RANT

It looks like the reign of our illegitimate president is not only to be extended, it will be legitimated. I am hurt, angry and embarrassed. I am angry at fellow Americans who voted for Bush even though they think he is doing a bad job, even though they think Iraq is a mess which puts us at risk in the long term, even though they know that their choice to vote for him is contrary to their own interests. I am equally upset with liberals of all ilk in this country for our failure to legitimate and address the concerns and desires of those who would pick a president based upon his accent, his headstrong refusal to admit that Americans must doubt their actions even when they are based on morals (which, incidentally, frees him and those who support him from feelings of guilt or remorse), and his obvious displays of the (dubious) fact that he takes his orders from one person only, Jesus Christ. I am angry with true conservatives out there who voted for Bush even though he is fiscally irresponsible. I am angry with Bill Clinton for not keeping it in his pants and then lying about it, giving many Americans the idea that being a political “liberal” makes one morally loose. I am angry with all of those people who let themselves be dissuaded from voting by reports of long lines and voter intimidation.
Who escapes my wrath this morning?
Betty, a 94 year-old woman that I drove to the polls yesterday morning. She requested an absentee ballot but when the city sent it to her, it had the wrong name on it. Although she has terrible difficulty getting around, she believes that this election is the most important of her lifetime (and, she assured me, the last she would vote in) – too important to miss. We brought her to the polls where she put in her vote for John Kerry.
Mr. Wilson, a homeless man in his 40s whom I also took to the polls yesterday. Mr. Wilson was so convinced of the importance of his election and his vote that he asked one of the shelters where he stays for a letter to use as proof of residence. Mr. Wilson not only stood in line for an hour at the polls, he made his homelessness public so that he could cast a ballot for Kerry and stood firm in the face of the GOP lawyer at the polling place who challenged his right to vote.
Miss Hays, a 34 year-old woman who had never voted before and expressed a great deal of nervousness when I picked her up at the polls in the conservative and primarily white ward in which she, an unemployed African American lives. She conquered her fears to register and vote and she told me that now that she knows it is so easy, she will continue to vote.
The other committed people who made it to the voting booth yesterday to stand up for change despite their own obstacles: including the 300 or so people at Park Ridge school who stood out in the cold in line for hours, even after 8 o’clock, to cast their ballots even though they were being told that they would not be given a chance to vote.

What good is anger if not for coming up with next steps? Here they are, in no particular order when it comes to being feasible, sane or likely.

BOYCOTT: Until George Bush is out of the white house, I will do my utmost to boycott red states and the products of companies that make their homes in red states. I won’t do business in places where a majority of people believe that everyone’s lives should be governed by their disdain for “liberals” and other sinners and that the rights of the unborn are all important while the desperation of the living is not their concern. Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Cetaphil, and likely all Proctor& Gambel (thank god for Tom’s of Maine) products are just a few of the names on my red list. I will avoid spending any money in red states (that spring trip to New Orleans has just been cancelled although I will still head to Alaska this summer but that is only because that trip has been in the works since 2000 and we won’t really be able to pull it off much longer). If I need to attend a conference or other event in a red state, I will spend as little money as possible (e.g. I will bring a package of Nature Valley Granola Bars (MN), Stonyfield Farm Yogurt (VT), and a bag of Washington apples to avoid eating out).

EXPATRIATION: Jason and I are already looking into moving to Canada. At the very least, if they call our state in the Bush column, we need to look into moving to Chicago or back east.

“YOU ASKED FOR IT, YOU GOT IT”: I will do my best to exploit the advantages of the fucked-up economic system that the American people have chosen. What does this mean? (a) I endeavor to find every tax loophole that pertains to upper-middle-class home-owning married people like myself. I will spend hours with the tax code and will write off every conceivable expenditure. When I am done filing taxes, the U.S. government is going to owe me big. (b) I will restrict all of my volunteering and giving to my blue community so as not to provide a system of private relief buffering people from the lack of public relief available in this country. This (GULP) includes NOT helping out two of my own brothers who work for little more than minimum wage and aren’t really getting by on their own. The most precariously afloat of these brothers voted for Bush despite the fact that he lost all of his over-time income during this administration. Why did he do this? Because his girlfriend is from Texas! It is one of my constant concerns that this brother will end up homeless. (c)Whenever anyone I suspect of voting for Bush complains about lack of access to health care, the rising cost of prescription drugs, gun crimes, unemployment – I will blow a gasket, telling them with real hostility that the American people selected this system so they should shut up and put up.

VOTER EDUCATION: I will work with (found if I have to) organizations concerned with figuring out how to validate the concerns of social conservatives while showing them how they can be economically and politically liberal without jeopardizing their moral stance.

DEMOCRACY: I will work with organizations that push for state level reform of the election process – eliminating the winner-take-all electoral system at the state level. My own home state awards electoral votes to the state winner and by congressional district. I will push to amend the U.S. constitution to eliminate the states’ rights to decide how their residents vote in federal elections. The idea that states, who are held to uniform standards in education, environmental protection, and, to some extent, welfare and social security, are free to decide who can cast a ballot, how that ballot is cast, and what is required for that ballot to count is ludicrous. The procedures for and eligibility criteria for federal elections should be set at the federal level.

VALUES: I will work with (found if I have to) organizations that work at the state level to get states out of the marriage business and instead have all domestic partnerships be recognized as such. Marriage licenses should be replaced with a domestic partnership agreement or something like that, which folks are free to “sanctify” if they so choose within the spiritual community of their choice. I will also work to identify lightning rod values issues that can be put on state ballots to counter conservative’s use of social issues (e.g. defining marriage) to get out the social conservatives.

Yeah, I think that’s it for now.