Posted on 11/04/2004 9:46:58 AM PST by youngrepublican1986
I woke up today feeling much better than yesterday, much more at peace with all this. Have I acceded to the calls for "national unity"? Have I tasted of the Kool-Aid and found it sweet?
Hardly.
I simply came to a startling conclusion somewhere last night as I drifted off to sleep. We were told this was an referendum on the President. Wrong. This was a referendum on the American people, and they made their choice. You've all seen, by now, the polling results that show "moral values" as the overwhelming sentiment in the choice for Bush.
So what does that tell me? It tells me that, when you come right down to it, this country is simply not in my corner. And the past generation bears that out.
Let's be brutally honest here: we (liberals, Democrats, whatever) haven't won an election by majority since 1976 and Jimmy Carter. Clinton never had a majority, only a plurality. Frankly, I don't think Carter would have won if he hadn't been running against the spectre of Nixon. So this means that in the past 36 years, we have legitimately carried the majority sentiment one time out of ten. One time out of ten.
That should come as a hard slap. Thiry-six years. One election out of ten.
It's time to wake up and smell the political coffee: WE ARE OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM. The 'Pubs have been telling us this for years and we constantly scoffed and said they were wrong. But it turns out they were right: they weren't trying to job us with political rhetoric, they were trying to help us understand what was happening.
Now, you may steel yourself by saying "Well, we got 50+ million people to vote on our side". But step back from that for a moment. That 50+ million was marshalled in an unprecedented "Get Out The Vote" effort. Millions of doors were knocked on, millions of calls made, millions of dollars spent. A massive effort, a political D-Day as it were - an all or nothing gambit designed to capture the beach and sweep into Washington, putting Conservatives on the run.
And we still got beat, and beat bad. We didn't just see a referendum at the Presidential level this week. We saw it right down to the roots, with the sweeping losses in both parts of Congress, as well as the unanimous adoption of "Defense of Marriage" acts. Put simply, we're not the majority here, not now, not for the past generation or more. Our views are not those of the country - regardless of the yardstick you use. Even those seats we did gain tended toward the moderate end of the Democratic spectrum. And we lost to clear loons like Coburn and Bunning.
How does all this put me a peace? Well, I keep coming back to that "36 years" figure. That's the entire span of my life, plus a few years. This means that for the duration of my existence on this sphere, I have been on the outside looking in, with the tide steadily rising against me.
The mainstream of this country does not support equality for all, secularism, public assistance, environmentalism, etc. Nor do they abhor the things I do. I do not represent this country. It isn't mine, and never was. Perhaps that's a defeatist attitude, but I find it hard to fight for something that firstly isn’t mine to start with and secondly that has no intersection with my personal values.
And that's when peace and acceptance washed over me. There is nothing here for me to fight for because the country I thought I lived in has utterly and completely, at virtually every conceivable turn, rejected my beliefs wholesale.
I would imagine it's the same sense of acceptance a "guest worker" feels. I'm in this country mainly for a job. If I had the wherewithal to go someplace else, I probably would.
I am stranger in this land, and frankly I don't, any longer, hold its tenets close to my heart. I mean here not the tenets of the foundations of this country - The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights - but the tenets of the electorate. Because in the end, the electorate makes, remakes, is remaking, the country in its own image. All countries are portraits of their people. The portrait of America for the past three decades or more has basically looked the same. And I have never been in that portrait.
I am free and at peace now with America, because I am absolved of responsibility for it. As it has shut my voice out, I now can shut it out. Its failures and missteps, its foibles and stupidity, none are now my own.
Now peace, as I cut America out of my heart, as America had already cut me out of its.
Finally they recognize that they are out of the mainstream! What a thought!
"does not support equality for all"
There, my friend, is where you have it all wrong! Indeed, we DO support equality for all and that is being born out because those that you consider to NOT have equality HAVE ALREADY stepped into the mainstream through their self-reliant hard work. You are stuck in the idea that certain "groups" that YOU have defined will ALWAYS be unequal because they can't do anything for themselves. Indeed, many, many of them have already DONE IT FOR THEMSELVES and they do not appreciate always being viewed by the Democrats as too stupid and helpless to make it into the mainstream. They cherish their equality to work, earn, build, and vote Republican - and they are of every race, creed, color, belief etc.
Also, quite arrogant and totally self-absorbed, as well?
If I understand this diatribe correctly, since America doesn't go along with his ideals, he feels no duty to support the country that has given him economic opportunity, an education, freedom from fear of the Gestapo kicking in his door at 3 am, kept his sorry butt safe from the evils that the world's tyrants would seek to impose on him and so forth ........ all because this country doesn't bow down and worship his faultless logic (/sarcasm) and vision of the country's future.
If I were to apply that logic at work, I wouldn't have a job very long. If I were to apply that logic to a marriage, I'd be divorced in short order. If I were to apply that logic in any group endeavor, I'd be pitched off the team real quick.
I believe we can safely say that someone is abusing the privlege of being in love with himself!
bump
Morality is evil. Up is down and square is round.
Liberalism is ultimately a spiritual problem.
That is the guy or girl's first mistake. The person should seriously read those documents again to get a better perspective of freedom, freedom from an overbearing centralized government.
Did the person seriously think Kerry would follow that path?
She very well may, however she has so much more than ideological baggage to overcome...she has her failed attempt to socialize the country's health care system, her Travelgate scandal and much, much more. Kerry was new to the American people and they saw through his crap. They will never see through Hillary's, despite her attempts at cleanup.
Well, look at it this way. During the entire duration of MY existence on this sphere, I've had to live and slave under the assinine laws put in place by people like YOU! Since 1913, it's been a steady drumbeat of SOCIALISM. Even President Bush, whom I admire greatly, spends a great deal of time and energy thinking up new ways to spend my money, so I guess that makes us even.
These guys were NEVER in the mainstream. They don't have the whole message yet.
I just trolled the DU site...what a scary paranoid place !
They are wasting all sorts of emotional capital on "reversing" the results...
What a bunch of psychotic losers !
Wow. If this is real, it could be the first step for this individual to un-brainwash himself and, one day, join the light.
Or he could snap back into 'bot mode tomorrow.
Cool. Now if they'll all move to Canada or France like they promised...
I'm not sure what you mean by that, but I think this guy is having a well written little hissy fit.
He FINALLY wakes up to the idea that he has been and will be out of the mainstream of thought and culture in this great country of ours and doesn't like it one bit.
He's like the kid who gets pissed and since he can't take his ball away and make everybody mad and upset, he just leaves thinking we care.
Screw him.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
BTW, this guy probably needs a 360 day waiting period to buy a gun.
And if it wasn't for Perot in '92, we never would have heard from Clinton again.
I'd really like to believe he got it...It's hard not to be in doubt. I think it's going to be quite interesting to see how the democrats try to come to grips with their losses and take on a more kinder, gentler, compassionate conservative side. I don't think they'll be able to pull it off.
From the SECSTATE report...
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates established with no democratically elected institutions or political parties. Traditional rule in the emirates generally is patriarchal, with political allegiance defined in terms of loyalty to the tribal leaders, to the leaders of the individual emirates, and to the leaders of the federation. There are no general elections; however, citizens may express their concerns directly to their leaders through traditional consultative mechanisms, such as the open majlis, or council.This is what this loon considers to be superior to the awful and repressive United States....
Serious problems remain, although the Government's respect for human rights improved in a few areas. Citizens do not have the right to change their government. The Government restricted freedom of speech and of the press. The press continued to practice self-censorship. The Government restricted free assembly and association, and somewhat restricted religious freedom by banning proselytizing of Muslims. In August, the Government closed the Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-up for sponsoring anti-Jewish activities. The Government restricted the rights of workers, many of whom are not protected by labor laws. There are no labor unions; however, the Government mediated several labor disputes and often ruled in favor of employees. There were reports of poor working conditions for some laborers, failure to pay wages, and abuse of foreign domestic servants in an economy in which 98 percent of the private sector workforce is foreign. Trafficking in women and children continued to be a problem, despite Government efforts to end the practice.
Others are ready to slit their wrists. A lot are screaming for a recount or protests. It's all great stuff!
Yes, but at least he actually did realize he's out of the mainstream. That's more than we can say for most liberals.
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