Two weeks post election and it's still hard to believe. Fellow government workers, scientists and administrators alike, find it hard to believe. Life will go on though.
I was really surprised though by the fact that the effort to register new voters (especially those with cell phones instead of land lines, and who should be underrepresented in public opinion polls), did not have a bigger impact on the outcome (see this post).
I'll let Cringely apologize and say why. See "Bob Don't Know Diddy".
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Election hangover
I'm still a little hung over from the election--it's a feeling of vague depression. But there it is. The Republican party managed to not only win the electoral college vote but also gain an overall majority of the popular vote.
Of course, they did it by dividing the country, or at least more so than it was. Blue in the West, North Central and North East. Red in the Middle and South, including the swing states of Ohio and Florida. Just enough for the new Republican mandate. Division over faith and morality.
The definition of the Republcan, Evangelical Morality is simple. No on personal choice (abortion rights), no on gay marriage or even civil unions. This new Morality does not extend to lying to the American public about WMD in Iraq in order to finish Daddy's war, nor does it extend to deals with the Saudis. It doesn't even extend to the extension of large tax breaks to the very rich and big corporations at the expense of the lower and middle class, the tax breaks that are driving up the nation's deficit to record levels.
When will the Republican's biggest constituency not counting Big Business, that is white, less educated males in the lower to middle income tax bracket, wake up to the fact that they are not better off in this climate? Good jobs are being outsourced out of the country in the quest to increase profits, replaced by minimum wage service jobs (do you want to supersize those fries?). Maybe they won't and will remain satisfied with the extra $200 bucks here and there and the idea that Big Government is being reduced (it's not, not by a long shot).
Maybe this is the way for quite some time to come. Maybe it's time to see if these divisions can be "healed." I find it hard to beliveve that the period of healing after this bitter election will last one day after the start of the next Congressional session.
After all, they have a mandate.
Of course, they did it by dividing the country, or at least more so than it was. Blue in the West, North Central and North East. Red in the Middle and South, including the swing states of Ohio and Florida. Just enough for the new Republican mandate. Division over faith and morality.
The definition of the Republcan, Evangelical Morality is simple. No on personal choice (abortion rights), no on gay marriage or even civil unions. This new Morality does not extend to lying to the American public about WMD in Iraq in order to finish Daddy's war, nor does it extend to deals with the Saudis. It doesn't even extend to the extension of large tax breaks to the very rich and big corporations at the expense of the lower and middle class, the tax breaks that are driving up the nation's deficit to record levels.
When will the Republican's biggest constituency not counting Big Business, that is white, less educated males in the lower to middle income tax bracket, wake up to the fact that they are not better off in this climate? Good jobs are being outsourced out of the country in the quest to increase profits, replaced by minimum wage service jobs (do you want to supersize those fries?). Maybe they won't and will remain satisfied with the extra $200 bucks here and there and the idea that Big Government is being reduced (it's not, not by a long shot).
Maybe this is the way for quite some time to come. Maybe it's time to see if these divisions can be "healed." I find it hard to beliveve that the period of healing after this bitter election will last one day after the start of the next Congressional session.
After all, they have a mandate.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
This might be it....
It's really hard to believe but it looks like President Bush has been reelected.
We can only hope saner heads will prevail at all levels of government to pull us out of the morass we're in economically, politically, and foreign-policy wise.
It might be a very long four more years.
We can only hope saner heads will prevail at all levels of government to pull us out of the morass we're in economically, politically, and foreign-policy wise.
It might be a very long four more years.
Election Day
This is it. The day that all of the advertisements have ended. The endless sound and video clips on the news that have assailed the senses have been completed.
It's also the day that we will likewise be assaulted with endless predictions, prognostications, and projections on the final outcome. Will it be truly known today who our next president will be? Or will it drag on like the 2000 election?
Four years ago at this time I was in Japan on a three week intergovernmental science exchange and tour, leaving just a couple of days before the election. We were in areas where news programs were unavailable in English for the large part. Since most of us also did not have ready access to the internet at that time, we relied on the occasional fax of CNN web pages that some of us received and would pass it around. It was a bit surreal. At the time we were all sure the outcome would be decided prio to our return in late November. Of course we all know how even that turned out to be a false hope.
Today, the direction of our country over the next four years, or even the over the next decade, will be decided. I truly fear that another win by the Bush administration will further degrade our economy (the deficit) and result in more terrorism not less. I fear that the current adminstration's policies will further degrade our environment through loosening of many of the barricades to exploitation that were in place prior to 2001. I fear that our deficit will continue to grow as more tax cuts are given to wealthy individuals and corporations, further burdening generations to come. I fear that corporations will continue their policies of outsourcing manufacturing, forcing many Americans to fill only service jobs at lower wages (although I guess companies like WalMart will benefit from this). I fear that there will be a continuation of the erosion of science through policies that have more basis in religious ferver than scientifically validated facts.
Simply put, this President has been a disaster but the Right doesn't want to admit it. He's too good for the big pockets that support him. But come on, he's not smart enough to be the President of the United States. He's a puppet. He can only put an intelligent sentence together if it's written down for him (OK, he's a good reader). I don't see how anyone who has seen Fahrenheit 9/11 can doubt this. It's time for GWB to go back to running oil companies into the ground. Of course, if he loses, how many "friends" will he have left? By then the family and all their supporters (the ones with both hands out) will focus on Jeb, the next annointed one.
Michael Moore's "Final Words" is a good read, particularly his plea to "To Decent Conservatives and Recovering Republicans." Of course, most of these folks won't read this, but maybe it will only take a small percentage to really tip the balance.
Will the next President be able to lessen the polarization in the population we have today? It will be very difficult to bring this country together by either candidate, but I feel the best chance lies with Kerry. He is intelligent, well spoken, thoughful, and empathetic. He doesn't smirk when discussing the deaths of our brave servicemen and women in Iraq. He has real plans and not the repeated "we will win the war on terror" without a clue as to how. He will not pander to our greatest fears. He will not lead by invoking fear.
Now we sit back and wait.
It's also the day that we will likewise be assaulted with endless predictions, prognostications, and projections on the final outcome. Will it be truly known today who our next president will be? Or will it drag on like the 2000 election?
Four years ago at this time I was in Japan on a three week intergovernmental science exchange and tour, leaving just a couple of days before the election. We were in areas where news programs were unavailable in English for the large part. Since most of us also did not have ready access to the internet at that time, we relied on the occasional fax of CNN web pages that some of us received and would pass it around. It was a bit surreal. At the time we were all sure the outcome would be decided prio to our return in late November. Of course we all know how even that turned out to be a false hope.
Today, the direction of our country over the next four years, or even the over the next decade, will be decided. I truly fear that another win by the Bush administration will further degrade our economy (the deficit) and result in more terrorism not less. I fear that the current adminstration's policies will further degrade our environment through loosening of many of the barricades to exploitation that were in place prior to 2001. I fear that our deficit will continue to grow as more tax cuts are given to wealthy individuals and corporations, further burdening generations to come. I fear that corporations will continue their policies of outsourcing manufacturing, forcing many Americans to fill only service jobs at lower wages (although I guess companies like WalMart will benefit from this). I fear that there will be a continuation of the erosion of science through policies that have more basis in religious ferver than scientifically validated facts.
Simply put, this President has been a disaster but the Right doesn't want to admit it. He's too good for the big pockets that support him. But come on, he's not smart enough to be the President of the United States. He's a puppet. He can only put an intelligent sentence together if it's written down for him (OK, he's a good reader). I don't see how anyone who has seen Fahrenheit 9/11 can doubt this. It's time for GWB to go back to running oil companies into the ground. Of course, if he loses, how many "friends" will he have left? By then the family and all their supporters (the ones with both hands out) will focus on Jeb, the next annointed one.
Michael Moore's "Final Words" is a good read, particularly his plea to "To Decent Conservatives and Recovering Republicans." Of course, most of these folks won't read this, but maybe it will only take a small percentage to really tip the balance.
Will the next President be able to lessen the polarization in the population we have today? It will be very difficult to bring this country together by either candidate, but I feel the best chance lies with Kerry. He is intelligent, well spoken, thoughful, and empathetic. He doesn't smirk when discussing the deaths of our brave servicemen and women in Iraq. He has real plans and not the repeated "we will win the war on terror" without a clue as to how. He will not pander to our greatest fears. He will not lead by invoking fear.
Now we sit back and wait.
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