Blogs > Cliopatria > A second look

Nov 4, 2004

A second look


by Cliopatria




(The first paragraph was also my response to Hala Fattah just below.)

For the immediate impact of this election on Iraq I am truly sorry. Unless someone in the White House has learned something and just doesn't want to admit it, war without victory (however defined) seems to be the future in Iraq. Those who see the situation more clearly must keep trying to bring to Americans, and the rest of the world, a clear vision of what is happening.

For the long term, however, I think we better start pulling ourselves out of our funk and looking at the returns.

In time of war and confusion, nearly half the country voted for a new leader. I think we all forgot just how hard that is to pull off. That cannot effect policy in the short run, particularly because of the Senate gains, but once Republicans other than Bush stop smiling and starts adding, they are going to be wondering what that means.

After 25 years of liberal bashing, nearly half the country voted for a Massachusett's liberal. You know, that could be a trend of sorts.

Democrats got lots of new voters, too, even if not as many as they hoped. Hopefully party wonks are already at work figuring out who they are and what they want.

Gay marriage helped conservative republicans. That's horrid and deeply sad. This is a big step backwards. But I truly do not think that issue has the legs of the abortion issue. Abortion concerns questions of what is life and what is murder. Closer exposure to abortion does not change a pro-life person's mind very often.

Gay and lesbian relationships work differently. Generally speaking--and I know there are horrid exceptions--familiarity brings improvement. As long as gays and lesbians maintain and increase the visibility of their lives, and as long as those of us who support them keep doing so with equal visibility, inch by inch, with occasional setbacks, the "great work" will continue forward.

I don't think I'm being a Pollyanna here. Hard times are ahead, but they are not times without hope.

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More Comments:

Oscar Chamberlain - 11/4/2004

Richard, that's a possible interpretation. And if Kerry had been from any other state than MAssachusetts I would give his downplaying of the term a lot more weight. But the Massachusetts=liberal mental equation in most people's heads is so much a part of the culture that it leads me to consider the other.

At the bare, far less hopeful (from my perspective) minimum, there are more people now who are willing to consider people they consider liberals as possible choices, depending on the opponent.

Richard Henry Morgan - 11/4/2004

I wouldn't take too much solace from the fact that nearly half the country voted for a liberal, given that Kerry ran away from that label as fast as he could, and marketed himself as a more competent prosecutor of the Iraq war. I don't think it was liberalism that was endorsed (to the extent that a losing hand can be endorsed). There were many people who just plain did not want Bush around, and if that meant voting for Kerry, then so be it.