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It’s been a long bloody battle. The streets have been littered with the corpses of the vanquished and to the victors go the spoils. I am not talking about the streets of Falluja or Baghdad but on the streets of Everytown USA where the battle for the White House was fought.
We have watched as the two main warriors beat each other with their verbal clubs leaving each other bruised and battered. They beat each other up all the way until they reached their prospective polling places. A nastier election we have not seen in our lifetime. Each election season has become more and more vicious with both sides eventually going for the jugular hoping to push up those pre-election polls in their favor before Election Day.
We have not exactly come full cycle on the cruel attack scale that was exhibited during the early days of our proud country. In our nation’s infancy the founding fathers knew how to sling the mud with the best of them. During the course of one selection for president the exchange between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson got particularly nasty. Adams accused Jefferson of bringing four women over from England to be his mistresses and Jefferson responded by calling Adam’s mother a whore. While we have elevated ourselves over the course of 200 years to a more civil level, over the last 20 we have slowly descended back to it. I hope by the next election we can reverse that trend.
Election day came and the people responded. We had been told over and over by the candidate warriors that this was the most important election of our lifetime. Our anticipation for sure was at an all time high. Peoples’ emotions were on edge, many of them pumped up like a soldier preparing to attack, their hearts pumping wildly and eyes bulging. The voter turnout was higher than usual, in fact the largest in 30 years. Some people waited for hours in lines, some even stood in the rain. It was more than an election, it was an event.
As five o clock came here on the West coast it was time for the talking heads at their TV command posts to start their speculation on who the victorious party would be. They pulled out all the stops displaying all the high tech weapons available in their broadcast arsenals. Channel changer in hand I jumped from station to station looking for the answers. As I did, I discovered that every station, and I mean every station, had a different electoral vote count. I didn’t know who to believe.
The only thing that was consistent on every channel was the majority of states that were painted in red denoting a victory for Dubya. As the evening progressed the map of the country map looked as though it was bleeding. I watched until I couldn’t take it any more. The blood on the map was no match for my tired blood shot eyes. I would have to retreat to bed and hope for the best in the morning, but it didn’t look well for my candidate.
With the next day’s dawn the story was told, I would be doing four more years of “The Shrub Speaks.” The South had risen again. That, combined with a flawed electoral system, had renewed George and Laura’s lease on Pennsylvania Avenue. Sure, this time around he won the popular vote as well as the electoral vote, but had the flaws in the system last time not been there Dubya wouldn’t have been up for re-election. But what’s done is done and it can’t be undone. I think the best we can hope for right now is that Osama Bin Laden is not a man of his word.
The big winners in this election were John Stewart, Dave Letterman, Bill Maher and every working comedian in the world. They just got four more years of the best comedic material that the political world can supply. Bill Maher, a staunch Democrat, said a few nights ago on his show “The Real Deal” that even though he supported Kerry he hoped Dubya would win because if he lost it would make his job much harder.
One of the things that was a sad commentary on the future of America was the youth vote. Despite the use of celebrities to woo the young voters to the polls the same percentage, 17%, showed up. That was the same percentage that voted in the last election. Hopefully they won’t have to learn that voting is a necessity that is not to be taken lightly. Some of them may have to learn this lesson the hard way. Since the youth who didn’t vote are of draftable age they could have a problem. That is unless they aspire to a career in the military. Despite claims to the contrary by the current administration, when you run out of soldiers, which we are on the way to doing with dwindling recruitment, what do you do? Three guesses and the first two don’t count.
At least here in California we passed Proposition 71, the stem cell research initiative. Next to the presidential election this was the most important thing on the ballot for me. So in trying to be circumspect you have to take the good with the bad and hope for the best.
The stage has been set for the next four years and we will all need to heal the wounds and the divides that have been created over the last four years. It is the job of our elected officials to do so by example. The election war is over now and it is time for everyone on Capital Hill to do what we pay them for, to lead.
The best words that were uttered during this entire election came at the end, during John Kerry’s concession speech …
“But in an American election, there are no losers. Because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning, we all wake up as Americans. And that- that is the greatest privilege and the most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.”
The Shrub Speaks: The campaign has ended, and the United States of America goes forward with confidence and faith. Washington D.C., Nov. 3, 2004
B.D.’s Response: You may have 51% of the confidence of the US of A, but now it is time for you show the other 49% what you can do, because right now, our confidence and our faith is at an all time low.
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