But, dear Reader, there's one cold statistic Kerry voters must face. The fact that Republicans monkeyed with the votes in swing states doesn't wash away that big red stain: 59 million Americans marched to the polls and voted for George W. Bush.
If Osama doesn't scare you, THAT should.
We have met the enemy, and they are us.
Palast points out something that I have avoided thinking about. The Red/Blue dichotomy not only makes a visual statement, it also allows us to imagine that we blue voters occupy a different political imaginary than red voters. From Palast's viewpoint from the other side of the Atlantic, there is no Red and Blue. There are only, as Obama also pointed out, Americans.
As is often the case, the view from afar elicits some of the most acute and biting analysis. Any of the observations that Palast makes are worthy talking points. I'll post a few of my favorite excerpts, but I urge you to read the whole thing here.
America doesn't want to give up the habit of racism. Karl Rove doesn't. Jeb Bush doesn't. If not for challenging hundreds of thousands of voters in Black precincts of Ohio and other swing states, if not for purging thousands more from voter rolls for the crime of voting while Black, you wouldn't be president now, would you, Mr. President?
When I heard the soundbite where Bush talked about racism, frankly, my reaction was "huh?" Palast hit it square on the head when he connects it to the Ohio fiasco.
Franklin Roosevelt said in his inaugural, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." But he didn't have Dick Cheney creating from his bunker a government which is little more than a Wal-Mart of Fear: midnight snatchings of citizens for uncharged crimes, wars to hunt for imaginary weapons aimed at Los Angeles, DNA data banks of kids and grandmas, the Chicken Little sky-is-falling social security spook-show, and shoe-searches in airports. Fear is your only product.
Let's hold the mirror up and show people what they really should be afraid of: Bushco and the assault on civil rights. As Molly has said, being less free doesn't make us any safer. It just makes us less free.
What we witnessed on November 2, 2004 was a 59-million strong army of pinheads on parade ready to gamble away their social security so long as George Bush makes sure that boys kill each other, not kiss each other...
Find another scapegoat, Dubya. Civil rights are a moral issue.
If this has been posted already, mea culpa. Let me know and I'll delete.