by When Kerry conceded a little over a week ago, the thoughts in my head turned to how hard it must be for a man who spent so much time and money– not to mention the emotional cost– to run for the presidency
and then lose… and then be gracious about it. For all that can be said about the man and his positions, I believe he rose to the occasion when it came to that speech.
As for the many people that supported him, I can’t say as much. Not only are those that voted for Bush– in their eyes– dumb, but have caused America to no longer be enlightened, have encouraged people to
leave the country, and are definitely not morally superior. It’s almost tiring and emotionally draining to see that people actually think this way about their fellow man.
I understand that there are many that believed that if Kerry was elected President that it would be the
beginning of the end of the country. Personally, I always thought that even if he were to win, he’d get nothing of his proposals accomplished since 1) he himself wasn’t sure what they were and 2) he’d have a
republican congress to deal with. I heard one person say that if he were in congress, he wouldn’t even allow the guy a cabinet!
That’s different than branding a whole group of people as idiots. I’ve read statements made by the all knowing pundits about how much the people who voted for Bush didn’t know– or were lied to about. They fail to point out how many people they registered to run to the polls to pull the lever for Kerry without knowing where he stood. They neglect to mention the poll data prior to the election that said that,
on the issues, a majority of the people polled couldn’t match all of the positions with the candidates! The ignorance of positions was on both sides.
Are “red staters” dumb? Of course not. They’re passionate about their issues and their faith. They’re passionate about making their own decisions and not letting other people make their minds up for them. They have different ideas and values– that doesn’t make them ignorant or stupid.
The most encouraging article I read today talked about how this might make the libs push for Federalism so that they can run the areas locally– imagine a “founding” idea coming back for good reason. The point was made that since libs might no longer be able to legislate for all of America from the benches that they may take to local governments– and so it should be. The purpose of the states and local governments was to keep government close to the people.
Here’s hoping that something constructive comes of all this destructive talk.
