Sorry, this is my first diary entry here.
It's the text of an e-mail I sent to him that was quite cathartic for me.
It's hard to know how people will react to my thoughts, but here there are for all to see.
I have enjoyed dailykos since the early days of the Dean campaign and think that Dean was right about more than a few things.
Hey Dad and Miff-
No, fortunately, you don't need to put me on suicide watch. I'll make it through this one, though it's frightening to think of what Bush and his extreme right-wing government will try to do to this country since they no longer have to be accountable to anyone. They won't face the voters again (unless the red states force a change in the constitution on us), have both houses of congress, the Supreme Court and the mainstream news media. Nope, there's no accountability this time so they're free to fuck us as hard as they want w/no consequences.
Oh, and now they want to 'bring us together.' Geez. What a joke. Weren't they the ones who equated bipartisanship w/date rape and saying the person on the losing end of the deal may as well just lay back and enjoy it? That's not going to happen.
I got an e-mail today from a fundie Republican who works at another homeless organization here in town. He gloated in his first e-mail, and I shot something back. In his next one, he told us that we must now "stand together." I told him that if "standing together" means him and me working together professionally to work to end the homelessness of our mutual clients, then I'm on board w/him 100%. But, if "standing together" means surrendering to Bush's extreme right-wing agenda, no, I WILL NEVER surrender.
Nor will I ever be ashamed to be a Democrat, much to the chagrin of of the right-wing assholes in Indiana who seem to think it's OK to bring up politics and their close-minded politics to social events and expect us to shut up and not say anything when they quote Rush Limbaugh's latest joke. I'm not looking for a fight in those kinds of situations, but we can no longer back down and let them win in such instances.
Waking up on November 3rd was difficult for me. I went to bed on election night not sure who had won, but with a pretty clear idea that it wasn't Kerry. I woke up that morning and learned the actual results, shed a few tears and then started thinking how sad the situation is.
Yes, it's sad that Bush won, but it's not just sad bc he's a Republican. Other elections, including Bush's stealing the Florida vote upset me, but nothing like this one has.
What's sad is that a failed president who is intellectually incurious, who clearly lied to us when he led us to war in Iraq, who has led an assault on the middle and working classes, and who seems to want to install a theocracy has won 51% of the vote in this country based on something called "moral values."
I'm not sure what "moral values" means. I take it that it means that they hate gay people and are upset that Janet Jackson showed a nipple during the Superbowl.
So being moral means not being gay or showing nipples.
Morality seems to have no role in public policy debates that matter to real people. The 51% seems think that it's moral to lie about the reasons for a war. They seem to think it's moral to shift the tax burden to the middle and working classes while sending this country into debt that our grandchildren will still be paying for. They think it's moral to cut veterans' benefits while sending soldiers off to die.
I realized on November 3rd that I have no idea of how to communicate w/the 51% of the population that has a world view that is so dissimilar to mine. People who earn $6.00 an hour at Walmart voted for Bush en masse, because apparently, their economic situation doesn't matter as long as fags don't get married.
Those on my side need to do a better job of framing policy issues as moral issues. How is it moral to worry so much about the unborn, but not give a shit about children who HAVE been born but not whether they receive a decent education or live in poverty? How is it moral to lie about a war and kill people for oil while sending this country into massive debt in order to do so? Ah, so many questions, but we really do need to reframe the debate. Flat policy answers don't work to convince 51% of the American people...we have to find a way to put it into some kind of a spiritual context, and I think that will be difficult to do, but it is possible.
Yes, I am bitter, angry and ranting. This too shall pass. We survived the first four years of Bush, and we will survive another four. His second administration will be no different from most other second administrations of re-elected presidents in that it will be scandal-plaugued as shit they pulled in the first administration will finally catch up with them.
I will get over this. And I do have hope for 2006 and 2008.
Failure is not an option if we hope to regain the America that we grew up in.
I love you both-
Billy