Democrats Scratching Heads
G.O.P.
Government of the People, yes. The people have chosen, and even if we choose to view the results of the recent election as close, we have an undisputedly elected President. This one was no nail-biter, either, as much as I may have destroyed my own nails in my anxiety. As the Ohio tally margin gradually shrank, and then grew, and finally stablized, I realized I had expected some fraud, some conspiracy clogging the infernal machines to surface, and once again I could convince myself that the sane majority had spoken; moreover, only the dark machinations of the reactionary freemasonry kept this vessel of evil in power.
This just in: IT"S NOT TRUE.
It's not true--honestly! We've got to admit this fact immediately. We the people of the United States of America have re-elected George W. Bush to his second term. We the People have also solidified an already conservative Senate, secured a conservative House. In regard to the social propositions scattered throughout the country, We the People returned them with the same socially conservative stamp.
I saw a bumper sticker riding on the back of a mini-van the other day in my neighborhood (yes, a mini-van, not a thirty year-old Ford pick-up) that read "Cut the Trees: Save the Bush". Here's a bumper sticker many may have seen (or own): "U.S. Out of the U.N." I live in what is commonly considered a liberal bubble in a conservative sea. What other evidence do we Democrats need that something is wrong?
Maybe-- no, wait for it--maybe what's wrong is us.
And I no longer mean "us" as "we", as in "We the People". I mean this: maybe there is something wrong with me, because I am a Democrat.
In recent history, certain blocks of the country have always voted for Democratic candidates. Does it shock you, like it does a young thirty year-old me, that the south was a Democratic certainty? The minority vote was also nearly unanimous; don't stare, but I think the minority vote cost us Florida. I am a employee of my county, making me Union fodder. Union members in this country received, as I did, numerous fliers, door-knocking campaigners, and supper-disturbing phone calls declaring unilateral support for John Kerry, urging Union members and other blue-collar labor workers to unite, hoping to purge the white house.
That support was far from unilateral during this election. My guess is that the next stalwart Democratic block to defect completely into the Red will be the Union, and the blue-collar labor workers.
This brings me to the questions driving this long, ungainly article:
1)Conservatives: What's wrong with Democrats? I am relatively uneasy with the argument that Bush makes people
feel safer; though I understand people tend to vote with stability during war. But what makes me wonder more than
anything is the neighborhoods, the zipcodes, the entire community populations that ridicule and refuse liberalism.
In these places, liberalism is evil. When did this happen? How?
2)Democrats: What's wrong with us? Let's take a good look at ourselves. Those of us who nursed the desire, deep
in our uneasily shifting bowels, to vote for Ralph Nader may believe that the Democratic party has become, perhaps
by necessity, too conservative, do you think that if the party re-polarized itself, swinging back toward the left, we
would restore ourselves?
I am writing this article, so let us consider ME as the example. I am filled with arrogance. I should get that out of the way at the outset. Look: it is true. I cannot conceive that the majority of the population could possibly disagree with me on any of the points of my belief system:
1)I believe the war in Iraq is morally wrong because
--Iraq had not attacked us. We pre-emptively struck against a sovereign nation, using manufactured, faulty reasoning as our
authorization;
--innocent manipulated soldiers and civilians (American, Iraqi, and other) continue to die for no certain goal; and because
--the war recycles a stagnant, hurtful fear among the citizens of the United States, making us feel as if we need to insulate
against the world.
2)I believe the war in Iraq is politically wrong because
--we have alienated not only the neutral parties of the U.N. and the rest of the world, but mortified our allies as well. Should a
catastrophic WWIII occur, then the U.S.A. and our dwindling allies would resemble our imperialist enemies in WWII;
--we have gutted our strained economy; and because
--most importantly, made the world less safe than it was before the war.
3)I believe that our economy is in a terrible state, and "tax relief" only makes the cost of living more dire and disasterous for
working folk.
4)I believe that our education sytem is an embarrassment. I cannot understand why state measures to support schools
continue to be killed.
5)I believe that no human being has a right to determine a legal stance on a concept like marriage. In a larger, spiritual sense, if
God disapproves of same-sex marriages, then let God deliver judgement. "Let the one who is innocent in the silence of his
soul cast the first stone...."
6)I believe our prison system is a moral, barbaric atrocity.
That's good to go on for now.
I have lived my life up to this point, to this day, developing these beliefs; and I arrogantly admit (until two days ago) that I do not understand how someone could so signifiantly disagree with me, that they might vote in the conservative regime.
But I cannot continue to feel this way. I admit to arrogance. Now I confess to confusion and shame. I do not understand, that is still true. But I want to understand, and I believe that Democrats need to re-learn how to view "conservatism". We need to learn the "why" of conservatism, and, perhaps more importantly, we need to re-learn the "why" of liberalism.
So what do you say? What's happening?
Copyright ©2004, ©2005, ©2006 Joshua Suchman. All rights reserved.
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