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November 4, 2004
Stand and Fight..?

** Welcome to Slapnose.com Blog Entry #1000! Hooray! **

Via Luke, the wise words of Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation.

But this morning, we woke to a country at war with itself--as well as Al Qaeda. As America fights Islamic fundamentalism abroad, progressives are re-fighting the Enlightenment here at home. (The two new Senators from Oklahoma and South Carolina are leaders of our homegrown Taliban.)

--snip--

And we should be thinking about the indispensable work of resistance. We need to identify legislative and administrative choke points where Bush's initiatives can be blocked, and make clear to both legislators and their constituents that the days of go-along in the interest of non-partisan comity have to stop.

The Nation

Honestly, I'm still feeling pretty low, but I truly do hope that we can do this. As Luke points out, while the Republicans are crowing that more votes were cast for George Bush than any president in our history, it's useful to keep in mind that more votes were cast against than anyone else in history as well. For every American who thinks George Bush is an infallible walking god, there is one who wants to retch at the very sight of him.

Take a look at this county-by-county map of the election, from USA Today.

county election map

Rather than encouraging, I find this map pretty depressing. I agree with Luke that this shows that the war at home is "about enlightment and education, about tolerance and exposure." What I'm profoundly bothered by is that the unenlightened, uneducated, intolerant and insulated side is winning that war. They've been gaining ground for some time, and they're viewing this election as a grand mandate to spread the tenets of closed-mindedness and bigotry far and wide.

I will never give up on my ideals of justice, peace and enlightened discourse, or my belief that, ultimately, good and right wins over loud and wrong. But, honestly, with two days under my belt, I'm feeling a twinge of a desire to give up on those things here in America, right now.

It's the fanaticism that I can't take. You can't argue with a fanatic, and you can't convince them of anything. It's a matter of faith, not a matter of rational thought. They believe in George Bush, regardless of the facts. How do you fight that? Ironically, our solution to those who behave that way anywhere else is to kill them.

This is the picture on the front page of CNN.com right now..

bush as jesus

You'd think they could wait at least a couple of weeks to resurrect (ha!) the Bush as Jesus photos. This isn't the first time.

This is a rambling post. I started with Stand and Fight and now I just want to crawl in to a hole.

Somebody say something funny.

Posted by ahecht at November 4, 2004 12:45 PM
Comments

Previous Comments

Dealing with irrationality is the hardest part, yes. Seemingly impossible. But how did the Enlightment happen? Maybe we need to take a look at that history for inspiration...

Posted by: Luke at November 4, 2004 1:07 PM

Strictly speaking, that's not funny, but...

We should look at that history, it was quite a shift.

I guess I'm concerned that the comparison breaks down when we look at the basic nature of communication now v. then. It seems fundamentally different.

That being said, history repeats itself and the present always seems to be as bad as it's ever been, though that is rarely the case.

Posted by: Anthony at November 4, 2004 3:12 PM

Has it gone unnoticed or did anyone else see the similarity between that pic of Bush with the golden seal behind his head and, say, any religious pic of a saint or Jesus...

It's really not hard to see why the world hates us.

Posted by: The Queen of the Snow Cows at November 5, 2004 7:39 AM

Hey, just read the caption of that pic...sorry for the redundancy

Posted by: The Queen of the Snow Cows at November 5, 2004 7:39 AM

Yeah, I just couldn't believe they brought back the Bush as Jesus photo so quickly.

Past examples: http://www.slapnose.com/archives/2004/01/23/heresy_today_gone_tomorrow/

Posted by: Anthony at November 5, 2004 7:50 AM

"It's the fanaticism that I can't take. You can't argue with a fanatic, and you can't convince them of anything. It's a matter of faith, not a matter of rational thought. They believe in George Bush, regardless of the facts. How do you fight that? Ironically, our solution to those who behave that way anywhere else is to kill them."

Can I steal this for my email sig?

Posted by: Andrea Roach at November 5, 2004 9:03 AM

There ia a more informational map recognizing percentages:
http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/purple_america_2004.gif

Posted by: Paul at November 6, 2004 2:18 PM