The Con Game
Nov 3, 2004 outsideNewsShare/Save
Will people please stop telling me that Bush has won the election? Reports of the number of provisional ballots still to be counted from Ohio vary from 150,000 to 250,000. Bush’s margin in Ohio is 136,000 votes or so. He hasn’t won shit.
Don’t you see what he’s doing? By calling victory for himself, by saying that the gap in Ohio is “statistically insurmountable,” he’s trying to convince the population at large that Kerry is desperate, that he’s wasting our time. He wants the country to say “Forget about it. Bush won. Don’t even bother.”
Bullshit. It’s too close to call. Let all the votes come in, give it a few days, and then we’ll talk.
And at that point, if Bush does win, then you can move to Canada.
November 3rd, 2004 at 11:59 am
I don’t see why we can’t just wait 11 little days. Why do we need to know right now???
November 3rd, 2004 at 2:48 pm
Sorry, friend, but it’s all over. Sad, sad day for us and the world.
November 3rd, 2004 at 2:56 pm
So much for perseverance. Thanks a lot, Kerry.
(From what I hear, it was looking like Bush was right, and there was no way Ohio was gonna do the job. But I’ve got enough resenment to go around….)
November 3rd, 2004 at 2:58 pm
You know what? We did a good job of getting a whole lotta votes, so instead of being like “oh, boo hoo we lost”, we really should focus on our current unity and keep working to turn things around for the better.
The more informed we stay, the more we reach out to each other and form communities, the better off we’ll be. Hold tight, America! We’re coming to save you!!!
November 4th, 2004 at 5:12 am
See recent posting by me on dsquared. I’m mad.
November 4th, 2004 at 6:37 am
I wonder how much of this I’m feeling, and how much I can’t quite grasp because I’m not there to see the American papers and people’s instinctive street reactions. I know that I’m sad, but I’m straddling the fence of hopeful — for what and when, I can’t quite say. Just this: it’s too early to tell in either direction, even though we’re being loaded all the time with political phrases disguised as answers. Yes, the unfortunate has happened. But please keep supporting yourselves and your good work while we wait to see what the next step will be.
November 4th, 2004 at 11:50 am
I feel somewhat detached from the whole enterprise. Half the country has chosen, some through full understanding of its implications, some through blindness to everything but the particular wedge issues they’ve been led to believe are more important than corruption, war, and terrible leadership, to subject us all to four more years of the same bullshit we’ve been slogging through for the past four. But somehow I’m not all that worked up about it.
Like him or no, for the next few years, that monkey is our president. So I agree with Chloë. I’m hopeful as well, although I don’t know why. I think that things can be done, although I don’t know what they are.
A couple things to think about:
As much as he’d like us to believe he did, President Bush received no “mandate” from the American people. Look at the electoral results of any election in the past few decades. Bush won by a hair. And this means that liberals will have ample opportunity to mount challenges when necessary, whether against appointment of Supreme Court justices or general warmongering bullshit. And yes, it sucks that we lost Tom Daschle, but maybe this Reid guy wil be even stronger. Democrats in general have been doing a lot of pussyfooting the past few years, and perhaps a little new blood will liven it up a little.