What Exactly Happened- Double Dagger

I think myself and probably most of you reading this are in a huge state of depression right now. Obviously, what happened yesterday, given what we wanted to happen, is extremely disappointing, and I'm not just talking about the Senate and House, I half expected that. I just thought that, especially with the early exit polling, combined with the long lines, would mean huge turnout and a Kerry win. I know everyone is disappointed. I am as well. I'm disappointed not in the candidate, I thought Kerry did everything he could, though he made some mistakes. I am disappointed that the youth vote did not turnout in the disproportionate numbers we thought it might, I'm disappointed that turnout itself will not exceed 115 million. If it had gone over that, Kerry probably wins.

I am disappointed for, and in, the country. I think that we had a real opportunity this election to become hopeful again, to choose a fairer and more cooperative path in the world. Instead, we chose fear and intolerance at home and a repudiation of multi-lateralism abroad. Europe and the Middle East have to be shocked at this result. Britain as well. I think they hoped that we would elect the right guy, but we didn't. Hopefully, Bush will try to govern more from the center, but that is a fool's hope. He knows has a larger majority in both houses on Congress, and what he will see as a popular mandate. The Tax cuts for the wealthy will be permanent, as will the shift of the tax burden to the middle class. We may get a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, we may well get a draft, and invasions of Syria, Iran and anywhere else that opposes us. As a nation our willful ignorance of the world will continue. Darfur will only get worse, which we breed more hatred for us in Africa. Barring drastic shifts or unexpectedly brilliant success in Iraq, there will still be chaos there. If I sound pessimistic, its because I am, I'm frustrated that the votes we needed didn't come in, that millions registered and didn't bother to show up. I'm pessimistic about the future of Roe, because with possibly 4 judges leaving the court, 3 of which would be likely backers of Roe (O'Connor and Ginsburg are both not in the best health and Stevens, though healthy, is in his 80's), it would not be surprising to see Republicans use the electoral win to try and overturn it on the bench. Bill Frist used the term "mainstream judges" this morning, and Republicans will try to make that a synonym for destroying the right to choose. I'm pessimistic about losing the promise of stem-cell research, though the initiative in California passed. I'm concerned we will see new laws to discriminate against gays and lesbians across the nation, no matter the stink the Republicans made about Mary Cheney.

Now comes the look at the future. In 2000, we had a very different world and nation, in a lot of ways than we have now. In other ways, it’s the same, bitterly divided nation. Kerry won all but one (maybe two, if Iowa goes to Bush) of Gore's states and picked up New Hampshire. The exit polls showed that Values were the number one deciding factor in Ohio, and were also important in Florida. Its difficult to imagine, barring Americans waking up to find a gay person in each of their households or a sudden and dramatic shift on Abortion, that Democrats will have a hard time winning in 2008 without fielding a candidate who can at least talk about these things. Hillary Clinton, though I love her to death, does not have this ability. She does not possess the ability to communicate with "regular folk" on values. Her husband did. The two men I can think of who do on our side are Evan Bayh of Indiana and Barack Obama. I wouldn't touch John Edwards with a ten-foot pole. He failed to deliver any rural voters, the voters he supposedly was going to get for us, not in droves mind you, but enough to be competitive. Edwards failed this election. Gephardt would have been better, as would Bob Graham. In 2008, Obama will still be just a pup, though he may be a possibility as a Vice-President, Bayh is the man I think should be the standard bearer. He's centrist enough to appeal to Red States, and while we might prefer someone a little closer to our liberal hearts, the rest of us will have to do our best to swallow the pill the DLC will feed us after this election. On the other side, I think of six immediate names, Rudy Giuliani, Jeb, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, George Pataki and Bill Frist. None, other than maybe McCain are possibilities I like very much, especially, and obviously most of all, Jeb.

We will survive this. We always have. We survived eight years of Reagan and four of Bush 41. We can survive the next 4. We as a party, and the left as a movement can't spend the next two years navel-gazing; we have to decide what went wrong, not think about, but decide what went wrong, and fix it. If we need to be less overtly anti-Bush, so be it, perhaps the sound and fury may have turned off some voters who went the other way. The fight must continue. If we can't win nationally, we need to do the conservatives have done. If you're really pissed and angry, good, you should be, now we have to use that to do more than write placards and march, we need to build a giant grass roots effort, dress rehearsal in 2006, with the show in 2008. Channeling the anger is better than simply being angry and then dropping out of the system.

It won't be fun, but we have to do our best to survive the next four years.