Election Reflection

The campaign's over, the votes are in, the people have spoken.

Bush won.

I don't think I realized how much I was hoping for Kerry to win until he didn't. I know I'll get a lot of flak for this from people at my school, but I don't care. On the whole, I'm sick of the debate on this campus because so little is actually up for debate. People only associate the Democratic party with abortion, affirmative action, high taxes, and the like. Too many Christians think that Christianity = Republican and Democrat = Pagan. Such things are a myth. I will paraphrase T.S. Eliot and say that no government (and no political party or President) should be identified with Christianity because it confuses the eternal with the transient. I am not saying that personal belief shouldn't inform political opinion--there is no escaping that--but it should not wholly form it. Especially Christianity. Of all religions, it seems that when Christianity is enforced from the top down the end result is usually mass apostasy and a vile hatred for the church (i.e. Spain under Franco).

I'm really just deeply saddened by the whole event. I think the populist mentality of our country has led us astray this time around. (I understand that the populist mentality is absolutely necessary for a politician of any rank to succeed, but that does not mean that people should be marching to the polls in swarms out of blind faith simply because they prefer someone with a Texas twang and says "nukular" to a New Englander who says "idear," or seeing it as a choice between Catholic and Protestant and choosing Protestant.) I'm afraid I didn't see much discernment from the American public. Bush won the conservative Christian vote mostly on social issues and thereby deflected the terrible mess he has made internationally. There was more at stake in this election than our immediate default political stances.

Kerry gave me hope. He really did. In him I saw the possibility for the reconciliation (NOT subjugation) of America to the rest of the world. I hoped that if a Democrat was in office with a Republican Senate that the tension would force them to actuallly compromise and move toward the center (where they should be). I don't believe that Kerry is the evil man that so many people make him out to be--behind his deadpan expression I saw authenticity in his eyes. Though this man objected, he went to war. People can say that he filed for an early release and obtained it: that does not take away from the fact that this man risked his life by going to Vietnam. I see Kerry's filing for an early release as his way of keeping his government accountable. I don't believe that he would have gone AWOL if he wasn't officially released, I think he would have stayed as long as his government asked him to. He did his civic duty when others like Bush Jr and Clinton didn't, and for that I respect him. I think Kerry loves and respects our country, and I think he loves and respects all of it.

I'm crushed that my generation didn't show up on election day. Shame on us. Have we become so cynical and jaded that even the most fiery geo-political struggle of our time still can't move us enough to get off our kiesters and vote? Next time, get over your angst and prove the underground man wrong by showing that the the natural state of an intellectual is not inertia. If you refused to vote, you're probably as not as intellectual as you think.

In Kerry's concession speech (I was in class at the time of Bush's acceptance speech), he said that when he called to congratulate Bush they spoke of the need to unite our divisive country. I wholeheartedly agree. And in order to do that there must, MUST be bipartisan cooperation. Sadly, I don't have much faith that that will happen in Bush's second term. Instead, I expect more of the same. With control of the White House and the Senate the GOP will be able to strongarm legislation through as they did the past two years. I can only hope that the Administration will be a little more open to advice and I daresay even dissenting opinion from the GOP and the Democrats.

We have to stop denying the idea that we are anything but the hegemonic power of the world. Even more so, we must realize that we will remain the hegemonic power only as long as the world can benefit from it. The behavior of this Administration has led the world to believe otherwise. And all you who say that international support isn't needed and that American sovereignty will rule the day, in a way I hope you are right. Because if you aren't, America's in for a lot of trouble.

I don't believe that Bush is the best person for the job. But it seems that we must have him for at least four more years. May his second term be better--far better--than his first.