politics

[acari]

These are the things that make Ghani cry. Yes, it's about the American election.

pre-election fears by dorrie6
A letter to her Bush-supporting mom by wayfairer
I'm nearly half a century old, and in a few days, I will be voting for the first time in my life. by koimistressIf Bush gets re-elected I will be terrified out of my mind. I don't want the strength of the world's

Comments

[rynalwyn]

My anxiety about the election has been getting steadily more intense in the past few days. I'll be a wreck on Tuesday.

One ray of hope is that I know of several lifelong Republicans who are voting for Kerry. One Florida newspaper endorsed their first Democratic candidate in some ridiculous amount of time, I want to say 50 years or something. And The New Yorker magazine has never, in 80 years, endorsed ANY candidate, but they're endorsing Kerry this year. I only hope that this a sign that people are waking up and paying attention.

The thing that sucks is that my state will be going to Bush. Kentucky is a conservative state, much of it is rural and an unfortunate percentage of its residents fit the rural Southern US stereotype. There's no chance Kerry will win here. I just hope other states are smarter than mine.

[acari]

I'll spend Tuesday clued to the TV and internet. Can you believe what one channel will show the night before the election? Fahrenheit 9/11. If (I'm trying to be optimistic here) Bush wins, I'll be ill.

When I first encountered Kerry I was wondering if it was a joke. The man was totally nondescript. But now, after reading about him and listening to him more closely, I'd actively vote for him and not just because he is not Bush.

Kerry actually impresses me.

[brightest_blue]

I'm a truly anxious mess about this election. I have this feeling that Kerry may very well win the popular vote and Bush might steal it again. In which case, I'm going to have to do what I have to do to defend the US as a Republic, and I'm scared to death because I don't even know what that means.

I think my parents are voting for Bush, but I'm not even sure of that because the atmosphere is so tense, we can't even talk about politics without someone losing his temper. I just don't get it. Don't they see that he doesn't represent them or their interests in any way? That even though they may agree with him on some social issues, the way he has arrived at his beliefs is very different from the way they arrived at theirs?

I'm very, very worried. Even if Kerry wins, Bush has gotten us into such a mess overseas and economically that there's no way we'll get out of it in this generation. If Bush gets another term, I think the principles of this country's founding are in serious jeopardy, and I don't think I'm being overly

[acari]

Yes, I think you'll have to deal with the aftermath for quite a while. What's the financial debt right now, 2.3 trillion? That is mind boggling. And all the post 9/11 laws. And the enormous mess that is foreign policies, that will give America, and their allies by proxy, huge headaches in the future.

Imagining four years of Bush, I don't want to know how this will affect the Nato and the EU. I'd like to pretend I'm not worried about it at all, but I am.

[brightest_blue]

I can't imagine how the current messes can be untangled, let alone if Bush gets another four years. One of my biggest worries (besides the Patriot Act) is the damage that has been done to our relationships with our friends and allies. Rumsfeld may write them off as "Old Europe," but when push comes to shove, Germany and France are still far more important to us than countries in the current "grand coalition" like Palau and Costa Rica. Bush and his guys squandered all of the goodwill we were seeing post 9/11 and we'll probably never see it again. Like those trillions of dollars. I may be wrong, but future historians may well move U.S. Grant aside as the worst president ever, and hand the honors to W! It's just too bad so many people have to suffer horribly for his misdoings.