The Nonsense Begins

Who Won the Election, Anyway?

I've about had it.

If I hear one more time about how President (for four more years) Bush and the Republicans need to "reach out" to Democrats I'm going to scream. Just who exactly won this election, anyway? Does anyone believe that had the situation been reversed, anyone would be talking about how Kerry needed to "moderate" his opinions, and seek compromise?

A divided Land?

They other thing we are incessantly told is that we live in a divided country. An editorial by a reliably liberal Post columnist perpetuates this nonsense

And we are disgusted that an effort consciously designed to divide the country did exactly that -- and won. With all his failures, Bush could not count on a whole lot more than 51 percent. Karl Rove and company calculated perfectly, organized painstakingly, greatly increased conservative turnout and produced a country divided just their way.

I see. And we were united in the 1980's? Oh yeah, Reagan wasn't villified at all. The Democrats in congress went along with his Central America policies with no objections. And Gore, Kerry, and Edwards? Why, they tried to unify us. All that talk about "two Americas" and "the richest one percent", I guess that was just understandable campaign rhetoric.

The myths are already starting. Don't let them get away with it.

Boy are they Bitter

Jane Smiley has just about lost it. In an article subtitled "The Unteachable Ignorance of the Red States" In her esteemed opinion

The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry.

But wait, she's just getting warmed up

The reason the Democrats have lost five of the last seven presidential elections is simple: A generation ago, the big capitalists, who have no morals, as we know, decided to make use of the religious right in their class war against the middle class and against the regulations that were protecting those whom they considered to be their rightful prey—workers and consumers. The architects of this strategy knew perfectly well that they were exploiting, among other unsavory qualities, a long American habit of virulent racism, but they did it anyway, and we see the outcome now—Cheney is the capitalist arm and Bush is the religious arm. They know no boundaries or rules. They are predatory and resentful, amoral, avaricious, and arrogant.

Half of me says "you go girl" because if opinions like that become mainstream in the Democratic Party they are doomed to minority status. The other half of me wishes for a more responsible opposition.

Richard Cohen is wishing for a recession

So it should come as no surprise that the power of culture - the power of it to override or cancel out economic self-interest - has become so prominent in American political life.

The very fact that Ohio remained a battleground state to the end is a case in point. It had - and has - a weak economy. It has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Yet it seems that countless Ohioans did not vote their wallets but their cultural values - 62% in support of an amendment banning same-sex marriage, for instance. The economy might be bad, but it was not so bad as the prospect of gay marriages.

How about an American perspective, Richard?