November 5, 2003
IT WAS A GREY WEDNESDAY, BUT HOPE IS STILL ON THE WAY
by Gus Stevenson
It was a miserable, gloomy, stormy Wednesday morning in St. Louis, Missouri. This was because two things happened during the previous day. One, a storm front rolled in from the west, and two, a man by the name of George W. Bush, who was essentially appointed to the office of President of the United States by the U.S. Supreme Court four years earlier and went on to plunge the country into a war on false pretenses, was elected back into the highest office in the most powerful nation in the world.
How could this have happened? After how hard we worked, and after all we’ve done—signing petitions, writing letters, holding demonstrations, giving donations, canvassing neighborhoods, campaigning and getting out the vote, not to mention spreading information about Bush and what he’s done to our country and to other countries—how?
How could we now face four more years of that arrogant smirk on our television screens? Four more years of hearing that grating voice, with all the articulation and grammatical accuracy of Foghorn Leghorn. Four more years of incompetence, deception, and irresponsibility.
Four more years of President George W. Bush.
It might be tempting, especially for new voters and activists, to become defeatist and cynical. "I knew it! This proves that my vote really doesn’t matter. I worked hard, I believed in this passionately, I did everything I could, and it didn’t matter. This was the first and last election I will ever vote in!"
My friends, to those who have already decided to give up, I say—DON’T!
Don’t do it! Don’t believe it! Don’t say it! Don’t even think about it!
As Kerry said so eloquently in his concession speech:
Don't lose faith; what you did made a difference. And building on itself, we go on to make a difference another day. I promise you: That time will come; the time will come; the election will come when your work and your ballots will change the world. And it's worth fighting for.
We took on this fight because we believed that the very foundation of our nation was at stake. From the Iraq War to Bush’s constant refusal to take responsibility for any of the mistakes of his administration, our nation and its principles are being compromised. Our cause goes beyond Bush or Kerry themselves. It goes far beyond a single election. It goes straight to how we view ourselves, as human beings and as a nation. It goes straight to what kind of country we want America to be.
There is still a lot of work to be done. We must continue to urge Bush to truly represent Americans, not just the large corporations. We must remind him that his win was not a validation of his irresponsible use of disorganized preemptive war. It was not a validation of his destructive environmental policies. It was not a validation of his ineffective economic policies. It was not a validation his arrogant and boisterous representation of America to the rest of the world.
Throughout its history, America has never voted out a sitting war president (a proper term for a president who watches his wars on TV.) This election was no exception. It was, however, close. Over 56 million voters sided with Kerry. With a difference in popular vote of only about 3.5 million, we almost did something never done in America’s history! If Kerry had won Ohio’s electoral vote, this would have been a very different article. Kerry would have gotten the electoral vote, despite Bush’s victory with the popular vote (I believe they call that sort of thing "poetic justice.")
So now, the Republicans control the House, Senate, and Presidency. They run the country. All of their actions will fall squarely on their shoulders. Had Kerry won, he would have inherited all of Bush’s problems, without any of his congressional support. As it is, the Republicans don’t have Kerry or the democrats to use as scapegoats.
Our message to Bush should be very clear, "Kerry said that he had a plan, but we chose you, so you’d better have a better one."
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