Post #515

US Presidential Election, 2004

3rd November 2004, the wee hours | Comments (0)

It’s 0133, November 3rd, 2004. I’m sitting on the floor of my living room, with a towel around my waist, a blanket across my shoulders, and a whole heap of fury in my heart. I simply cannot believe that this country has re-elected George Bush. I just cannot believe it.

I want to write something angry, something abusive. I want to yell at the 51% of America that couldn’t see past their own self-centered, jingoistic, downright ignorant selfs, and realise the enormous potential for harm that they’ve just rubber-stamped with their vote for Bush.

I want to scream at the 51% of America that decided they’d rather be represented in the World by a psychopathic, right-wing, religious zealot, than by a man like John Kerry, who by all accounts has enormous intelligence, enormous empathy, and a genuine wish to make the World a better and more sensible place.

I know that the American campaign system forces candidates to spew out those terrible canned speeches and smile their wooden smiles, but all it requires is a little background research to realise that John Kerry is an awful lot more than another career politician who wants the biggest desk in the country, he’s a guy who simply wants to sort things out.

If you’ve ever listened to the beautifully written speeches he gave as a young man before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; if you’ve ever read about the leadership and hope he brought to the Vietnam Veterans Against The War, and the eloquence with which he fended off Nixon’s attacks on his credibility; if you’ve ever stopped to absorb the abilities and humane nature of the man; you’ll have some idea of why I’m so upset at tonight’s result. America hasn’t just elected a monster in George Bush, in doing so it’s turned its back on a genuinely good and decent man.

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