OK, putting aside the differences in Ohio and Florida. Personally I think Diebold stole Florida in the paperless counties, but no way to prove it. Ohio was counted, and as feared, Kerry fell short by the stubborn 145k he seemed behind by all night. That 3.7 Million popular vote lead looks like a mandate to Bush & Co. With the Congress still solidly Republican, Senate looking like 54-45-1, Dems are in about as bad a position as the Republicans looked after 1974 and 1976. We have a long way to go.
So what are the possible effects of a second Bush Term?
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Well, with Rhenquist dying, the first obvious effect is a packed Supreme Court. At least 3, possibly 4 Supreme Court justices will step down soon. With Thomas and Scalia staying (one or the other will be the next Chief Justice) that's a 6-3 or 7-2 Conservative/Liberal swing. This means say good bye to Affirmative Action, Roe v. Wade, your right to privacy, minimum wage, Miranda Rights, separation of church & state, funding for science, and condoms. With Scalia and Thomas as your guides, things look very bleak indeed. I wouldn't be too surprised if the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and Brown v. Board of Education were under threat. Thomas (likely the new Chief Justice)
Two: The World hated Bush, but trusted Americans would see the evil that Bush is, and win back America. With these numbers, expect a full out rejection of the USA. Expect China and Japan to refuse to buy more US Debt, OPEC deciding to accept payment in Euros. The US is heading for an Argentina-class meltdown. The only question is will Europe, Japan and China be willing to take the hits to their own economies to put the USA in Third World status? Regardless, expect the current despising of Bush to be projected onto the American people.
Three: Continued outsourcing. With the resulting brain drain, the US will lose its slim remaining position in Technology and Biotech. China will be dictating World Policy by 2012.
Four: Say goodbye to MoveOn and the other 527s. Republicans will never let Democrats achieve funding parity with them again. As part of that, we can probably expect 2006 to start seeing the pushing of Democrats out of the Southern house seats, just as 2004 saw to the near-elimination of southerners in the South's senate seats. The Democrats should expect at this point to be a vestigal opposition party, much like the parties opposing the PRI in Mexico.
Five: Social Security is gone. As others have stated in the past, Privatizing social security basically puts retirement options back where they were on Oct 28, 1929. The "New Deal" is vanishing a generation after the "New Deal Coalition" collapsed.
Six: The Draft. No matter what Bush SAID on a draft, one is coming, because the choice is: Iraq has 90% of the US Army and Reserves tied up, and volunteer recruitment goals re not being met. In order to fill this, a Draft will be required. I expect a draft to actually be a fairly small percentage of current 18-25 year olds: No more than 1 million people will be drafted, mostly skilled people from the 20-29 year olds, so that people who actually volunteered can move to combat positions. PNAC needs to invade Syria and Iran to complete its plans. It needs a much bigger army to do so.
Seven: Patriot Act II, which might be the Alien & Sedition Act II. With the Supreme Court outlawing privacy laws, expect a massive crackdown on these `treacherous' blogs, Democratic contributors, and so on. Many will be portrayed as terrorists in the press. Free Speech will be severely curtailed. The new Supreme Ct. will back this police state situation because it denies a right to Privacy.
Eight: The EPA becomes a paper tiger. There will be a Rollback of environmental laws. ANWR is gone. It will be opened for oil drilling. Expect the less `clean' coal to be allowed use again. Expect clear cutting of the national forests. Expect more SUVs. Expect pollution to increase. Not right away, but I expect the ecosystem in the US to collapse.
Many more terrible things will happen. Perhaps none of this will happen. But most likely some of it will happen. What should we, as liberals, do? First off, the Right Wing Machine has been building since Goldwater in 1964. Why did we think ONE election cycle could roll it all back? 1) WE need an Air America TV station. 2) Our Rump senate force needs to Filibuster constantly. Yell, Scream, Read the flipping phone book. Filibuster the resolution on declaring it a great thing the Red Sox Won the World Series. Bring the Government to a COMLETE Halt. Melt the system down until they provide something reasonable. The Republicans did it in the Minority. WE HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT TOO! Let no republican bill threatening our civilization like the above pass.
Marching in the streets and demonstrations will NOT work. It will only invite the paranoiacs in the West wing to crack down violently. We are stuck as a permanent minority, but we still know they have a total idiot in charge. His tax cuts are the solution to everything cannot work. We cannot save the US as a superpower; we have to be trashed for the rest of the country to wake up. By 2008, China should be the primary world power because the US will be in meltdown. But maybe, after the US collapses into bankrupt, international pariah state, Americans will realize what went wrong.
The 1960s proved working outside the system doesn't work. We have to stay within the system. We have to set up a left wing echo chamber to match the right wing one. The Daily Show and Air America and Move On are a start, but we need at least 10 more years of building yet.