Aftermath - 11-03-04

By Libby

Remember how you felt the day after the 04 election? This is what I posted at the Detroit News blog.

I wake up this morning to a nation divided. The wedge that was lodged in the heart of America in 2000 has been driven clear through this country using the maul of deception and rent us asunder in 2004. With such record turnouts, the results should have been more clear. Instead, the only thing Bush managed to do in four years, is to polarize us further.

I'm not a person who cares much about winning. I would rather everyone had fun playing the game. But this time we were playing for life or death stakes and I'm shocked and saddened that apparently fully half of America does not understand the danger in allowing this administration to continue its current destructive agenda. I fear for our future and I will take no comfort if it turns out I'm right, because we will all still lose.

Can I accept the results? Sure. Can I now put aside my differences with wrongheaded policy and simply support Bush if he is declared the winner? No, and my guess is neither will the half of the country that voted for Kerry. Our concerns run too deep and the issues are too important to simply put aside for the next four years.

I'll have more to say on what I think this means in the days to come. For the moment all I can do is thank you in Michigan for upholding my belief that middle America could and would see through the smoke and mirrors of the Bush campaign and vote for the better man.

I felt shell-shocked. I couldn't believe it was true. As we came to find out, it probably wasn't. The evidence of vote tampering that emerged far too late to do any good is compelling. We should remember that as 08 approaches. The same people still own the machines. Let's not forget we still don't have a verifiable voting system.