I Tremble for My Country

 

I went to bed at ten last night, with things looking bleak. Bush had taken Florida. When I woke up at four, I thought I could simply turn on my computer and the results would be in. I was writing this commentary before the boot had completed and I’d swallowed a couple of aspirin.

But Ohio was not yet decided, although it probably was. The Buckeye State was showing for Bush but not all the ballots had been counted. It seemed just a matter of time. The House and Senate had both gone more Republican. And I was sick. The country had flushed itself down the toilet and I had come down with a cold.

Three things had gone wrong. The Republicans had an agenda and lots of money while the Democrats fielded candidates who lacked substance and charisma. The media had bifurcated into a small but vocal and effective organ of right-wing propaganda and a mainstream of flotsam that had forgotten how to do journalism. And finally, most inauspicious, the majority of the people of the United State of America were demonstrating before the world a level of ignorance, fear and venality that may portend a dissembling of what was once the world’s premier democratic republic.

Oh, and I was consistent in my history of prognostications. The five-point Kerry win in the popular vote and 94 vote margin in the electoral college was typically off by a large chunk. Had I read the wrong data or had I deluded myself? I like to think I bought the wrong facts.

I had actually thought that the mass of new registrations and the push by the progressive organizations would mean something good at the polls. That the larger turnout would be of people hungry to get America back on track. That the heart of country was sound. Apparently not. Said Thomas Jefferson, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.

 

Home

©2004 SetonnoteS

.