and it cost us the presidency and probably America as we’ve known it since FDR.
November 3rd, 2004 at 4:49 pmYou are quite right of course. Putting hot-button issues in front of voters at election time is a very bad tactic. However I would want to argue that whatever tactics we choose; if divorced from an overall sense of what our strategy should be we cannot succeed in the long run. I don’t think that bad tactics alone lost the election. Strategic thinking involves gaining an appreciation of the entire environment in which you are operating–hence it is the by-product of collective observation and reflection. Developing a complex multi-pronged strategy to attack the left is what the right has done very well. It is certain this has been incubated and refined in their think tanks for decades. Even the term “liberal” has become a term of derision. So now “liberals” call themselves “progressives” It is only a matter of time before “progressives” will be dodging the balls of mud slung their way too. One person (be s/he liberal, conservative or other) cannot do this alone.
November 3rd, 2004 at 5:21 pmWhat can one say? Bush/Cheney for another 4 (long) years. The worst part is that Congress is now even more Republican (and energized) than in 2000. And, wait, do I hear the heavy gasping of our current Chief Justice? Don’t forget GW’s “vow” that the next Supreme Court Chief Justice would be Clarence Thomas. Yikes! People don’t realize that the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court is the “gatekeeper” of the cases that the Court does or does not hear. He is not “an equal amongst equals”, he is The Captain of the ship.
November 3rd, 2004 at 7:40 pmSo, Bush gets to put Mr. T (who’s Bush’s intellectual equivalent - and who, one should never, ever forget, was chosen by GW’s Daddy) into the TOP SPOT and also gets to pick a “strict constructionist”. Yeah, right, so long as he strictly constructs the Constitution in the image of the Almighty Christian Fundamentalists. So, tell me again, how do the Democrats ever win again? By energizing their “Base”. What base is that? There is no Democratic base in America anymore. There’s just Fundamentalism and Corporations. And to be honest, I wouldn’t want anything to do with either one of them. That’s why I’m a Democrat.
Oddly, I find I’m not saddened or too afraid - in fact, I’m quite at peace.
Bush and his fascistic minions wanted me to choose between home-grown fascism and this one guy….Osama bin Laden, isn’t it? They wanted me to choose fear, and I choose hope. Fear always manages to feed on itself, and I don’t want to be around for THAT carnage! God knows there’s enough of that in Iraq, the Middle East, and anywhere else this country has set up client states.
I have precious little use for their Jesus, too….The Jesus I was raised to believe wouldn’t commit back-handed genocide for profit. Besides, I’m a working stiff, doubt if any of that blood money would come my way.
You were SO right, Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean! Thanks for trying to help the Democrats find their soul. I think I found some part of the Democratic soul….after all, I’m writing this letter, aren’t I?
Time to turn off the t.v. sets, boys and girls.
November 3rd, 2004 at 8:11 pmWe all know this revolution will not be televised!
I have a great respect for you Mr. O’Conner, but you trying to simplify the issue by some kind of poetic rhetorics! The paradox of American society is not Democtrats or Republicans or who is for war and who against it! In effect,this is the whole mentality of a nation which is the part of this show! The media in US knows the price of the time but not its value…Mr.Bush is the shepherd in deed and most of the Americans deserve to be led by this this so called chosen prophet!
November 4th, 2004 at 6:45 amSo, we organize voters. Record numbers, in fact. We give everything we can spare (and some we can’t) we sweat and bleed and give our souls (and lastly, our vote) and when we’re defeated, dejected, and rejected, at least we can turn to words of comfort from those eloquent leaders with their immortal words of solace… it’s our fault.
Thank you. I wasn’t feeling suicidal enough today.
November 4th, 2004 at 12:44 pmMaybe we should take another look at exit polls. The exit polls out of Florida in the 2000 election were way off - unless you also consider the thousands off votes which were never counted, then those exit polls made sense.
Why were exit polls in the in this election telling us Kerry was a clear winner, but the actual votes turned out just the opposite. There needs to be an investigation into how votes may have been skewed for Bush, or not counted for Kerry. We need to find out if our polling systems are vulnerable to manipulation and prevent it from happening again.
Exit polls used to be a good indicator of how the election was going - except when George W. Bush is running - then the votes and the exit polls don’t match up.
November 4th, 2004 at 5:19 pmIf anything is to blame for the Democrat loss it is simply that more people were for Bush than for Kerry. It underscores the enormous reservoir of ignorance on the part of most of the electorate. Nothing else can explain why the vast majority voted against their own interests. This is certainly nothing new. I witnessed to my great dismay how the overwhelming majority remained devoted to Nixon despite plenty of evidence that he had dangerously undermined our constitution. Only later was the nation forced to concede that and remove him from office. Bush’s legacy will be much worse than Nixon’s.
No Democrat, short of a phenomonon like Bill Clinton, could have beaten Bush. The only hope is that when George Bush continues his reign of terror that some people will come to see the error of their ways and repent. Perhaps too late, however, for my children and grandchildren to avoid bearing the burdons that will likely result from the President’s reckless and mean-spirited policies.
November 5th, 2004 at 3:14 amBrilliantly written. Thank you Rory. I’ve heard again and again that there is a ‘disconnect’ in the Democratic Party - that the top has lost touch with the grass roots. I think Howard Dean might be just the man to run the next campaign.
November 13th, 2004 at 2:39 pmThank you for that! You are right.
November 21st, 2004 at 7:40 pmProgram on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind.
13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa.
None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ”
Favor.
And disfavor.
They point out Africans’ failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy
Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
1. MUCK - perhaps have experienced multiple universal contractions (have seen multiple big bangs), creator of the artificial intelligence humans ignorantly refer to as “god”
2. Perhaps some mid-level alien management
3. Mafia (evil) aliens - runs day-to-day operations here and perhaps elsewhere (”On planets where they approved evil.”)
Terrestrial management:
4. Chinese/egyptians - this may be separated into the eastern and western worlds
5. Romans - they answer to the egyptians
6. Mafia - the real-world interface that constantly turns over generationally so as to reinforce the widely-held notion of mortality
7. Jews, corporation, women, politician - Evidence exisits to suggest mafia management over all these groups.
Survival of the favored.
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy
1986 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Fransisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
They can affect the weather and Hurricane Katrina was accomplished for many reasons and involves many interests, as anything this historical is::
1. Take heat off Sheenhan/Iraq, protecting profitable war machine/private war contracts
2. Gentrification. New Orleans median home price of $84k is among the lowest in major American cities, certainly among desirable cities.
Journal: 10 composition books + 39 megs of text files
September 8th, 2005 at 10:53 am