By RON SCOTT SMITH
Be careful what you wish for, America, it just might come true. As a matter of fact, it just did.
But, hey, power to the people, the people have spoken, loud and clear. Ohio, oh why O? Sorry, this thing has reduced me to bad quipping.
Look at that red-states-blue-states electoral map, take a good look at that thing. Is America’s neck really that big and red? Just kidding to all my friends out there in the heartland. Actually it’s more like a big red pot-belly that continues to eat Bush up.
The Democratic states form a thin blue line starting at Maryland, that swoops up and around the nation, a semi-circle that ends right here in California, broken only by the Idaho-Montana gap that might more accurately be colored lily-white. Which reminds us, however painfully, of what may lay beneath the surface of this red-blue division of America. The blue states are the urban states, populated by minorities in numbers the red states cannot yet fathom.
As has been written here before, what’s not to like about the notion of that sliver of blue states seceding and forming a new union? A union founded on peace and tolerance. We get Springsteen and Ludakris, they get Toby Keith and O’Reilley. We get Kerry, they get Bush. Everybody’s happy. Of course the red states might say, “You’re not seceding, we’re kicking you out.” Ouch.
After all, the right radio gang that gives powerful, unrelenting and hateful voice to those red states has openly and gleefully declared America to be in the midst of a new Civil War, and don’t underestimate for a second the influence that voice has had over this election. They would have you believe that the United Nations, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa — you name it — are nuisances if not outright enemies, standing in the way of a divine mission, to bestow our way upon those around the globe in a twisted, modern-day variation of manifest destiny.
One of those nationally-syndicated talk-show hosts opened his show an hour after Kerry officially conceded defeat. “It’s all I can do to keep myself from weeping,” whispered Dennis Prager, perhaps the most stalwart of the new American Civil Warriors. His voice cracked with emotion as he proudly gushed, “America just gave the finger to the world.”
I confess, I had a tear in my eye too, Tuesday afternoon, as the first polls back east closed down and exit polling showed Kerry to be in position to capture nearly every one of the battleground states and 308 electoral votes. I thought for a moment, this generation of mine has finally awakened, just in time. Joining forces with the youngest generation of voters in a sort of Woodstock Nation/Hip Hop Nation coalition, it appeared for a fleeting moment there, that it might be enough to put an end to the Bush era.
Of course, it turned out to be a cruel tease, but even as I contemplated the Kerry win, this thought crept in, and nagged me throughout the rest of the evening: Does Kerry really deserve to be thrown out there on top of that junk heap, with the task of cleaning up the historic mess this administration has created? Perhaps the true justice of this whole thing would be best achieved by letting Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest, stay right there and deal with it for four more years. Like Colin Powell warned the president before the ill-fated rush to war, “If you break it, you own it.” He was talking about Iraq of course, but it might also apply to the entirety of the Bush horror story. Ghastly national debt, grisly health-care crisis, macabre unemployment, terrifying environmental degradation, gruesome numbers of poor, horrific gasoline prices. The list goes on but there are only so many horror-story adjectives in the thesaurus. The point is, you broke it, you own it. Now fix it.
Cheney, ever the grim reaper, made a most blood-curdling statement when he introduced his underling at the victory celebration. “This has been a consequential presidency,” he said, without, however, identifying the consequences. He went on to promise more consequences, saying, “The nation has responded by giving us a clear mandate.” Are you thinking uh oh, like I’m thinking uh oh?
The president ended the victory party by repeating what he said in his final campaign speech Monday night, “I see a great day coming for America.” Isn’t that what the challenger says? How many times does the incumbent get to say that? After four years at the helm shouldn’t the incumbent be able to speak in the present, not the future tense, about great days for America?
As great days go, I cannot in all good conscience add myself to the long list of those who somehow are certain that’s what Tuesday was. In no uncertain terms, let me declare Tuesday to have been a missed opportunity of tragic proportions for us to turn this thing around and truly “see a great day coming for America.”
But like mom always said, there’s lemonade to be made from any old lemon. And there’s a column to be made from any old bad news. Except this time, the lemonade may better be the hard kind. Bushamerica for four more years? To borrow from the great Robbie Robertson, “it’s a drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one.” (Ron Scott Smith To read past columns go to archives at www.smdp.com.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 4, 2004. Read the original PDF.