A Week To Forget, and Other Ramblings

Well, nearly a week off from blogging and I have a lot to talk about today. Last week was hard enough having my Grandpa pass away, but the election news on top of it made for a very tough week for me.

To say I was devastated by the outcome of the election is to understate my emotions dramatically. I am not going to try and get into logic, rationale, explanations, etc. There are plenty of other places to read about that. I am not going to launch into a diatribe about "culture war" and "the growing American theocracy". At this point, it is counter-productive to talk about the huge rifts between urban and rural America. If you want to explore that more, I suggest Thomas Frank's book, What's The Matter With Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. I won't even spew forth my feelings on the way the election was won, by using fear, ignorance, and hate to divide the electorate. No, none of these things are appropriate, and certainly will not make me feel any better.

I will simply say, congratulations Mr. Bush. You have fairly, and soundly won a presidential election. As an American, I value our Democracy and therefore I support the results of the voice of America, even though I may disagree with that voice. To be sure, the message sent by America last Tuesday does not look like the message that I would send. I do not recognize America or her values anymore, but that is why it is important for me to stay engaged in the progress of this country. So, my hope for you Mr. Bush is that you will do well with your victory. Your first four years are nothing short of what I would call a mess, but that is the beautiful part of our system. You now have four more years to start anew, repair what you have broken, and truly strive to be a great President. I hope that you learn from the past four years. I hope that you will fire those in your administration that have failed you and the country. I hope that you will respect that more Americans voted against you than any other Presidential candidate in history. I hope that you will respect that 48% of Americans did not rubber stamp you with a right wing mandate. I hope you are humbled that if not for 70,000 Ohio voters, you would be headed toward retirement.

What does that mean for you? Let me make some suggestions on how to unite and lead for the next four years.

1. If you are going to talk about protecting the sanctity of life, then do not limit it to abortion. Fight for the sanctity of life for our troops, the civilians we harm, those given the death penalty, and those in abject poverty. If life is sacred, then ALL life must be held sacred.

2. If you are going to talk about putting money back in the pockets of those that earn it, then mean it for everyone. Make sure the poor get lots of money back, they are truly the ones that need it. Remember, the country itself needs to have money in it's pocket, do not let these deficits spiral out of control.

3. Remember that we have plenty of problems at home that need attention. Health care and education in Iraq are important, but not more important than taking care of our elderly, poor, and weak here at home.

4. When you talk about faith, and others call on you to use your Christian faith and the Bible to guide you, do not just focus on the parts of the book that teach condemnation. Focus on the love, the understanding, the forgiveness and acceptance of Christ. Focus on the charity, and the call to love our neighbors. Remember that Christ was a giver, not a taker. Do not use his amazing teachings to hold people back, he came to lift us up.

5. Temper the calls for you to wield your new power in a dominant sense. Yes, you are beholden to elements of the right that helped propel you into office, but their agenda will not lead to the greatness of the best free nation on the planet, it will lead to the greatest shame on free people. You must be the steadying voice, to act as the counter to such extreme people such as Coburn and DeMint who were elected to the Senate. They are not the voice of the people.

I hope that you will use your gifted skills at communicating with the everyman to truly unite us. I am ready to support you should you truly be a coalition builder. However, you need to know that the dissent offered by Democrats is valuable and needed. You have won a great victory, and in doing so have eroded some of the checks and balances that are in place to keep one party from domination. Wield your power wisely. We will be watching.


I was glad to see Daschle go, but sad to see that the Dems will replace him with Harry Reid from Nevada. We are going to get in the same mess with Reid, being a Dem from a red state. Glad to see Dick Durbin in the whip seat.

So the election is over, and it has been a large focus of this blog. I think there will be a shift in posts for the good of this site. My next big political mission will be to do what I can to help mid-term elections in 2006. Part of this project will be to do all I can to defeat Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. I love politics and it will never go away, but I need to return focus to the myriad of other things in my life. First and foremost will be the birth of my child in March! I also need to return a steady focus to my job, as being distracted by politics has allowed me to be complacent in some aspects. I also look forward to the upcoming college basketball season (My favorite sport!) and will most certainly be posting about my team, the Fighting Illini. Of course, now that the craziness has ended, I will return to the cellar and begin looking for that next great bottle of wine. The beauty of wine, and of time, is that there are always exciting new things to discover, and the back of every wine bottle has a new story, a new twist, and new beginnings.