This is a political post. I regret it already.

[melannen]

Theresa Nielsen Hayden (makinglight) had a post today called "The Grieving Process". It said some self-evident things, some things that were deep in denial, some knee-jerk emotional things that I don't agree with, and one thing that really hit me: "They can tell we're not just acting like we lost an election."

We aren't, you know. We didn't just lose an election. People were seriously devastated by this; I've heard of at least two suicides or near-suicides over it, people crying who don't cry over anything less than the death of a loved one, people seriously made *ill* over the election results, people who are fighting angry, who are still in shock, who are channelling their energy into trying to salvage anything they can. People who are deep in denial and trying to get Kerry to retract his concession. We're *grieving*. We really are.

And it's not over losing an election; us liberals have lost every election I've ever voted in, including the vote I put in for Dukakis when I was five, and I just shrugged and said we'd try harder next time, and that's what democracy's about. It's not about the issues, really, or the war, or not exactly about them. Heck, by last Saturday I was willing to admit that Kerry winning would only be mildly less disastrous in the short term than Bush winning, and probably worse in the long run, but I was grieving last week, too, in my way.

Because what we lost this year wasn't an election, it was a dream. Yes, *that* dream. The "I Have A Dream" dream. The American Dream. The dream that government by the people and for the people really does work long term, that people are basically good, even in large groups, that people will choose liberty, truth and justice if they're offered a choice, that Americans are too wise to let themselves be ruled by fear and bread-and-circuses, that we might make mistakes but we try to do the right thing, that this country deserves its status as a great nation and a great people. This election, for many of us, was an act of faith. Evangelical Christian, Jewish, atheist, Islamic, pagan, once-a-year Protestant, agnostic, whatever; however cynical we might try to be on the surface, we shared an idealistic faith in humanity and in America which has always been a part of being a bleeding-heart liberal, and which meant we were going to win, because it was *right*, and this was America, and so we had to.

And then Tuesday slapped us in the face and said nope, haha, these people you care so much about? They like the bad guys better.

Losing your faith is really, really hard. Losing your trust in something you love with all your heart is devastating. But, well, our faith was misplaced. We were wrong. And I'm glad I finally learned that, even if I hate knowing it.

Comments

[rainfallsautumn.livejournal.com]

Y'know, those of us you consider the "bad guys", we've got the same faith in America. If you think we aren't optimistic and we don't love others and love this country, then you don't know my GOP family very well. I know that defies the stereotype, and I admit that I never expected-- as an Independent who volunteered for Cheney in mid-2000-- that I'd feel that, see that, become a Republican, or stand in a pile of mud crying at a politician's speech (it was the rain! really!).

Don't lose your faith. What you felt and what I felt-- most people never know that feeling, they never understand that idealism. And a loss always hurts when you start looking at your fellow volunteers as extended family-- it's even worse when it's a local election and you *know* the loser, you know their family, you have to say "I'm sorry we didn't win this one" to their *kids.* But I still love these people, even though some of them are crappy human beings-- they're still my tribe, my family. Just like the libs are your tribe, your family-- and they still need you.

*shuts up now*

[melannen.livejournal.com]

I"m not saying you aren't! I'd never say you aren't! (Although I might argue that it's not the *same* faith in America; it's a different sort of faith in America.)

And what we were wrong *about* was thinking about the election so much good vs. evil, because it really wasn't. In fact, the *reason* I think liberals have been losing so much lately (it was definitely the reason we lost the Maryland governorship) is that we've somehow gotten the idea that we're entitled to win because we're on the side of the angels, and so we don't have to try as hard.

That really doesn't make any sense among a bunch of people who castigate their opponents for the same thing. But it woulda been nice if it was true.

And if it had just been Bush winning, I don't think I'd have been so upset, although a lot of people would have been (And I'm still upset that a lot of people I know who voted for him-- my friendslist and my family excepted-- did so because they still believe things he said that have been clearly proven to be untrue) -- it was the badly-worded gay marriage amendments passing in every state they were up in which convinced me that his election really was about fear (and I don't even support gay marriage!); and the fact that the youth vote still didn't come out which made me realize that too many people *still* don't even want to make an effort to choose the right thing.

:(

[theemptylife.livejournal.com]

Not even just that, but the election weakened the only opposition to Bush in the federal government. Personally, I think its a bad idea when one party has a choke hold on all three branches, it makes it much easier to circumvent that whole pesky checks and balances thing.
PLUS, slews of people who voted for Bush for one purpose (moral values) had to know full well that his second administration was going to focus on things that most of the country knows he's bad at (the economy and the war).
Bush's cronies did use fear at times, but for the most part I think this election was won by hate and ignorance. He drove a sexual wedge deeper into our country (kinda erotic when you picture it) and used to stay in power. And its shameful.

Re: :(

[melannen.livejournal.com]

>> Bush's cronies did use fear at times, but for the most part I think this election was won by hate and ignorance.

I re-read Diane Duane's Trek novels too often when I was young and impressionable-- I automatically parse "hate of the other" as "fear." Anti-terrorist and anti-sexuality and anti-evolution (and I could go on) propaganda are all based on that same fear.

[aelkiss.livejournal.com]

Clearly the only solution is to go back in time to 1986 and start raising and brainwashing massive armies of clones in all the red states and in 2004 can convincingly defeat the Republicans once and for all. Of course, once they're defeated, we won't need to go back in time to raise the clones, and they'll all disappear, and the Republicans will have won once more. Stupid time-travel paradoxes.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Well, that would explain the exit poll results. (;

[greyangel.livejournal.com]

*points to lj post (http://www.livejournal.com/users/greyangel/128551.html)*

It's all about the labels. I did not have any dreams with what Kerry was presenting. Besides, politicans are politicans. The only way we'll ever see change is if some hilarious person with mixed race/religion/etc managed to get elected and then said, ENOUGH WITH THE LABELS.

That'll never happen, and I don't want to become president anyway. There are too many promises to make, and little to keep. Too many international issues to deal with. So we're stuck with what we're stuck with.

End of line.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

I read that post! I agree with most of it! Especially the part about democrats better shape up by 2008, or we deserve what we get.

Labels become overused but they are fine if used carefully. I mean, labelling things is what distinguishes humans from animals; God had Adam name the animals, after all. Labelling things is what we *do*.

The dream wasn't so much about what Kerry was presenting; the dream was that voters would be smart enough to see how awful Bush was. They weren't.