Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Man oh Mandate
Another way to look at this election is that after spending many millions of dollars and untold hours organizing and probably sending off billions of prayers, the republicans barely won. And after spending slightly less millions of dollars, and untold hours writing pithy, sarcastic and (truly) funny on-line commentary, creating the world’s best protest signs and billions of eye rolls and groans later, the democrats barely lost. One would have to be forgiven for thinking that we didn’t really want to win that badly!
I think it’s time for us on the left to admit that we u.s.americans are one people, united in our basic philosophy of life: we’re here, we’re comfortable, get used to it.
Crash of civilizations, indeed. Crash of cash registers is more like it.
Politics is a red herring to keep us from doing anything to change how we live. The u.s. consumes on average 7200 barrels of oil per year. Compare that to, say, the dutch - 2200. No wonder the rest of the world thinks we’re a bunch of goofballs!
Posted by stacy on from whidbey island 11/04 at 12:06 PMI’m not sure who you mean by “we” in the first paragraph, Stacy, but I’m 100% with you on the issue being the “American way of life.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 12:11 PMI agree with the perception that our cultural orientation to consume, versus to conserve, is the impetus to many of our domestic and foreign polices. Just look at the indicators that we use (i.e. consumer index) to guage the “health” of our nation’s economy. And at the foreign imperialistic ventures, for control of the world’s oil reserves, that we engage in. Our nation’s conduct is directly related to our cultural (and personal) propensity to consume. And to change our nation’s conduct, in this vein, we will have to change ourselves first… from being consumers to conservers.
Posted by Nader Rider on from 11/04 at 02:30 PM“Consumer index” dips and Wall Street rumbles. Infant mortality rate rises and Dow Jones doesn’t even flinch.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 02:32 PMCould you point me to where you got the statistics? I’m doing a paper for school and need to cite it.
Thank you.
Posted by Nikki on from Seattle 11/04 at 04:13 PMThe population and this year’s voting numbers are easy to find. Other good voting info is here:
http://www.fairvote.org/dubdem/
http://www.fairvote.org/dubdem/repre_ix.htmGood luck…
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 04:22 PMznet has a great posting today 11/4/04 by michael albert ("tommorow is a long time") with great stats re:the election.
Posted by stacy on from 11/04 at 05:01 PMThanks, Stacy...here’s the link, Nikki:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=41&ItemID=6571Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 05:09 PMThank you for this commentary on the election. It’s been driving me up the wall, all the talk about democracy triumphing in America. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent, hate-ads flying back and forth, and yet 40% of eligible Americans still decide that Bush or Kerry, it makes so little difference to them it’s not work voting? That’s democracy. I understand why the Iraqi’s in Stephen Marshall’s film “Battleground” say they want a theocracy and not an American-style democracy.
Posted by troy on from Canada 11/04 at 07:05 PMsome typos… worth voting, not work voting. and Iraqis, not Iraqi’s. oops.
Posted by troy on from Canada 11/04 at 07:06 PM“American-style democracy.” Now there’s a contradiction in terms, huh, Troy?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 07:10 PMAn oxymoron like jumbo shrimp, corporate responsibility, missile defence.
My biggest concern after the election, with regards to the president is whether Doonsbury will continue having only an asterisk for his head.
As for politics, the same issues must be raised. The same fights fought. American foreign policy is a freight train barrelling people over as it takes your whole nation over a cliff. Kerry wouldn’t have stopped it. He would have put some velvet rhetoric on the hidden fist and continued shoving the hidden hand down the throat of the world.
Posted by troy on from Canada 11/04 at 07:25 PMI like that: velvet rhetoric. Kerry would have been Clinton without the charisma but with a lot more presidential power.
Next time, the Dems will pair Hillary with Obama and dare anyone on the Left to not embrace such a multi-culti PC ticket.
No more time wasted on electoral politics...we need new ideas and direct action.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 07:27 PMElections, today, are just vehicles which are used by those in power… to create the illusion that the will of the many coiincides with the will of the few.
It is an illusion creating/sustaining tool that succeeds in keeping the masses in tow with the will of the few.
Posted by Nader Rider on from 11/04 at 07:31 PMHere here. The electoral issue that must be addressed is how we get many of the truly concerned, caring people to start working on new ideas and going forward with direct action.
Posted by troy on from Canada 11/04 at 07:32 PMEvery four years, they tell us: “Here’s your democracy...now pull the lever and go home.”
For this, young people willingly give their lives?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 07:33 PMPardon my bluntness, at the moment, but today’s elections are nothing but a fuckin’ ruse… to prop up the illusion that the electorate is being governed in a democracy. Nothing of the sort. It is being governed by an oligarchy of $$$.
Posted by Nader Rider on from 11/04 at 07:37 PMI’m sorry...but I’m gonna have to ask you to watch your fuckin’ language.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from 11/04 at 07:50 PM
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