Last night, amidst the NPR chatter of the election, I heard a young woman explain why she had voted for Kerry. She said that she had voted for Bush last time but that he had broken his promise to be a uniter not a divider. At her child’s daycare center, the parents are so polarized that the Republican moms sit on one side and the Democrat moms sit on the other. With a husky voice, she said, “Somebody has to do something to unite us.”
This morning after, when the divisions are so deep, President George W. Bush has a choice to govern from the center or to see a 3.5 million voteout of over 113,555,794 votes cast as a mandate (I’m not counting the Nader votes). Given Bush’s response to his court-appointed victory last time, when he acted as if the people had granted him a mandate, we may have a very dim future before us.
For anyone left of center, it feels like we’re facing Armageddon: irreversible damage to the environment, the institution of the draft; the appointment of Scalia to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist; a several new conservative justices to the Supreme Court, a skyrocketing unemployment rate, not to mention a solidly Republican House and Senate.
It’s not a list to read with your morning coffee.
The Democratic Party, which put all of its heart and soul into getting new voters, must now reconnoiter and make a plan for the future. Considering the revitalization that it enjoyed from joining its forces with the Left, including many of whom had never voted for a Democratic candidate as well as many Democratic Socialists who had been alienated from the party for a generation, it must now find a way to address the concerns of the American people without selling its soul to the devil. Even though we didn’t win, we came within three percentage points of winning. Moreover, we must keep in mind that we are a country at war, and that traditionally, Americans have closed ranks behind the president at such a time. That it was as close as it was means that we can build a future that draws strength from a base that is different from that of the Republicans.
We cannot fault John Kerry for this loss. He is a thoughtful man of character who deeply loves this country and who pulled all the stops out to win. Moreover, he got more votes than any other Democratic candidate in history.
It is, perhaps, precisely why he lost. People who think see the grays of life, weight the ethical concerns, read the newspapers, and change their minds based on new concerns. Real intellectuals have never done well with the American people because they want clarity and unequivocal conviction. It’s hard to be absolutely resolute if one doesn’t wear blinders. Besides, it is not in the nature of people who don’t believe in absolutes to be absolutist. Not to be tautological, but if your faith requires a belief in absolute authority and absolute morality, then your entire world view flows from point: Easy for a religious fundamentalist to do; it is not easy or desirable for the rest of us.
Despite the post-election gloom on the left, we must recognize a powerful force has been energized: All of the first-time voters and the young people who, until this election, were politically apathetic have been reached! Once the dust has settled, we must continue to build on that base.
This generation of young people must bear the brunt of whatever comes now, whether it be the draft which seems to be inevitable, the financial burden of a ballooning deficit, or the struggle for survival in a degraded environment. We must teach them what we know and learn with them to us the new tools that we can’t even imagine. After all, four years ago, the Internet had not been used for political campaigns; without it, we would not have gotten as far as we did this time.
Bush could surprise us all by recognizing the depth of the breach between the two sides of America and acting to bring us together. After all, he will never have to run for anything again. He has the opportunity for graciousness: He could appoint moderate rather than extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and find other ways to demonstrate that he is, indeed, a president for All the people.
Whatever Bush does, we must not drop the ball now for it would mean losing ground. Reproductive choice is at issue; gay and lesbian rights are at issue; fair and clean elections are at issue, to name a few. If we believe that America is better than the sum of its people, that it aspires to greatness rather than merely sanctimony and brute strength, we do not have the luxury to retreat to nurse our wounds. We must seize the day.
Dr. Rosa Maria Pegueros is an associate professor of Latin American History and Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island. To reach her, write to pegueros@uri.edu
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