against all odds

Here's why I'm unhappy about the Bush win.

• The failure of our electorate to maintain checks and balances. History proves that having the same party in control over all aspects of the government is a bad thing, both in our country and in others. There is no one to check the Bush administration in anything they choose to do.


• The likelihood of a further shift of the federal judiciary to the right. Most of the civil rights we enjoy are put in place by critical judges willing to make unpopular decisions to protect our freedoms (for example, see interracial marriage, the exclusionary rule, and the Miranda rule), but the Bush administration has shown its willingness to appoint judges willing to look the other way when the government oversteps its bounds.


• The apparent unwillingness of the electorate to think critically about the policy issues at stake. Every observer from the far-right blogs on down agree the Kerry blew Bush away in all three debates-- the fact that he was still re-elected means that policy differences don't trump a religious based cognitive consistency.


• The further alienation of the rest of the world. We've re-elected a president who is not willing to work with our allies and is interested mainly in making the America-basher's complaint true: we are a neo-colonialist power. We don't care what others think. We are an international bully and don't play well with others.


• The continuing polarization of the country. I get the sense that the people in the Northeast and the West Coast (and to a lesser extent, here in the Midwest and Great Lakes states) have no idea what makes the rest of the country vote for Bush. Seriously, no idea. I have actually heard people suggest succession, in a not-joking fashion. That is not good.


• I hate being wrong, and I was so wrong about this election. I really underestimated the breadth of the Bush electorate, and the degree to which the 'values' message trumps policy, and the willingness to forgive a disastrous war and the willingness to give massive tax cuts to the richest people to the detriment of the middle class. I didn't get it. I still don't.

Check out these maps of a proposed 'blue state'-Canada merger, by the way.

Not terribly productive, but funny.

Above all, I'm disappointed that attacking gay people seems to yield such tangible political results. What have they ever done to you? How is your marriage threatened by homosexual relationships? Why do you care?