Post Election Blues [or] The Mean Reds

Like many democratic/liberal/progressive/blue state/sane voters (and most of the civilized world), I'm still reeling from the events of November 2nd, 2004.

The first stage of grief is denial, the second anger. I think I'm somewhere in-between. Part of me is holding out for a miracle, a political deus ex machina of sorts - perhaps John Edwards dropping in with his grin and good looks and an arm full of uncounted ballots. I remember the bizarre spectacle of Edwards wandering out to the podium to address his weary supporters in the early hours of November 3rd, promising that the fight was not over - only to be followed some hours later by Kerry's concession. Surely it was part of some larger strategy. After all, we expected the Republicans would cheat (and cheat, they did) and, after being caught largely unawares in 2000, didn't we have an aggressive plan in place to counter their tactics? Surely a man who'd laid down one of the most incompetent, corrupt, and damaging presidencies in American history could not have been more popular than he was four years earlier - before he'd had a chance to do so much damage to our country and the world.

Surely America was not that deluded - that unaware. So afraid - so RED.

It does defy logic, but if there's one thing this current crop of conservatives have become exceedingly adept at - it's cheating. Between their mendacity and the rise of black box voting, I have no illusions that we'll ever know - or be able to prove - the true outcome of the 2004 election.

So we've got to look ahead. We've got to figure how to convince the majority of Americans of one thing: the truth. This is a presidency - an ideology - that depends on an uninformed - a misinformed - citizenry. It cannot coexist with the truth, because the reality of its desires and deeds are entirely unpalatable to the vast majority of country and the world. Our task in the coming months and years is to simply expose them for who and what they are, but for now we're playing catch-up. They've been distorting reality for so long, they have convinced themselves - and a good number of our fellow citizens - that facts are at best malleable and at worst irrelevant. Don't believe your lying eyes. Trust us. Have faith.

We need to open their eyes to what this crew has done, and will no doubt continue to do. We've got to convince them to believe their own eyes, not just accept the spin. To be skeptical, curious. To think critically, and to question the heavily slanted version of the truth our government has been feeding us. As John Adams said, facts are stubborn things - and truth is on our side. We need to help it shine.

There is much work to be done, but I'm ready.