Welcome to Hell.
Wallow In Chaos, And Laugh / A pro-Bush outcome and one enormous bitter pill and you without your vodka

As all of this was going through my head for the past 14 hours or so, many possible ways to talk about it came to mind. At first, they were incredibly negative and cynical. Later, somewhat less cynical, but still very negative. Then, after a period of feeling strangely sick to my stomach, I find I no longer really have the energy. I've completely lost any last shreds of faith in, and respect for, the slightly more than half of my country which voted to keep this administration in power. They've let themselves be completely deluded by misinformation, and spent no effort to look beyond what the president tells them to find the truth. When he says "no child left behind," they belive. When he creates a "clear skies act," they believe. When he claims "the world is safer," they believe.
Perhaps, at some point over the next 4 years, something so horrible will happen that their belief will be shattered, and the light of truth and scientific fact will finally reach their shuttered eyes and closed minds. But truth be told, I'm afraid of that. Because anything strong enough to convince that half of the American people that they are and have been totally deceived and utterly wrong in their beliefs will be horribly destructive. I don't even want to contemplate what it might be.
So what do I really hope? I hope we survive. I hope millions of children don't develop lead and mercury poisoning from already weakened standards and decreased regulation and enforcement. I hope global warming doesn't do irreparable damage to agriculture across the face of the globe, much less low-lying cities and countries. I hope the environmental lobby can keep the oil and gas derricks out of our national parks and wildlands. I hope Roe v. Wade isn't overturned. I hope we don't lose the civil rights we've worked lifetimes to attain. I hope we'll still have freedom of speech, religion, expression, and sexual orientation. I hope I'll still be able to travel outside my country without having to fear for my life from the hate of the entire rest of the world. I hope we'll stop the development of new nuclear weapons that this administration has started. I hope our economy comes back, and we don't do anything sufficiently stupid and shortsighted as to encourage the rest of the world to work against that. I hope that, should I ever have children, America will still be a place I want to raise them.

I hope that, someday, I will be able to say "I'm proud to be an American" again. Because today, I can't.
- posted by Hoff @ 1:13 PM