Reaction To Bush’s Victory

Here are a few quotes from lefties at home and abroad reacting to Bush’s win. I think you’ll find it to be enlightening…or at least amusing =D

— “I cannot possibly put into words how disappointed, angry, and perplexed I am right now. The reported results coming out of Florida and Ohio simply make no sense to me. I cannot comprehend how we could have such a massive increase in turnout and not win the election. To paraphrase that little weasel Tucker Carlson: You don’t wait in line for five hours to vote for more of the same. Who knows, maybe some people really would wait in line for more of the same. But my impression is that something just stinks here. As EarlG told me this morning: The result is either massively fraudulent or deeply disturbing.” — Skinner on the Democratic Underground Homepage

— “I grew up in Missouri and most of my family voted for Bush, so I am going to be the one to say it: The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not. (Well, almost 58 million—my relatives are not ignorant, they are just greedy and full of classic Republican feelings of superiority.)” — Jane Smiley in Slate from a column called, “Why Americans Hate Democrats—A Dialogue. The unteachable ignorance of the red states”.

— “Were I a Kerry voter, though, I’d feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets. The self-righteous, gun-totin’, military lovin’, sister marryin’, abortion-hatin’, gay-loathin’, foreigner-despisin’, non-passport ownin’ red-necks, who believe God gave America the biggest d*ck in the world so it could urinate on the rest of us and make their land “free and strong.” — The Daily Mirror on the people who voted for Bush

— “Yanks had the chance to show the world a better way this week, instead they made a thuggish cowboy ride off into the sunset bathed in glory. And in doing so it brought Armageddon that little bit closer and re-christened their beloved nation The Home Of The Knave and the Land Of The Freak. God Help America.” — Brian Reade in the Daily Mirror

— “I look at the big map and all of the red in flyover country and I feel like I’ve been locked in a room with the slow learners. We have become the country that pulls a dry cleaning bag over its head to play astronaut.” — Tbogg

— “The Nuremberg Tribunal (1945-1946) proclaimed: “Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience … Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.” Mind you, this is the Nuremberg Tribunal I’m quoting…not an anarchist collective or a dusty Thoreau tome. This is an edict borne of a population that chose to remain silent in the face of its government’s criminality. Lucy Gwin, editor of the essential disability rights zine Mouth, once told me she believed the greatest gift that could ever been given to the American people is the permission to disobey. We should consider that permission long granted…” — Mickey Z at Counterpunch

— “Does healing our house divided really require the blood sacrifice of civil war? Let’s hope not, but it will take more than empty calls for unity to fix things. One of the central lies of the Bush presidency has been Dubya’s insistence that he is “a uniter, not a divider,” when, in fact, the opposite is true. The 50 percent of this country that does not buy his lies is going to have to do some serious soul-searching to find a way out of the trauma trap. If the Bushies can counter every vote or political move with one of their own, we’re going to have to find a way to change the game. Stubborness, defiance, and resistance will not be enough. A Manichean struggle between good and evil plays too much to the Bush mindset to defeat it. We’re going to have to find a way—or someone—to inspire and lead this country back to a whole and better self, someone who can transcend this standoff. An alchemist who can turn this sh*t into gold.” — Knute Berger In The Seattle Weekly

— “One would expect that the blogging machine which the White House and the Bush-Cheney campaign has used for any number of purposes over their four years will start now, if it hasn’t started already, to say, listen, Kerry-Edwards, for the good of the country, need to concede.” — Dan Rather on the Bush-Cheney “Blogging Machine” =D

— “My progressive friends: I know you are disheartened. So am I. A record turnout should have ensured a Kerry sweep. And there’s no doubt that we will never know whether the Ohio vote count was legitimate. One thing is certain, however: Bush is still not the legitimate president of the United States. He ran on an incumbency he never earned.” — Ted Rall

— “Americans did not vote for fascism – but the fascists now control all three branches of our government: the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court. In 1935, Sinclair Lewis warned against the rise of an American fascism in “It Can’t Happen Here”. Well, it can – and it will, unless we stop it now” — Bob Fertik at Democrats.com

— “The first term of Bush, he had come in as a lame duck. Now it appears as if he is winning very convincingly. To me I think we are going to see more dictatorship on an international scale. We are going to see more extremism come out of there. We are going to see even more isolationism where America will not bother about the United Nations. To me that is a very sad affair.” — Kenyan Vice President Moody Awori

— “I think if Kerry were to win this in a tight race, I think there would be an effort to mount a coup, quite frankly.” — Bill Moyers

— “Rove’s re-election strategy was elegantly simple: Scare the bejesus out of Jesusland. F@ggots are headed your way! Satanic Muslims are hiding everywhere! That’s all it took to get Jesusland to do the job. Intellectual conservatives like the National Review staff are flattering themselves if they honestly believe Jesusland cares about conservative thought. The “reality-based” folks are learning that Jesusland doesn’t even care about jobs or the economy. In Jesusland, it’s all the will of Jesus. No job? No money? Daughter got her clit pierced? Jesus is just f*cking with you again, testing your faith. Got the cancer? Oh well. Soon you’ll be with Jesus. Reality is no match for a mystical world in which an all-powerful god is constantly toying with every detail of your mundane life, just to see what you’ll do about it. Keep praying and always keep your eye out for homosexuals and terrorists, and you will eventually be rewarded … all you have to do is die, and then it’s SuperJesusLand, where you will be a ghost floating in a magic cloud with all the other ghosts from Jesusland, with Jesus Himself presiding over an Eternal Church Service.” — Ken Layne

— “I was one who defended Americans from being called stupid. I thought they were ignorant of the facts, but not stupid. However, enough of the truth came out in the final three months of this election that an inanimate carbon rod should have beaten Bush. My opinion of Americans has changed.” — From David at BlogAmY

— “I’m going to apply for an Irish passport. And starting tonight, I’m going to read “Civil Disobedience” to my kids.” — Jay McInerney gives his answer to the question “what do we do now?” which was posed by Salon.

— “First of all, this election was definitely rigged. I have no doubt about it. It’s a statistical impossibility that Bush got 8 million more votes than he got last time.” — Mark Crispin Miller gives his answer to the question “what do we do now?” which was posed by Salon.

— “…(S)ome of us might long for a secession wherein certain parts of the country declare their sovereign autonomy, but given our current state of quasi-united states, well, bush won. tonight i realized that although america is possessed of a lot of progressive people, america is essentially a right-wing republican country. we might resist this fact, but it is a fact. it’s not a fact in manhattan. it’s not a fact in l.a or san francisco. but for 100+ million people it’s a fact….can someone remind me why secession is not an option at this point? i mean let’s be realistic, we live in a divided country. can’t we have the breakaway republics of ‘north-east-istan’ and ‘pacific-stan’? wouldn’t the red states be happier without us?” — Moby gives his answer to the question “what do we do now?” which was posed by Salon.

— “The Liarfuhrer of the combined forces of unfettered corporate greed and undemocratic theocracy has led his thoughtless followers to the promised land of arrogance, thought-control, and selfishness run amock”. — From a post called “NEOFASCISTS TAKE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION” on Bush Watch

— “This much has changed for me in the past few hours, after raging at 51 percent of the people in this country. To be honest, I didn’t really care much about the feelings of that 51 percent — I far more cared about rectifying our terribly tarnished image throughout the world. (As my Italian friend just wrote to me, “The fact is four more years of aggressions, lies, destruction of social systems all around the world, are just too much. It’s medieval. I’m scared.”) Now, however, I realize that we have to treat our own country as a foreign country, with whom our relations are strained beyond the point of communication.” — Heidi Julavits gives his answer to the question “what do we do now?” which was posed by Salon.

— “I know you don’t want to hear it. You can’t face one more hung chad. But I don’t have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it’s my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry”. — Greg Palast

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