Posted on 11/11/2004 6:51:51 AM PST by presidio9
A couple of days after the election, my husband and I were walking down the street when I saw a sign that made my jaw drop: "REPUBLICAN PARKING." "My God, they work fast," I thought. "They've already taken over the parking lots!" Then I did a double take. The sign actually read: "PUBLIC PARKING."
Oh. As Emily Littella used to say, "Never mind." But I do think my subconscious got it right: It's a Republican country now. The rest of us just sulk in it.
Or, at least, that's what most progressives are doing. But me, I have yet to be filled with unutterable, nonstop-chocolate-eating despair. (I'm eating chocolate nonstop simply because it's leftover from Halloween, thank you very much.) My husband, for instance, is far more depressed. My friends are doing the whole moving-to-Canada thing. The counterman at the deli just greeted me with a woebegone, "Four more years, and that'll be $3.75," even though for all he knows, I'm a prayer breakfast/WWJD/anti-gay-marriage zealot with a picture of Karl Rove wood-burned onto my shotgun. No, the deli guy is just a sad New Yorker who figures I'm sad, too.
But I'm not. I'm pleasantly numb, and I can tell you exactly why: rationalizations.
They're all over the place. They're zooming around like paper airplanes at fourth-grade recess. You can't help but get hit. Everybody has one - or 17 - and, frankly, they all sound really good.
The "17 Reasons Not to Slit Your Wrists" E-mail by Michael Moore, for instance, is making the rounds faster than a Paris Hilton retrospective. Moore's list is filled with uplifting observations like, "More people voted for Kerry than Reagan." And, "In spite of Bush's win, the majority of Americans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction (56%)."
Um. Well, I'm not sure that's so uplifting, but it does indicate liberals are hardly alone in their assessment of Bush.
The conversations I'm having are heartening, too, most of which go something like, "People may not want gay marriage, but almost 60% are okay with civil unions, and that's great progress!" "Inside every red state is a partly blue state you just can't see." "Hillary/Obama in '08!"
These things buoy me.
So do all the Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers still around, and people wearing buttons that show a big "W" with a slash through it. East Village stores are still selling T-shirts that refer to Bush in any number of unprintable ways.
In short, I'm still cheery the way kids are still cheery for weeks after Christmas, because the decorations have yet to come down. As long as there's a plastic reindeer on the fire escape, there's hope.
Maybe the word for this blissful state is denial. And maybe, for the next four years, denial is the perfect place to be.
um why not just shoot yourself and get it over with?
Why don't you join us. There's always an open chair under the big tent.
That's good.
But more people voted for President Bush that voted for Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, JQ Adams, Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln COMBINED!
The only thing that matters is that more people voted for President Bush than did for Kerry.
Hey, dims -- Don't forget, your guy finshed second but GWB finished next-to-last. I hope you find some small comfort in that. :=)
And the Republicans make this possible as well. Bush will spend the next 4 years attempting to clean up as much of clinton's mess as he can. The next election may see the country doing well enough that the dems can steal the White House again.
But it's a fact that's it's easier to be a dem in a Republican administration, than a Republican in a dem administraion.
I still enjoy walking into Starbucks for my AM coffee and whistling "Oh, what a beautiful morning . . ." Still doing the happy dance too. I'll talk to anyone about Canadian immigration. It's a great place with a wonderful climate and lots of Free Stuff. The looks I get . . . tasty!
Actually, I think Ralph Nader came in last...
Did Gary Coleman run?
I foresee the mental health profession and the drug industry booming in the next 4 years. Hopefully much, much longer, in fact.
Who says GWB lost jobs in this economy? Hahahaha!
Aha! A point of commonality. Perhaps we can start here and move toward "unity".
Can't we all just get aloooooooong?
LOL
AND, more people voted for Bush than Kerry. Oh, dear, I guess pointing that out will put her back to where she started; depressed. Oops.
Ahhh... but the votes for Reagan were both legal and voluntary (not coerced).
We'll see different Dems in different stages of grieving for a looooong time. Heck, some of the real hard-core or the more fragile are still stuck in "shock" or "anger" and it's been over a week. Acceptance will be quite some time in coming for many. Let 'em process.
"More people voted for Kerry than voted for Reagan."
But more people voted for President Bush that voted for
Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, JQ Adams, Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln COMBINED!"
And more important.....More people voted for Bush than voted for Kerry
She fails to realize that all those examples of "coping" she listed are among the very reasons THEY LOST.
Is she calling Hillary the "plastic reindeer on the fire escape"? If so, it is most apropos.
And crack hadn't been invented yet, so we never had the opportunity to give people crack to vote for him...
You know, the leftist whining was funny for the first couple of days. Now it's like the toddler in the seat behind you in Coach who won't stop wailing at the top of his lungs for the entire duration of your trans-Atlantic flight.
Mmmmm, maybe John Kerry can borrow it for his next hunting trip. I'm sure he has Karl Rove's image seared, seared into his memory.
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