Election's over, pretty much
I expect the lawyers will attack Ohio, but the margin is wide enough it probably won't help Kerry any. Close margins in Iowa, New Mexico, and some other smaller states could have also turned it, but they seem to have gone Bush as well.
So, it's looking like Bush has secured his second term, with a solid lead in the popular vote this time. Just what I wanted, another likely four years of single-party government. 9_9; Here's hoping the politicians don't flush the country down the shitter in the meantime. Would it really have killed us to have done the decent, useful thing and split congress and the president between different parties?
My feelings about the matter are a bit mixed. Anybody who knows my views on politics is aware of how much the Democratic party puts me off. There are many things that probably make me more a conservative than a liberal--the problem is that, as far as I can tell, Bush doesn't do much more for my conservative tendencies than Kerry would've.
I've taken that silly "political compass" quiz online several times and find my position slowly and steadily shifting right and libertarian--I figure at this rate, by the time I'm 40 I'll be living alone on a ranch in Arizona or western Texas, stockpiling canned food and ammunition, distributing anti-government propaganda, shooting at anybody who sets foot on my property and spending my free time reading Ayn Rand.
On the other hand, these days the Democrats seem to be the more fiscally conservative party (wtf, don't put the nation deeper in debt, plzkthx), both parties have a pretty dubious record on conservative economics, and both parties are itching to impose their own retarded ideas of How Things Ought To Be on the nation, if they could just get the chance. As glad as I am that we haven't given the Democrats the chance to inflict retarded affirmative action and gun control legislation on us, I don't much like the Republicans and their crackpot "morality", either.
The Republicans have demonstrated a dismal understanding of science typical of all politicians, as well as supported retarded crap such as banning gay marriage (honestly, I'm a pretty strong supporter of gay rights and I don't even think a constitutional amendment in my side's favor would be a good idea--writing hot-button issues of the day into what should be primarily a structural framework for the nation strikes me as a bad idea on multiple levels). The Republicans also seem too willing to cheerfully turn a blind eye to corporate corruption, not to mention bullshit like the DMCA and the severe case of recto-cranial inversion that is the modern intellectual property system. The Republican party whoring itself out to the moral bankruptcy of the fundamentalist Christian crowd pretty much seals my rather low opinion of the party.
As the icing on the cake, Bush comes across to me as smarmy, snotty, and wilfully ignorant. Watching him speak fills me with a need to slap him for being a fucktard. The fact that so many people love a president that comes across as a moron makes me despair for the future of the nation (not to say that he actually IS a moron, of course, as I'm pretty sure he isn't stupid. He sure acts the part well, though). I didn't like Bush in 2000 and I don't like him now.
But despite all that, the Democratic party probably couldn't tie its collective shoes in the morning unless the Republicans organized it for them, plus they thought it was a great idea to nominate a completely uninspiring tool for their candidate. What the hell, people. I sincerely hope that the recent string of Republican victories are due more to the Democrats being useless fucktards than people actually LIKING the Republicans. A list of everything I didn't like about the Democrats would make this entry twice as long as it is. I seriously hope they get their act together in the next few years so we can be a two-party nation again.
(By the way, you'll note I haven't mentioned the whole Iraq thing here--my thoughts on that are rather complex and mostly learning towards "a good idea that isn't going to work out". Either way, unlike most people who wank off to politics, I don't consider either Iraq or "world opinion of us" to be of critical importance one way or the other, and don't see the issue as a major mark against either party. Your mileage not only may vary, but probably will do so by quite a bit.)
So, it's looking like Bush has secured his second term, with a solid lead in the popular vote this time. Just what I wanted, another likely four years of single-party government. 9_9; Here's hoping the politicians don't flush the country down the shitter in the meantime. Would it really have killed us to have done the decent, useful thing and split congress and the president between different parties?
My feelings about the matter are a bit mixed. Anybody who knows my views on politics is aware of how much the Democratic party puts me off. There are many things that probably make me more a conservative than a liberal--the problem is that, as far as I can tell, Bush doesn't do much more for my conservative tendencies than Kerry would've.
I've taken that silly "political compass" quiz online several times and find my position slowly and steadily shifting right and libertarian--I figure at this rate, by the time I'm 40 I'll be living alone on a ranch in Arizona or western Texas, stockpiling canned food and ammunition, distributing anti-government propaganda, shooting at anybody who sets foot on my property and spending my free time reading Ayn Rand.
On the other hand, these days the Democrats seem to be the more fiscally conservative party (wtf, don't put the nation deeper in debt, plzkthx), both parties have a pretty dubious record on conservative economics, and both parties are itching to impose their own retarded ideas of How Things Ought To Be on the nation, if they could just get the chance. As glad as I am that we haven't given the Democrats the chance to inflict retarded affirmative action and gun control legislation on us, I don't much like the Republicans and their crackpot "morality", either.
The Republicans have demonstrated a dismal understanding of science typical of all politicians, as well as supported retarded crap such as banning gay marriage (honestly, I'm a pretty strong supporter of gay rights and I don't even think a constitutional amendment in my side's favor would be a good idea--writing hot-button issues of the day into what should be primarily a structural framework for the nation strikes me as a bad idea on multiple levels). The Republicans also seem too willing to cheerfully turn a blind eye to corporate corruption, not to mention bullshit like the DMCA and the severe case of recto-cranial inversion that is the modern intellectual property system. The Republican party whoring itself out to the moral bankruptcy of the fundamentalist Christian crowd pretty much seals my rather low opinion of the party.
As the icing on the cake, Bush comes across to me as smarmy, snotty, and wilfully ignorant. Watching him speak fills me with a need to slap him for being a fucktard. The fact that so many people love a president that comes across as a moron makes me despair for the future of the nation (not to say that he actually IS a moron, of course, as I'm pretty sure he isn't stupid. He sure acts the part well, though). I didn't like Bush in 2000 and I don't like him now.
But despite all that, the Democratic party probably couldn't tie its collective shoes in the morning unless the Republicans organized it for them, plus they thought it was a great idea to nominate a completely uninspiring tool for their candidate. What the hell, people. I sincerely hope that the recent string of Republican victories are due more to the Democrats being useless fucktards than people actually LIKING the Republicans. A list of everything I didn't like about the Democrats would make this entry twice as long as it is. I seriously hope they get their act together in the next few years so we can be a two-party nation again.
(By the way, you'll note I haven't mentioned the whole Iraq thing here--my thoughts on that are rather complex and mostly learning towards "a good idea that isn't going to work out". Either way, unlike most people who wank off to politics, I don't consider either Iraq or "world opinion of us" to be of critical importance one way or the other, and don't see the issue as a major mark against either party. Your mileage not only may vary, but probably will do so by quite a bit.)