Stoical

[poliphilo]

I did think of staying up to see the results come in. I'm glad I didn't. It's turned 9 o'clock and we still don't have a result.

But it looks like four more years of Bush.

I'm not going to make a fuss. I'm going to be stoical about this. If Ohio goes for Bush (as looks likely) it'll be a convincing victory. Demos will have spoken.

Look, I'm a European; I don't get Bush at all. Apart from a certain folksiness and ease around people, I don't see anything about him that would make me want to vote for him. I think he's unintelligent. I think he's a front man for the corporations. And I think his foreign policy is wrong in every particular.

Alexander the Great and his gang come clattering up the street. Horsehair plumes and flashing bronze. And they come across Diogenes sitting in his barrel. The greatest living general meets the greatest living philosopher. It's the ancient Greek equivalent of a photo-op.

So Alexander says to Diogenes, "Anything you want I'll give it you. All you have to do is name it."

And Diogenes says, "OK. Please get out of my light."

Comments

[aftertorless.livejournal.com]

I think he's a front man for the corporations. And I think his foreign policy is wrong in every particular.

And that, my friend, is why I am going to sleep enraged this evening.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I am suppressing my rage. Which is, of course, the English way and probably bad for my health. Gaaah!

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I also think there's fairly convincing evidence that he's an inveterate liar. And I'm not just saying that because I can't stand the guy, and I'm not just meaning the was the case for the attack on Iraq was presented. I've been reading Graydon Carter's What We've Lost in the run up, and it convinced me by a comfortable margin that this is a very dangerous man, for the US and the world.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think he and his gang are so convinced of their righteousness that lying is neither here nor there. Why baulk at an untruth when you're doing God's work?

My hope is that the neo-con project will shake itself to pieces over the next four years- with the consequence that its next standard-bearer will be unelectable.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I think he and his gang are so convinced of their righteousness that lying is neither here nor there. Why baulk at an untruth when you're doing God's work?

That's the core of it. If God's on your side, you can do anything you like.

Know what brings me a little bit of solace? I keep going back to your statement that we are in a transitional time; and that, taking the long view, there is hope someday for a world government.

There will be someone else in four years who will keep us Americans happy and sanctimonious in the New Dark Ages, and it won't matter if it's a Bush. We'll find somebody just like him.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think Bush could have been beaten this time if the democrats had fielded a better candidate. John Kerry never established himself as anything more than the anti-Bush. If he'd forged a real connection with the electorate then things would have been different.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

The Congress is dominated by Republicans. The Supreme Court will be losing probably three Justices in the next year or so, and Bush has already promised to replace them with conservatives.

We have lost our system of checks and balances. We have, I think, lost our Republic.

I wonder when we'll lose free speech?

I talked with my sister this morning, and she was near tears. She said: "What's the solution? Concede the morality issue? Let the right have its way on abortion, stem cells, and gay marriage so they no longer have any issues to mobilize their base with? Thinking people are in the minority in this country--what choice do we have? Most voters are too
busy watching the Scott Peterson trial on Fox News to actually become informed, so how does the Democratic Party tack to the right or undermine the right's base?

"I am heartsick this morning."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Who is Scott Peterson?

I don't know how to answer your fears. I'm afraid they're justified. The weighting of the Supreme Court towards the right would be a disaster.

I've got Churchill booming in my ears- that speech about having nothing to promise but "blood, sweat, toil and tears."

No. We mustn't concede the moral issues to the right. The right is backward-looking. The right is unimaginative. The right is stupid. In the long term it will be defeated. I have to believe this.

And the immediate task for us Brits is to get rid of Tony Blair and deprive Bush of his number one European lapdog/ally.

Four More Years??

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Not for me. I'm done. I am determined to move out of this hellhole as soon as possible. I'm not sure how yet, but I'm going to set a date for the end of next year to be out of here. I don't know where I'm going or what I'll be doing, but I have not wanted to live in this country for longer than I can remember, and now that feeling is even stronger than ever.

Re: Four More Years??

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

America will come through this bad patch, as it has come though bad patches before. I love America and Americans- it's just this present, goddamn government I can't stand.

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

I think he's unintelligent. I think he's a front man for the corporations. And I think his foreign policy is wrong in every particular.

Exactly how I feel. I voted in my first presidential election yesterday, and I voted for Kerry. I don't so much love Kerry, as I hate Bush. Mostly for rights issues; I don't want there to be a ban on gay marriage, and I don't want a woman's right to choose to be thrown out the window either. I don't see Bush as having any concern for the rights of women, gays, minorities or those who aren't Christian...And, I'm Jewish. Most, if not all of the born-again Christians seem to want Bush, but they also seem to think that members of my faith are going to hell unless they convert :\

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

One of the scariest things about Bush is that he's breaking down the barriers between Church and State that the Founding Fathers tried so hard to cement in place.

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

Very true. My father is always worried that they're going to try to put prayer back into public schools.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I grew up with that. Prayer is mandatory in British schools. I can't think why. Actually, looking on the bright side, making religion compulsory is a good way of turning people against it.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

One of the scariest things about Bush is that he's breaking down the barriers between Church and State that the Founding Fathers tried so hard to cement in place. I drove by a local church this afternoon, and they had a sign out front: Vote with God A Baptist Church in Knoxville had on their sign: Because of Bible teachings this church is voting for Bush -- I heard this morning that when Kerry told everyone this was a very important election, the Evangelicals and Fundamentalists took him seriously, and went out and voted--for Bush.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A BBC reporter was saying that she thought it was his "Biblical" stance on social issues that had won Bush the election.

How odd to think of God casting a vote.

And what a queer idea of God they must have to form that thought.

Their God is such a nosey-parker, such a fuss-pot, such an incorribible meddler in other people's business.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Their God is such a nosey-parker, such a fuss-pot, such an incorribible meddler in other people's business.


I remember how the fundamentalists tried to get Pat Robertson of the 700 Club (God cable show) elected. I guess they are euphoric and smug today: God has heard their prayers. Now they can REALLY get their issues shoved down our throats: after all, God wants it. It's--like a miracle!

Talk was circulating this morning that, if the endtimes were indeed coming now that Bush has been elected, at least the annoying fundamentalists would leave with the Rapture and leave the rest of us (damned) Liberals alone.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Rapture is such a silly idea.

I saw a film about it once. There were all these people wandering around with 666 tattooed on their wrists.

I remember the title of a book an English theologian published back in the 60s or 70s. "Your God is Too Small."

Not only too small, but too silly.

[queen-in-autumn.livejournal.com]

I don't have much to add to what's already been said. This is another American who is appalled by the fact that so many of my fellow-citizens support someone who has lied to us, who blatantly favors his fellow plutocrats, who is not very intelligent, who is arrogant, and -- most of all -- who continues to insist that the bloody debacle in Iraq is somehow good for our country -- or anyone.

I think he wins because he exploits fear. Somehow the fact that our soldiers are "over there" holding guns and sheddig blood translates into some peoples' minds that we are safer here. (Never mind the fact that the guy behind 9/11 is still at large.) Then there is the fear of homosexuals and the whole "defense of marriage" campaign. People listen to Bush's rhetoric and choose to believe that he will protect them from the bogeymen.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I also think that people out there in the heartland are ill-informed. They don't get to see or read anything but rightist propaganda. They haven't an inkling of how badly things are going in Iraq (and Afghanistan) or how hostile the rest of the world is to Bush and his policies.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i too am heartsick this morning. i am disappointed in, frustrated with, and ashamed of my country. somehow the democratic party, which better serves the interests of the majority of americans, is feared and distrusted by the very people it seeks to protect. i don't know how this can possibly be fixed. i am frustrated with kerry for lacking the backbone, when labelled a "massachusetts liberal" to stand up and say "what's so terrible about being a liberal? what's so terrible about being from massachusetts?" and to confront and challenge the labels put upon him with truth: that massachusetts has one of the lowest tax rates in the country, the lowest divorce rate, one of the lowest rates of teen births, in addition to world-renowned hospitals and schools. there are so many things that kerry did not say that he should have-- when bush said kerry was going to make people rely on the government for their healthcare, kerry should have reminded him that bush and every congressman is on a government healthcare plan, and that aren't the american people (who pay for the politician's health care through taxes) deserving of the same level of service? there are so many more examples of this. so i am frustrated with the close-mindedness of americans, the fearmongering and lies of the republicans, and the weakness of the democrats. as someone one said, "give the people a choice between a republican and a democrat who acts like a republican, and they will choose the republican every time". i thought the democrats had learned that lesson in 2000.

god, it makes me sick. i want to cry.

the only bright side i can possibly see in this is that our country will be pushed so far into debt, unemployment, poverty, and war that we will learn the error of our ways. that is, if we can survive until the next election-- seeing as nukes are proliferating and nothing's really been done about the terrorists. of course, even if we do, the supreme court will be lopsidedly hardline conservative for the next forty or so years, so i guess we can kiss roe v wade and gay rights good bye.

either that, or all the states north and east of pennsylvania should secede and form our own country, since we're evidently the only ones (except for the west coast) with any sense.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's got to be something wrong about a system that couldn't produce a better candidate than Kerry.

I haven't come across a single person, a single journalist, who has expressed enthusiasm for Kerry in his own right. It's always been a case of "well, he'll do." By contrast the Republican faithful have a real passion for Bush.

I can't help noting that Kerry is a very, very rich man- even richer, according to one article I read, than Bush. How is it that you have to be a millionaire before you can even consider running for president?

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

kerry is not richer than bush. the money is all his wife's. before they married, he was one of the poorest senators (not that senators are poor). but yes, there's something wrong that you have to be rich to run for president.

also, kerry's been my senator for my whole life, and i believe he is a good person and could be a great president. however, not many people are as familiar with him as i am.

the system does its best to drag down the best candidates in the primaries, and the media accentuates that... think of the dean scream.