A friend in New Orleans would only cop this: "As for my voting habits this morning - I voted for 2 Republicans, 3 Democrats"
But was she behind the Bush Push? She wouldn't owe up because there's no way to appease both her Left and Right friends. So I persisted:
11.03.04
Sky Farm
I have a hard time weighing in as Kerry Supporter. I understand that in an election cycle that spends over a billion dollars on TV advertising you have to sell your soul directly to Big Corporate interests to raise the kind of capital that the game entails. So the lesser of two evils argument runs deep here, except that I think the Bush Administration is WAY more evil. The Neo-Con's have a very specific agenda, it's called Project for A New American Century. If you do not understand this philosophy and totally support it then I can't see any reason to vote Red. If you did vote Bush and are not familiar with the Neo-Con agenda then you may not be a sufficiently educated member of the electorate and that is specifically what the Karl Rove was betting on. Exit polling put a premium on a moral dilemma in this country. 11 states, Laurel, 11. People are afraid of fags getting married. That's the moral dilemma that brought out the Right in droves. There is no worry about the moral dilemma of bombing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in far away countries. We never much worry about that. Remember Viet Nam? There's no worry about all our boys and girls getting killed and maimed in Iraq - and for what? I ask you, for what, can you articulate our reason for being there? Because Saddam hit the Trade Towers, No. Because Saddam had WMD's, No. Because we're spreading "Freedom and Democracy", No. So why should there be thousands of American casualties post "Mission Accomplished." This is one big bad movie and if you're into it just because it's more exciting that Reality TV - as obviously a huge chunk of voting America is - then it's time for massive education reform.
We have a very dumb country, and the dolts have duped themselves as today's numbers show. You worry about your Republican friends chiding you for being a "bleeding heart." That doesn't mean anything outside of a Harlequin Romance Novel. But that is precisely the reality that these people are caught in. No hard facts, no hard education, in fact nothing hard, just easy Reality-that-is-not-real spiced with a fear of Fags and Muslims.
Bush was pulling ahead last night and I heard Gullianni say it, I heard Wolf Blixer say it as if it were a given, "Well, we're at war." NO. We're not at war. The war on Terrorism is not a war, it's an ideological putsch. It's a gaff of language to keep the Military Industrial Complex stated. It's the next phase of Cold War spending - only an unending war can necessitate 400 billion dollars alloted to military spending this year. Go spend the day trying to teach in a public school in any city of this great nation of ours and then see if you can stomach 400 billion going to the work of murder. Gay marriage is not going to bring this country down and Arabs don't hate our Freedom Loving Way of Life. Osama bin Laden said it most poetically this week in his speech to the Free World, "I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security, contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example - Sweden?"
We as Americans are not reviled and should not seek asylum under the shelter of missiles. Our Military Presence that amounts to foreign occupation is what is reviled. It is our Imperial efforts abroad that are not being swallowed readily. It's known in spooks lingo as Blow Back. We are bringing the biggest business in the world - WAR - to the world. And they, in fits and starts are bringing it back. Do you honestly think we'd be in the position we are today had Gore fairly won the election four years ago? This is not partisan. It's about sanity. Please correct me where I'm wrong. Because on a day like this I'd like to be dreadfully wrong.
