Welcome v-twin, maybe the thread isn't as dead as we thought slowpro.
V-twin, good thought, I think you bring up a great point. I hope you don't mind if I run with it.
We are stuck with Bush for four years. My wife (who always votes republican) and I were talking about this weekend while watching James Carvelle and his republican wife argue on a Sunday morning talk show. My wife said she would not have been that upset if Kerry had won. She didn't see the election as any big deal, just another Presidential election.
And that goes to the heart of why some folks that voted for Kerry are so angry. They might not even be able to articulate why ... but they can just feel that something important is going on here. There's something about this guy that makes them afraid ... afraid for the future of our great liberal individualistic country.
They sense something is wrong, and they feel that the last chance to reverse the trend just passed.
This is my point:
Some of us (who voted for Kerry) think this was not an ordinary election. This election was a one of a kind because it was about the neccesity of removing a very dangerous and unqualified man who had somehow gotten into power in the USA.
Obviously many folks (you and my wife included) did not feel that way. Most of the good folks who voted for Bush acted like it was just another political decision based on economics, the war on terror etc. and after the election think that it should get back to business as usual.
I don't think that's going to happen. Change is in the air and some of us see things (besides a perpetual war) coming that we never thought we would see again in America.
The past 60 years in my opinion has been a revolution of individual freedoms and rights unmatched in the history of the human race. This revolution was lead by the USA and we were only part-way done, but the brakes have been slammed on and now it seems we are doomed to go backwards.
Rights have already been restricted, and not just for terrorists ... for us all. If we start putting the individual freedoms we have garnered in the past decades up to a popular vote (for example if Roe vs Wade is overturned and abortion becomes a state legislature issue) then many states will vote away those rights.
Another example : Some states in the south might even today vote away civil rights for blacks and race equality if the federal government and courts let them do it.
Where will this "voting on values" trend stop?
A trend away from individual freedoms in favor of public "morality" can become especially aggresive when fear, religious ferver and flag-waving patriotism gets attached to an issue. This is how the Nazi's took charge in the 30s, only then it was a communist threat in germany that the people feared instead of Islamic terrorism. Nazism was seen as a patriotic movement by the German people. Under these fearful conditions people will often vote against things they find objectionable in other people's lives, impose their morals on other folks and limit freedom of personal choice. Without the protection of the federal government and the courts the country may regress.
Example of this backward trend : If I have a daughter, and she screws up and gets pregnant while a straight A student in college, will she have to drop out to have the baby, perhaps set herself back just enough so that she don't get that scholarship to grad school (that a male student gets because he does not have this same potential problem due to his superior "maleness")?
Can a woman truely be equal, in every way, if she can be forced by society and law to give birth to an unwanted child?
Would this situation be moving forwards or backwards? Do you really think there is no chance of this happening in the future, because of the politics of next four years?
I think Bush has no intention of upholding or perpetuating the all-important activist courts we have come to rely on in the past decades to protect the minority opinion from the majority rule, and (if his first term is any indication) he will use the power of the federal government to retrict personal freedom, not increase it as has been the trend over administrations before his.
Where will these restrictions stop? By the time enough folks agree it may have gone too far, will it be too late? Will the constitution be ammended to define marriage in narrow terms? Will many more conservative (or extreme right wing christian) judges be appointed, for life? Will laws be passed restricting free speech that some find offensive? Will the effects of the second term of the bush administration be felt for decades to come?
Four years from now will our country still be on the road upward, bravely leading the world towards more and more choice and personal freedom and bold scientific advancement in genetic engineering, rather than less? Will the USA still be the liberal, progressive leader of the world?
Don't forget the Muslims lead the world in science and thearts until 700 years ago they mistakenly turned away from the future and regressed away from individualism into fundalmentalist religion. They have never recovered as a society.
So anyway, this is why I think this election is different and many people are afraid and angry. I don't think there is going to be any 'business as usual" for the next four years. Some people see the danger that is starting here, a danger that reared its head in europe 70 years ago, and they going to fight it any way they can (even the stupid sticker you mentioned).
For the good of our country.
Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
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