Moving On

My readers rarely use my Comments link to comment on my blog, instead communicating their thoughts via email. I am touched by the number of people who have emailed since Tuesday to make sure I was not en route to Washington DC with a rocket launcher tucked under my arm.

Naturally, I have much to say, especially after having been involuntarily muted by sadness since early yesterday. Sadly, the words simply don't exist to express my feelings on the matter (rather unfortunate, considering I'm a writer). Apart from the disappointment rampant among Americans (or at least half of us), upon hearing the news Wednesday morning, I was faced with emotions I did not know existed.

In many ways, my core beliefs and faith in humanity have been shattered. My rather childlike way of looking at the world in terms of "good people are rewarded/bad people are punished" was blown to pieces. My intrinsic belief in karma and its relationship to people and their actions--right out the fucking window. What do you do when your deep-seated beliefs are abruptly eradicated?

I have accepted the fact Bush is our president for another four years. I am too exhausted to entertain the notion that he may have won illegally. If his opponent was willing to concede, who am I to question it? Kerry's concession did, however, drive home the sad fact that he just was not the right candidate at this point in time. The one thing providing me an iota of peace with this whole matter is that Bush and company are now responsible for their own mess. No passing the buck to the Kerry administration, who no doubt would have been slammed mercilessly from all sides with every setback in Iraq and at home. I can't help thinking Kerry must be feeling some measure of relief in that respect. Bush must now roll up his sleeves and clean up his own shit, Cheney holding the shovel when he gets tired, Rumsfeld pouring the water to wash blood from all of their hands, Ashcroft sweeping up the ashes of personal freedoms incinerated by the Patriot Act.

I have accepted the fact that Kerry was defeated. But the Bush-bashing is over for now. Not to say that I support him wholeheartedly in his dangerously right-wing agenda. I cannot possibly support a narrow-minded ideology that stomps on people's rights as human beings just because they don't subscribe to your religious beliefs or share your sexual orientation or agree with your policies. I will be the first to turn activist if they dare attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade or pass an amendment banning same-sex couples from the right to which every American is Constitutionally entitled. But my day-to-day life will not change in any measurable way depending on who is or is not in office.

I don't see this country uniting in their personal or political ideologies; it's not possible. What I would like to see is an honest, passionate movement to change the way democracy is carried out. We desperately need alternatives to the blue and red--a swell in Green and Independent party support, an increase in the number of viable options on our next presidential ballot. Maybe that could be the early 21st century version of the Civil Rights movement? The question for all of us aching to redirect our "Vote Kerry" energy elsewhere is, "How can we make the U.S. a multi-party nation before it becomes a one-party nation?"

Posted by ayelet at November 4, 2004 01:32 PM