This essay comments on our failed voting system, the strong family values in Blue states, the strength of those states which voted for Kerry, national security, and the rebound of Kerry supporters. It draws on US Census numbers, notes the despair of Kerry voters the day after but ends on a hopeful note.
Black Wednesday: Back on Thursday
By Mark Harvey
Last wednesday was a black day for many of us in America (55,435,808 to be exact). A few friends wrote to say they could barely drag themselves through the day after Kerry's concession speech and even today a few didn't want to get out of bed. I got the hint and capitalized by picking up a large block of Eli Lili shares, maker of Prozac. I figure a balanced portfolio these days should be divided equally between Raytheon, maker of the Cruise, Sidewinder, and Harm Missiles, Conoco Petroleum, driller for gas in Utah's red rock country, and of course Eli Lili. This new economy has legs.
Many of us were surprised by the election results and some of us were even suspicious. As Mark Crispin Miller of NYU notes, Bush won eight million more votes than in 2000, even though there were only about four million right wing Christians who didn't vote for Bush last time around. If you add up the number of newly registered Democrats and look at the exit polls, the numbers don't add up. Let's face it, the voters in Afghanistan have a better paper trail than we do here in America with the Diebold voting machines.
Isn't it astounding that in this country you can take out your ATM card in Bum F--, Arkansas, punch in your PIN number, and within about ten seconds have cash in hand along with a receipt that gives you your checking account balance to the penny (even when your checking account is 2,000 miles across the country). And yet your vote in Florida may or may not have counted and may or not have gone to the candidate you like.
Go buy groceries in Nucla, Colorado, and some newly trained cashier swipes your credit card and a day later that purchase is nicely itemized on your internet-accessible Visa account. Yet in Ohio, you have to vote for your president on a provisional ballot at midnight. First step for this democracy in this the most digitized and industrialized nation in the world: FIX THE VOTING SYSTEM. Make it easy, safe, accurate, and verifiable. Get Wells Fargo to set it up instead of someone as corrupt and incompetent as Katherine Harris in Florida. I love the way state secretaries tell us that online voting with a paper trail just wouldn't be safe. I think Ohioans might have felt better about their vote by packing everyone into Buckeye Stadium and having the state secretary say, "Okay, all those in favor of Bush shout `aye'."
Now the aftermath. Pundits tell us that Bush won because of the "moral" vote and that it was "values" that gave him his 51 percent. Republicans say it was a mandate against the liberal values or lack of values in liberal states like Massachusetts, home of Senator Kerry. The Republicans tell us that this election is a referendum on heartland values. I've spent a few weeks in Massachusetts years ago and don't remember it being such a bad place. Judging by the winning party's comments on the state and, again, liberal values, I assumed it had since gone the way of Sodom and Gomorrah. With the post election rhetoric, one would assume on a prima facie basis that liberals in Massachusetts were living in depravity at the trough of Federal welfare. So I did some checking and here's what I found.
Let's start with a value that the far right loves to tout: family and marriage. According to the 2001 US census, Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country. I assumed that had to be some exception to rule of Blue States lacking family values/ Red States having family values so I dug a little deeper. Ninety percent of states that voted for Gore in 2000 had divorce rates lower than the national average while 70 percent of states that voted for Bush in 2000 had divorce rates higher than the national average. The most likely segment of society to get divorced? Conservative Christians.
Us liberals are unlikely to judge you on such a rigid concept of morality but since that is the metric chosen by the Bush party, let them hang by their own petard.
The Republicans also touted an ethic of self-reliance, hard work and pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps. Again, hearing their rhetoric, I assumed Massachusetts would be gorging at the Federal trough. Surprise again. For every dollar of taxes that Massachusetts pays to the Federal government, it receives 79 cents in Federal funding for a net loss to the state of 21 cents. In terms of carrying its Federal tax load (taxes paid versus funding received) Massachusetts ranks a forceful sixth in the country.
In fact the Blue states are the ones carrying their weight and the Red states are feeding at the Federal trough. Of the top ten states receiving the least in Federal spending per dollar of Federal taxes paid, eight voted for Kerry this election. Of the ten states receiving most in Federal funding per dollar of Federal taxes paid, eight voted for Bush this election. Spare me the bootstraps bit.
I don't have room to go through all the social indices but I can tell you that by any measurable statistic, the blue states pay more than their share fair of taxes, keep the family together, educate their kids, fight crime, tolerate various religions and races, and make an effort to keep their air, water, and land clean. In a word they extol all that is truly and virtuously American. But it is through their actions rather than their words.
Then there's this bit about national security. To quote a recent column so brilliantly titled "Ha, Ha; Bush Won," the Americans who voted for Bush are those "who care about their safety and security, Americans who know that wars are not easy but they are often necessary." Strange isn't it how New York, the city that lost three thousand people on September 11th and saw first hand the real ravages of a terrorist strike voted overwhelmingly for Kerry. You'd think New Yorkers would know more about the security issue than our heartland pundit. In fact coastal states on the eastern and western seaboard--the states most likely to be hit by terrorists mostly voted blue.
Though the emails I received yesterday from friends who voted Blue were a little gloomy, the tone today has attitude--attitude you'd expect from people who really love this country. A friend from Paonia, Colorado writes, "I'm not happy about this by any means. But I do see opportunities for real change.... Life can't go back to normal (whatever that is) -- it's time to think hard, find allies and fight like hell."
A friend from Basalt, Colorado writes, "For two days I have been simmering and just may boil over and scuttle the easy and comfortable path, committing the next four years to the environment and our broken democracy."
Another friend from Old Snowmass wrote, "And now the work begins."
Indeed. And I think I made a mistake buying Eli Lili.