Note: This will be cross-posted to my blog once it's running again. I am currently unable to access any of my edit functions.
So, now that Kerry has conceded, can we please get back on track with the impeachment proceedings?
It's like Mark Morford said in
his column today:
People want to believe. They want to trust their leaders, even against all screaming, neon-lit evidence and stack upon stack of flagrant, impeachment-grade lie. They simply cannot allow that Dubya might really be an utter boob and that they are being treated like an abused, beaten housewife who keeps coming back for more, insisting her drunk husband didn't mean it, that she probably had it coming, that the cuts and bruises and blood and broken bones are all for her own good.
We have underestimated evangelical fervor at our peril. People want to believe so much they'll willingly put blinders on and vote against their best interests because God (through Bush) told them to, you see. And the more things fall apart around them, the more stubborn they get about clinging to those beliefs, even if the people they believe in are the ones
causing stuff to fall apart.
We are seeing the merging of church and state, and along with it the institutionalization of state-sanctioned bigotry. Welcome to the Fourth Reich. God help us all.
A SoonerThought Editorial The Election is tomorrow. Does it really matter if you vote?
I created SoonerThought.com because as a “failed” politician, I no longer wanted to be a candidate but continued to want to publicly express opinions. Being a candidate was such a great experience, because I could weigh in on the issues of the day, make myself heard, and perhaps even influence the public debate a little. SoonerThought.com gives me that same opportunity, but to a potentially wider audience.
No, I am not so deluded as to think that this website, though read by an average of more than 100 people per day, is a major influence on anything. But, I know through comments left by readers—pro and con—intelligent and irrational, funny and deadly serious, that people do read. People do think. And people do care.
It is to you people that I write this message. After an often stultifying, long, nasty and arduous campaign, it comes to this: Election Day 2004. My coeditors and I contemplated writing a comprehensive “Voter Guide” packed with reasons why you should vote for this candidate or that one. The reasons to defeat George Bush alone would take thousands of words.
But we think that you, our readers, are as up on the issues as we. We think you generally read this site because you agree with us or can at least see our logic. We fully know that we are most often engaged in “preaching to the choir.” So we will dispense with the details and simply ask you to vote tomorrow—with one caveat: we ask you to ditch any well-meaning “I vote the candidate not the Party” platitudes and vote straight-ticket Democrat.
John Kerry needs strong Democrats in office from the Court House to the State House to enact an agenda of change. Yes, some of our Democrat brothers and sisters seem way too cozy with the beliefs of the ultraconservative Republicans—names like Carson, Boren and Lieberman come to mind—but even a half-assed Democrat is better than a rightwing nutjob.
We have never been afraid to take on limp Democrats who deserve it...just ask the men we mentioned in the last paragraph. But we hope in our heart of hearts that they, too, know that BushCo is absolutely ruining this great nation. They know--we hope--that the forces of fear are crushing the better angels of our nature, that greed and callous social Darwinism reign in a land ruled by those who claim to love the Prince of Peace; that the love of money and cultural ethnocentrism rot away at our core. So hold your nose if you must, but we ask you to start at the top of the ballot and mark it for John Kerry, and nothing but Democrats the rest of the way.
You see, it truly does matter.
No, it won’t magically end this ruinous war in the sand. No, it won’t miraculously end poverty. No, it won’t get back America’s prestige and respect in the world right away, but it is a crucial first step.
It does matter. Perhaps more than we know.
Polls are open from 7 am. To 7 p.m. Tuesday November 2, 2004. Please make sure you bring your like-minded friends and family to the polls.
