Posted on 11/07/2004 5:12:20 AM PST by Jacvin
If you look at a map of the election returns, we are a sliver of blue, while almost everywhere else but some snowy states near Canada and the weird West Coast has turned a glowing, bloody red.
We're more isolated than ever, Palm Beach County.
We're blue, along with Broward and Miami-Dade, surrounded by red counties in a red state in a mainly red nation.
While most of us voted D, we watched the Senate and House become more emphatically R. We saw W declare his 51 percent a "mandate" to move full-speed farther to the right.
You saw the stunned, sad look on people all week.
How could we be so out of touch with the rest of the United States?
Since when did we become strangers in our own country?
Call it the blue-county blues.
One thing that's obvious to me: We blue-territory people have to do a better job of understanding the red.
To make a start on that, I called on a man who might have been the hardest-working person in Palm Beach County for George W. Bush. He's Jack Furnari, 47, a Boca Raton activist and the county party's 2004 Republican of the Year.
As the election neared, the furniture-business retiree grabbed two short naps in four days. He got no sleep at all in the last 48 hours.
He handed out 2,000 self-designed palm cards. He paid for a phone bank that made 2,000 calls.
He paid for and put up 3,000 Bush signs, including those of his own design that said, "Bush Cheney '04 Because I Love America."
It was a brutal fight, he says. While campaigning, he was hit in the face with a rock. Someone yelling "[Expletive deleted] Bush!" nailed him in the chest with an egg.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
He also purposely missed the essence of our comversation by taking quotes out of context but anytime you can survive an interview with a lefty columnist it's a good day.
He also didn't mention all the help I had that I told him about and that several Freepers were involved.
That's the way it goes with these guys though.
Man it has been one sweet week!
Well you definately got this guys attention.
Nice job Jack!
Thank you!
Let's list the faiths that consider abortion a good idea. Almost all of them are nothing more than liberal Democrat interest groups masquerading as "religion."
HeHeHeHeHe
Yeah, and we're still digging it. ;-)
How could we be so out of touch with the rest of the United States?
We've been wondering the same thing. What's wrong with you guys?
Since when did we become strangers in our own country?
Dunno. But why don't you maybe find some island and start your own country where you'll feel right at home?
Just a thought.
Outstanding effort! Of course, the leftist columnist had to mention the tired, lib expression, "the president lied." This must be in their contract or something.
What he doesn't understand is that MOST people are in the red. Were it not for massive voter fraud and other factors keeping some "red" voters away from the polls, we would have taken the executive office during the klinton years.
This guy is a perfect example of why I hate living in Palm Beach County - we're surrounded, too. But, hey - we have Rush Limbaugh! Thanks for all your hard work. And please, please let me know know next time the south Florida FR chapter meets or does anything. I want to get involved!
BRAVO!!! You earned that sweet victory! Savor it. We are so proud of FReepers in all the tough states who gave their all for the win. (Still wish you WI folks would sue for a recount up there. I think you were cheated out of your slice of victory pie, but we'll be happy to share ours with you.)
Don't know about you guys, but this business of being a stranger in your own country is a pretty good metaphor for how us conservatives have felt for a LONG TIME. Now the RATs get the feeling and all they want to do is to whine.
This isn't a Florida-specific comment, but a GOP vs DNC comment in general.
All throughout the campaign, GOP VOLUNTEERS were signing up new voters, while Democrats were PAYING people to collect new voters.
Kerry appears with Bruce Springsteen. Thousands show up but leave when Springsteen is finished. Bush shows up with Sean Hannity or some other quasi-celebrity, i.e. has name recognition but not to the extent of Springsteen. Thousands show up...AND STAY for the whole event.
My point is that we were more motivated. It wasn't solely gay marriage, or values, or Swift Boat vets, or Soros, but a combination of those. Ultimately, though, we believed in the candidates. We swallowed our differences over one policy decision or another and voted for the best person.
Will President Bush disappoint us at one time or another over the course of the next 4 years? Probably will. But in the aggregate was he the best candidate for the United States. You betcha.
Maybe they should all get a 'Capital One' card...
He also didn't mention that South Florida was flooded with Moveon and Union thugs. Thousand of them. While we were all volunteers.
Outnumbered and with less money we increased the Palm Beach County vote for the President from 152,000 votes in the year 2000 to 212,000 votes in 2004.
A 38% increase. We kicked their butt.
We are way outnumbered here and our job is to hold the line & make the loss in PBC manageable so the Northern Florida votes can overcome it.
He also "Forgot" the contribution as you mentioned, of several Free Republic Members. Hmmm, must have been an oversight.
BRAVO, CONGRATS, KUDOS and any more well earned words of praise.
He doesn't get it. He refuses to listen. What part of 9/11 or Sadam's brutal death-machine was a lie? He is one of those jerks who thinks that somehow the response to a bully needs to be reasoned and nuanced. How about a good old fashioned pre-trial lawyer no tolerance for kids who stand up against bullies punch in the nose.
I would guess that most middle-class taxpayers with a mortgage and kids in school and facing college and car payments and rising property taxes etc are "well-off."
And why are middle class taxpayers who are on an age-appropriate location on the earinings curve regarded as "well-off." (you start working at 18 or 25 or something and work for 30 years and rise in the organization and get more experience and get paid more. The 45 year old who earns 3 x what the starting college graduate earns is not "well-off")
Even after asking he does not want the answer. Most of us are just trying to get by and resent jerks like him trying to tell us "Bush lied" as if that is an excuse for abrogating the powers retained by the people.
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