A loss experience involves the following five stages of emotional response:
1. denial
2. bargaining
3. anger
4. despair
5. acceptance
This has been one of the saddest and most disappointing days of mine in many years. And I'm not even American.
John Kerry conceded the U.S. Presidency to George W. Bush. While half of the American voting population is rejoicing today, much of the rest of the world is deeply disheartened. I'll spare the leftist "rhetoric". I don't feel I need to list off the reasons why this is bad for everyone outside of the industrial, political, and social elite in America. And I've run the full circle of emotions listed above. I really feel like the world is dying, and any chance it had at resuscitation has been smashed into oblivion.
Everything looks so hopeless now, but I've accepted these new circumstances. In the past, revolutionary thought has flourished in the face of tyranny. If anything, four more years will advance what the American (and international) left has worked so hard to accomplish these past few years.
I don't think it's that hard to comprehend why Bush and his crew won with so much support. What people look for in leadership is strength and protection. The majority are willing to compromise rights and freedoms to stay safe. Although their targets were misguided, this Administration did exactly that in the eyes of the average American. Up here in Canada, it's so easy to say "he's an idiot" and "he's evil" and so on. We saw the debates. We've seen everything that's happened over the past four years - curtailed rights, severed international ties, neglect of the environment - through an unfiltered lens. People who only have access to the major television networks haven't - and I can attest to that, having lived in Ohio (of all states) at the beginning of the Iraq invasion. Bush made people feel comfortable and safe at home exactly when they needed to, and for that, you have to give him credit.
We didn't see the campaign commercials. Or the billboards. Or feel the fear of being a dissenting liberal voice in a midwestern state. Daschle says he might have lost because Sioux voters in South Dakota were intimidated by GOP goons. I believe that. Fear reigns supreme.
So what next? Take a deep breath. Be thankful for what you have. Appreciate that we all still have each other - even here on this vast realm of opinion we call the Internet. We are still united, so we should stick together. It's only four more years. Think of how fast the last four went by. We will be stronger the next time around, and even more organized. Our new efforts have only really risen to prominence in the past year and a half - there's so much capable growth and progression.
I know it's easy for me to say from up here. But I still have faith in the general decency of humankind. And I refuse to acknowledge that as naive optimism - in my lifetime, I have seen my people overcome in the face of the most difficult adversity, and I know it can happen again. After one of the shittiest days I've lived through in recent years, I think I've finally reached the fifth emotional stage of loss.
Very glad you've accepted it. I don't think I'm there yet - still angry. I've accepted that the American people chose their President with a lot of thought, and that although it wasn't a wise decision, they aren't stupid people for making their decision. If I had four years and an unlimited budget, I could have gotten a few million people to vote for me (even as a Canadian anti-war liberal).
Posted by: Caaleb at November 9, 2004 07:57 PM