Caught a few minutes of the HBO documentary on hacking the vote, and I have to say, when they got to the 04 election and flashed a bit of one of the news anchors saying Ohio had just been called for Bush, it took me right back to that horrible, horrible night. (Early, early morning, I should say.)
I was up. Remember feeling absolutely sick to my stomach, stunned and thinking, I guess this means things will have to get even worse before Americans figure out how stupid they've been to support George Bush and his incredibly stupid, arrogant policies.
But even then, who knew how truly bad things could get. I didn't imagine what we've seen in the last two years. I don't think anyone could have. (Unlike imagining Bin Laden striking the US upon receipt of an intelligence briefging saying, Bin Laden Determined to Strike US. That one, I could have figured out.)
But I digress.
I remember how sick I felt upon hearing Bush had won. (Won at least for the purposes of being sworn in for another 4-year term.)
I felt sick seeing the HBO documentary, wondering how well-prepared we are for hacking the vote to happen again and if the outcome would be the same -- that they'd get away with it again. (And if anyone can reassure me on that score, I'd love to hear it right now, because the HBO thing scared me.)
And then I thought of a few people writing diaries saying God had turned on the Religious Right and was taking them down, finally.
I don't think God is taking them down, any more than I think God allowed them to hijack religion in this country for so long.
We allowed them to hijack religion. Not just us here, but us -- all Americans. We allowed it as a group. We went along with it. We stayed silent. We allowed ourselves to be bullied.
The Religious Right got away with it for so long because of us. God was sitting up there thiking, "Geez. What's it going to take for people to wake up down there." It's the whole free will thing. He gave us the ability to make decisions for ourselves, and that means we get the world we create, IMHO.
And we created this mess.
We have to fix it.
I think what's going on now is that the Religious Right and the corrupt Republican power base has finally gotten so outrageous, people are speaking up about the things they've done. People are finally listening.
As long as the election isn't hacked, we should start rebuilding our country soon after Tuesday's election.
Until then, I'd like everyone with a bit of time to give to remember how you felt that awful night in November 2004 when you heard that Bush had won. Remember that stupid smirk on his face. Remember all he's done to make things even worse in the last two years.
And when you remember, vow to never feel that way again.
Go vote. Take people to vote. Do GOTV. (I'll be GOTVing for Larry Kissell.) Remember thinking in 04... Did I work hard enough? What else could I have done? Would it have made a difference? What would I give to not have to feel like this right now? To go back and have another day to make this right.
Please, go and make this right.