Just some thoughts from online

I thought I would just post a few things I came across online post election. Hope you like.

Not to get all Lady Bracknell on your Yankee asses but to choose G.W. Bush once is a tragedy; to choose him twice is utter carelessness. Bush and the rest of the junta have moved America forward for sure, but maybe not in the way you Americans had hoped. America is finally all grown up.

America has often been seen as a bit of an adolescent by the rest of the world. Awkward and prone to making silly mistakes, America seemed to make a mess of a lot of things but did so with such enthusiasm and hope that the world gave America a pass.

America embodied everything good about the young. A fervent belief in potential and what could be; idealism and a sense of forward purpose. America had that "can do" attitude, doing things because they were hard, because they were exciting, because they were for the future -- stuff that the rest of the world could only wish they had the balls to do.

Sure, there was a dark underbelly and everything was not perfect, but for the most part America was the America of Elvis, of Utah beach, of "On the Road," of the Jetsons, Mickey Mantle and Ford Thunderbirds.

But America has aged over the last four years. And it ain't pretty. America is now the beer-bellied ass who tells everyone else how to run their lives, kicks the cat and makes jokes about his spouse's butt in front of the family. America is the big guy on the block whom everyone tries to duck away from but can't because he's out there every day loudly telling everyone what he's going to do to so and so, and if anyone has a problem with that then they are gay. America is now a middle-aged oaf. America is now the America of Ashlee Simpson, porn, Abu Ghraib, NFL Sundays and gas-guzzling SUVs.

Yes, America is an adult now. Welcome to the neighborhood.

-------

You can say all you want about the Republican fear machine -- which is not to say that it isn't a powerful force -- but you have to hold everyone accountable for their own actions. And if the country can't see the problems with Bush now, can they ever? There is a much larger, and yet simpler problem here than you seem willing to admit: the majority of people in the United States support what Bush stands for. They oppose gay marriage, they believe Saddam had a hand in Sept. 11, and they believe that we can and must, indeed, that we have a right to eradicate all our perceived international threats. You saw it with your own eyes.

--------

First, as a supporter of Dubya, I'm not gloating. The election is over, Bush has a mandate, "president-elect" is passé, and so forth. The Dems have to go back to square one, and think about how they will become a viable party again, because a strong opposition is essential to a healthy democracy.

-------

An electoral haiku:
Gullible Red States
You know not what you have done
Too bad for the rest

--------

Many of my liberal friends are seriously discussing leaving the country, for Canada or Europe or New Zealand. It is, of course, tempting. How could we not feel a violent disillusionment and disconnect when we discovered this morning that the majority of voters in the country have a worldview we cannot comprehend? That hate and fear and ignorance can run a successful presidental campaign; that people will respond to these things with eager glee?

And if I wasn't tempted before leaving the house, one look at my car with its Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker -- the only car with such a sticker in the lot -- and how overnight it suddenly acquired a political statement consisting of eggs and shaving cream -- the only car in the lot so decorated -- certainly pushed me in that direction. I imagine the decorators (or their parents) voted on "moral values," as so many Bush supporters did.

--------

George W. Bush is the President, for better or worse. I am not blue; my friend is not red. There was no violence in the streets this morning and no killings in response to the results. We are Americans and this is the way our system works. So be it.

Just think. We get to go through this all again in 4 years. 4 looooooong years.