Temporarily Assigned to Planet Earth

sigh

It's over. That's the only good thing one can say at this point. And even that's not true, really, but it seems unlikely Kerry will pull a victory out of the provisional ballots.

It helps to read the 650-comment thread on Atrios this morning, to share in the group commiseration and realize we are not alone.

It seems Karl Rove has done it--exactly as he planned. Bush did not try to move to the middle to attract undecided voters, instead he worked to get a huge turnout from the religious right, and it worked.

It undoubtedly helped that there were anti-gay-marriage initiatives on the ballots of ten states. The opportunity to restrict someone else's rights is just too tempting for the righteous to pass up. Back when the whole gay-marriage scene was taking place out in San Francisco Republican politicos said it was a disaster for Democrats. They said it was an issue that would energize the Republican base and divide Democrats. I think now that they were right. With voters who supported Bush naming "moral values" as their number one issue, it seems this election was a rejection not of Kerry alone but of the Democratic party as a whole, as the party of gay marriage and abortion and no-school-prayer and no-ten-commandments-in-the-courtroom.

So now the religious right owns the Republican party, lock, stock, and barrel.

Now I want to see Bush cut the deficit in half without raising taxes, as promised. I want to see him clean up the mess he's made in Iraq without starting up a draft, as promised. I want to see him privatize social security without cutting benefits, as promised.

Even if he does none of the above, it seems the religious right will still back him, because "Deficits don't matter; Reagan proved that," says Cheney. And the religious right thinks these are the End Days and the mess in Iraq is the start of Armageddon and the worse it gets, the happier they are because it means The Rapture is coming. As for social security, well it's just going to be very interesting to see what happens now.

There is no point in despair. Only if we could see into the future would there be possible cause for despair. Remember--Nixon was reelected too. We still haven't heard the results of the Valerie Plame investigation. The CIA's 911 report was held back until after the election (although with Goss in charge it will undoubtedly be whitewashed). The FBI is investigating the awarding of contracts to Halliburton.

Of course I hoped for a huge victory--a Kerry win, a takeover of the senate, a gain in the house. All three would have been necessary for Kerry to be able to clean up the mess Bush has made. Had he been elected and had to work with the congress that will convene in January, he couldn't have accomplished anything.

There is no point in despairing because there could be a bright light at the end of the tunnel; a light we can't see now because of twists and turns in the tunnel.