Thursday, Nov. 04, 2004
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Brrr. It's getting cold. I may have to turn on the heat soon. I can't believe that in four or five days, I'll be sleeping under the stars with B*more city teenagers on the Outward Bound canoing trip.I've been breaking down this election stuff more and more, and beginning to come to terms. Mostly, I'm just sad about it. I guess I'd be okay with things if Bush voters cited something like, "I don't want to change Presidents in the middle of the war" or "I'd like fewer taxes" as reasons (though if you give that last reason, I'd wonder how you thought we'd pay down this huge debt we've got right now). But this election was lost mostly on "moral issues," which translates to gay issues and abortion issues.
Bush basically won because people really don't want to see gay people get married, or women to have the right to choose.
How can Democrats fight something like that? Change the party platform? I don't want that.
Kerry won moderates 55-45, so this isn't about going to the middle. It's about getting conservative voters, who made up one-third of the electorate last election. Or, I don't know what. Maybe not make conservatives feel threatened so they stay home like they did in 2000 (when 29% voted instead of 34% this election). Only it was Karl Rove who (brilliantly) made them feel threatened, and it worked. Cynically, incredibly, it worked.
My big hopes for the next four years are that John Paul Stevens stays alive, ditto Ginsburg and O'Connor. Roe v. Wade is at stake if the three of them go, which is possible (Rehnquist seems a given). I hope that the Democratics get together and figure out what happened, and try to win an election next time by going for the south a bit more. Although I don't know how they can do that without changing party platform, so it will be interesting.
I guess I'm more amazed by it all now then saddened. By the way, this was the first move by our "conservative" President:
The Bush administration announced Wednesday that it will run out of maneuvering room to manage the government's massive borrowing needs in two weeks, putting more pressure on Congress to raise the debt ceiling when it convenes for a special post-election session.
God, I wonder if I'll still be doing this in four years - if, like this election, I'll be able to link back to this site to see what my thoughts were. I wonder if Diaryland will still be lavender.