The Divided States of America
The 2004 presidential election was a demoralizing blow to all progressive Americans. This election was supposed to be a referendum on the performance of the Bush Administration. This should have been a slam dunk. I simply cannot how understand how anybody in their right mind could consider voting for this administration, given the overwhelming evidence showing that this country is worse off in every way imaginable. I know this has all been hashed over millions of times, but I feel like running through some of the major talking points in the list one more time:
Given the sense of hopelessness, discussion has begun to take two major paths: secession
and moving to Canada.
Secession
Definition of secession
Although the image above may appear extreme and ludicrous, the concept does at least deserve some discussion. If the same "red states" always vote republican, no matter what the facts may say otherwise, while the "blue states" always vote democratic, what point is there in maintaining a united front. It is obvious that the blue states in the northeast corner of the United States support a fairer, more progressive country, while those in the "heart of America" are determined to run the country as if it was the Holy Roman Empire, and we are in the midst of the crusades.
Googling for "seceding"...
http://news.google.com/news?q=seceding&num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=firefox-a&sa=N&tab=wn
There are many people half-jokingly commenting on the topic. They are
only half-joking, because in their hearts, many actually believe that
it may be the best course of action. Even Slate.com, A relatively
neutral, corporate-owned website, has an article entitled "Could the
Blue States Secede?": Slate Magazine
Moving to Canada
I am originally Canadian, and the thought of moving to Canada before things get worse does occasionally cross my mind. In many ways, Canada does represent the ideals upon which I wish the United States were run. So, why would I choose to stay? Maybe I feel like I may one day be able to make a difference in the US? I do miss the "hockey as a religion" aspect of Canadian life, but I don't miss the terribly cold winters.
Slate's running an article entitled 'Moving to Canada, Eh?."
http://slate.msn.com/id/2109300/#ContinueArticle
Apparently, the Canadian Immigration Website was flooded with requests the day after the election....
http://www.canada.com/news/national/story.html?id=1b022644-e8f8-44c9-8cae-c90678858708
The day after the election, Slashdot ran a story entitled "Kerry Concedes Election to Bush":
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/03/1637232&tid=103&tid=219
This was a massively popular article, with over 5,500 user comments. It was rather entertaining, as a large % of the discussion dealt with the idea of moving to Canada, including a huge discussion on the Canadian national election.
The Morality of a Nation
The deciding factor in this year's election was that citizens of this country would rather condone the murder of over 100,000 thousand Iraqi citizens in an illegitimate war, waged on false pretensions, than consider the fact that allowing gay marriage or abortion may not be a bad idea. This concept was wrapped under the heading "moral values".
What does the Wikipedia have to say about the concept of morality?
Morality is a complex of principles based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which an individual determines whether his or her actions are right or wrong. These concepts and beliefs are often generalized and codified by a culture or group, and thus serve to regulate the behavior of its members. Conformity to such codification may also be called morality, and the group may depend on widespread conformity to such codes for its continued existence. A "moral" may refer to a particular principle, usually as informal and general summary with respect to a moral principle, as it is applied in a given human situation.
The irony that is somehow lost on all these people that voted against Kerry based on moral values, is that by doing so they are displaying a gross misunderstanding of the very concept of moral values? Where are the supposed moral values that this Bush Administration is supposed to represent? From what I can tell, the chief values displayed by this administration include:
Deceit, Arrogance, Pride, and intolerance
The hypocrisy of this administration is unbelievable...claiming to stand for moral values, while ignoring the needs of the very people this administration was elected to represent.
- Starting an illegitimate war, based entirely on a huge series of lies
- Repealing 50 years of environmental law
- Exhibiting massive levels of conflict of interest in their dealings with Enron and Halliburton,
- Violating/completely ignoring international treaties such as the Geneva Convention,
- Violating constitutionally-protected civil liberties with the passing of the patriot act
- Lost more jobs than any administration in recent history
- Went from a budget surplus to the largest budget deficit in history,
- Ignoring 44 million uninsured Americans,
- Gave tax breaks to the richest 2% of the country,
- Refused to cooperate with other levels of government, often refusing to provide documents and intelligence, which is an action required by law
Given the sense of hopelessness, discussion has begun to take two major paths: secession
and moving to Canada.
Secession
Definition of secession
Although the image above may appear extreme and ludicrous, the concept does at least deserve some discussion. If the same "red states" always vote republican, no matter what the facts may say otherwise, while the "blue states" always vote democratic, what point is there in maintaining a united front. It is obvious that the blue states in the northeast corner of the United States support a fairer, more progressive country, while those in the "heart of America" are determined to run the country as if it was the Holy Roman Empire, and we are in the midst of the crusades.
Googling for "seceding"...
http://news.google.com/news?q
There are many people half-jokingly commenting on the topic. They are
only half-joking, because in their hearts, many actually believe that
it may be the best course of action. Even Slate.com, A relatively
neutral, corporate-owned website, has an article entitled "Could the
Blue States Secede?": Slate Magazine
Moving to Canada
I am originally Canadian, and the thought of moving to Canada before things get worse does occasionally cross my mind. In many ways, Canada does represent the ideals upon which I wish the United States were run. So, why would I choose to stay? Maybe I feel like I may one day be able to make a difference in the US? I do miss the "hockey as a religion" aspect of Canadian life, but I don't miss the terribly cold winters.
Slate's running an article entitled 'Moving to Canada, Eh?."
http://slate.msn.com/id
Apparently, the Canadian Immigration Website was flooded with requests the day after the election....
http://www.canada.com/news
The day after the election, Slashdot ran a story entitled "Kerry Concedes Election to Bush":
http://politics.slashdot.org
This was a massively popular article, with over 5,500 user comments. It was rather entertaining, as a large % of the discussion dealt with the idea of moving to Canada, including a huge discussion on the Canadian national election.
The Morality of a Nation
The deciding factor in this year's election was that citizens of this country would rather condone the murder of over 100,000 thousand Iraqi citizens in an illegitimate war, waged on false pretensions, than consider the fact that allowing gay marriage or abortion may not be a bad idea. This concept was wrapped under the heading "moral values".
What does the Wikipedia have to say about the concept of morality?
Morality is a complex of principles based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which an individual determines whether his or her actions are right or wrong. These concepts and beliefs are often generalized and codified by a culture or group, and thus serve to regulate the behavior of its members. Conformity to such codification may also be called morality, and the group may depend on widespread conformity to such codes for its continued existence. A "moral" may refer to a particular principle, usually as informal and general summary with respect to a moral principle, as it is applied in a given human situation.
The irony that is somehow lost on all these people that voted against Kerry based on moral values, is that by doing so they are displaying a gross misunderstanding of the very concept of moral values? Where are the supposed moral values that this Bush Administration is supposed to represent? From what I can tell, the chief values displayed by this administration include:
Deceit, Arrogance, Pride, and intolerance
The hypocrisy of this administration is unbelievable...claiming to stand for moral values, while ignoring the needs of the very people this administration was elected to represent.
posted by markh100 at
5:44 PM
