This is my last lament. At the end I turn to future directions.
I've read a lot of articles in the press about loss and how to move beyond it. Theoretically, the research ought to apply to the loss of an election as it does to other areas. It doesn't feel like it will to me, though. Most of us here truly believed our rhetoric (I supposed the Republicans believed theirs too), that disaster would follow from a Bush victory. As I had written to one friend, Bush took us over a cliff, but Kerry had offered the chance of a soft landing.
The many consequences of the Bush victory loom before us: will the US turn into an Israel, with nothing on our plates but hit-hit back-hit-hit back, for the rest of our lives? Will the environment deteriorate so that every year we tally up the loss of more species, see fewer birds, salamanders, beauty? Will the flow of information - about the environment, about what's happening abroad, about corporate corruption - be cut off so that we are completely atomized individuals with no chance of figuring out what to do? Will all of our retirement funds be forcibly placed in the power of corporations who will then charge arbitrary fees just like banks do? Will good education become restricted to the privileged (I'll bet they're not teaching creationism at wealthy academies!) Will health care be available to fewer and fewer people?
The first time Bush won, I asked some of those who voted for him to reassure me. They couldn't even back then. Bush supporters, can you reassure me now about any of this?
There is a very depressing story in the Washington Post about IT workers in the Bush economy:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35193-2004Nov8_4.html
There's one family that has been broken by the economy. Even if employment picks up, it seems unlikely that anything other than temporary work will be available to this guy ever again. The family is separated and very well may be for years to come. It reminds me of the vast movement of unemployed workers in the middle ages, on the road looking for some employment.
The one thing that would help all these people the most is universal health care. Employers are never going to add benefits again - they will take every opportunity to reduce or shed them. Employment-based health benefits do not work. The burden of sick and injured people is going to grow and grow. Wait until all the injured veterans try to rejoin the economy.
Let's simply abandon the pretense of halfway measures. Let's develop policies based what we are pretty sure will be happening in the future rather than on finding the right candidate or formulaic statement to appeal to more voters.
Republicans have pledged that their policies will bring peace and freedom to the Middle East, that the majority of people here in the US will have more cash (not security, since the various guaranteed entitlements are to be abandoned, therefore equivalent, or even increased, cash in the pockets of ordinary Americans), that employment in good jobs carrying health benefits will increase, that there will be cleaner skies and clearer waters because of their policies, that families will be happier and healthier in the years to come. If they deliver on these promises, then they should be reelected.
I don't believe this will happen. I want to see the Democratic Party developing short term and long term approaches to these issues, which will be impossible to ignore in the coming years.
Last lament and rant.
