This morning over breakfast, the beautiful, unassuming November sun gently lighting the house, I left the TV off and put on Astral Weeks instead. Astral Weeks is an album best served in sunlight. As a reward, I have "The Way that Young Lovers Do" as the song in my head today.
Posted by Setsunai at November 5, 2004 10:57 AM | TrackBackWell, no more raging from me. I¡Çm in total defeat mode. I¡Çd prefer denial mode. That¡Çs where I was Wednesday morning and I can¡Çt seem to force myself back there.
It¡Çs surrender and resignation time for me. Not a very brave or courageous statement, is it? In my time living abroad, I¡Çve spent a lot of breath trying to defend against broadside attacks based on, as I often see them, a lack of understanding either the system or the people. I tend to take the devil¡Çs advocate role (by nature I guess) and try to explain that there is logic or rational behind a lot of what looks inexplicable from abroad. Well, no more. I give up. The people have spoken. You¡Çre all right. We¡Çre all fools. I fold. I feel sick.
I was at a meeting last night and met an American guy for the first time. An Englishman mentioned the election and we could tell from each other¡Çs expression that we had been suffering the same symptoms. He was about right when he said ¡ÈThe Bush people kept hammering the message that Kerry is out of step with the American people. You know, they¡Çre right. And you and I and everyone we both know is out of step with America too. I just can¡Çt explain it.¡É
2000 made a lot of us mad. 2004 is making us demoralized. It¡Çs pretty easy to feel out of step from this side of the world, but people at home are feeling it too. My sister and 17 year-old niece sent me a one sentence message – ¡ÈWe hear Vancouver is nice.¡É I have a feeling disengagement is going to be ¡Èin¡É for a long while to come.
How did it happen? Did V.P. spot matter? Edwards couldn¡Çt make Kerry competitive in a single southern state. Could Gephardt have helped at least a little more in the Midwest?
Yes, there were a lot of lies (from both sides actually, but the most egregious ones were certainly from the President and Vice-President). But is the story really about Bush telling a lie and making people believe it? Or is it about Bush telling a lie and allowing people to believe it if they chose to.¡É Is there a difference? I think maybe there is.
Was the most telling polling statistic about Iraq? I don¡Çt really think so. (Devil¡Çs advocate again, sorry. Old habits die hard.) I think it was a domestic race that was won and lost on domestic issues. From my perspective, the most remarkable bit of political gamesmanship came from the gay marriage issue. The administration took what looked at the time like a boneheaded move that had no future in terms of legislation and only seemed to appeal to the extremes of their base. But in the end it was so well orchestrated it became a major wedge issue that cost Kerry a lot of votes. The party did a masterful job of making it at once a national and a local issue.
I certainly agree with Setsunai about leaving the TV off. I can¡Çt bear to turn it on. Instead I¡Çm taking the chance to get very familiar with my new Los Lobos CD. Solace in guitars.