The Elephant In The Room
Antagonistic visitor “J” writes,
This is today’s 12th item, and yet I feel that something is missing… let’s see… Prince, check; Leonard Cohen, check; love parade, check… what could it be? Slips my mind…some major event that just happened… it’s like the elephant in the room people are trying to ignore…wait, there’s a party, a party with more seats than before…a victory parade in Boston, but only for the Red Sox…no, really, something really important just happened. What was it?
You asked for it, you’ve got it: The Mobius response to the 2004 election.
[Update] This girl rocks my face like no other.
Moby,
You know, I agree with you on a lot of your points but knowing that you didn’t actually vote kinda killed the whole thing for me.
I don’t care if the votes weren’t counted yet, you had a chance (you’re only chance really) to make a change and you didn’t take it.
I’m so dissapointed not only in you (from whom I have come to expect some political effort due to your strong feelings on this matter) but in young America who largely supported Kerry and then didn’t VOTE.
What the hell is wrong with people.
Now look what all this apathy had caused.
Prepare for coming invasions boys and girls!
Now the Republicans can really get a jump on their “mandate” and all you slacker liberals can blame yourselves if you don’t like it.
Sorry for the rant, I’m very sad.
If anyone wants to know how this whole thing makes me feel, check out Tom Friedman in the NY Times…
Shifra, young people did vote in much higher numbers than they had before. But so did everyone else. It’s not a good idea to get mad at American apathy– you won’t have many good days that way.
actually shifra, i think you missed the whole point of my post, which is to say that my vote would have made not one iota of difference. not to mention i was registered in a state that was already strongly kerry.
No, Mobs, I didn’t miss your point.
I do appreciate your activism,
I am glad that it did not affect your state’s result,
and this not counting of provisional ballots on a timely basis is BS- I agree to all that.
Still a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do and that includes voting no matter where you are.
Stand up and be counted, it still makes a statement no matter where you vote and when they count it.
Ronen,
I heard that there was little increase in the youth vote according to exit polls am I mistaken?
And you are right about American apathy. Why work myself into a lather about living in a nation of couch potatoes? It’s not going to get anyone upset but me.
I give myself the rest of the week to be pissed off and by Shabbat I should return to my normal, accepting, optimistic self.
do i love this exchange: please keep it up for the next few weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(gloat key turned off for this thread only)
there was no increase in the % of young people amongst total voters.
but more young people voted. it’s just that more of everyone else (particularly the 1/3 of Americans who identify as evangelical Xtians?) did also.
What couch potatos? Me and all of my Bush-voting friends voted. Oh, you mean the liberals and leftists (distinction made out of respect for some liberals). What a shame. But don’t use up all your moaning now. You’ll have to make it last for a looooong time. (Patriot Act II: The Sequel! Invasion of Iran, Syria and France! Halliburton becomes the 51st state! Four new Scalias installed on the Supreme Court! The end of a woman’s right to dismember her child! Oh, the horror!)
Mobius:
Just as a point of correction. Ohio didn’t use electronic voting machines. Dispite the fact that we have a state wide law to get them into place the state didn’t provide the funds in a timely manner to get them in to place. So we voted in the old ‘punch card’/hanging chad system. (At least in the majority of the 88 Counties).
The system you are talking about was only used in a couple of places, mostly in the more heavely populated counties in Florida. But they are produced by a company from Ohio. The silly thing about it, and this may not make anyone feel any better, is the company that manufactures them is one of the premier manufacturers of ATM machines.
Good post Mobius. Oh, and to the right-wing trolls: I will be happy to be proven wrong that Bush isn’t going to continue to be a terrible president. Really, I will. But I have a feeling that when you or your loved ones lose your healthcare, your job, or suffer other consequences of the Bush administration’s bad policies, it ain’t gonna really matter whether or not you had that Bush/Cheney sign on your lawn or not.
Go on and gloat though — it reminds me why I hate you guys. 😉
Good post Mobius. Oh, and to the right-wing trolls: I will be happy to be proven wrong that Bush isn’t going to continue to be a terrible president. Really, I will. But I have a feeling that when you or your loved ones lose your healthcare, your job, or suffer other consequences of the Bush administration’s bad policies, it ain’t gonna really matter whether or not you had that Bush/Cheney sign on your lawn or not.
Go on and gloat though — it reminds me why I hate you guys. 😉
Webmacher:
This whole line of doom and gloom is kind of strange. Do you really believe that one person, let say the President, has so much power that he can control the complete economy the size of the United States. The economy works on cycles, some up some down. Can ‘economic’ actions by the government control aspects of the economy, sure can, but not the whole economy.
I was out of professional work from 10/30/01 to 05/01/04. (Approximately 2.5 years.) I don’t blame the President for loosing my job. Frankly the economy was on its’ way down before GWB to office, the attacks on 9/11/01 further depressed an already bad economy. The corporate scandals of Enron, Worldcom, etc. added to the problem but frankly not all of is the man in office. Just as I don’t blame the President for ‘costing’ me my job, he also had nothing to do with me getting my current job.
Think about how the economy works and it’s shear size. Then remember on other fact, that I read someplace years ago, and that is that the economic moves made by an administration in office at the Federal level generally take 6-8 years to have any effect on the economy as a whole.
Since Webmacher seems so concerned about loss of healthcare, you might also want to ask him what his favorite Vice Presidential candidate used to do for a living.