Despite a thousand dead Americans in Iraq, despite the impeachment-worthy lies justifying the war, despite the USA PATRIOT Act and the lost jobs, America voted for George W. Bush, whom they saw as representing "moral values." Like many of you, I cried during John F. Kerry's concession speech and spent the next 24 hours in bed polishing off my Halloween candy. I looked back to better days when it could reasonably be argued that Bush wasn't legitimately elected.
Today, it is indisputable that the American people want him to be president. I am ashamed of my country, and for a few days, I was ashamed of myself for choosing to be a part of it. Unlike most people, I have the choice of my nationality, and have been debating whether to live my life here or in France since I was 15. Briefly, this election made me doubt my choice.
I can only come to two conclusions about the election results. The first option is that God really does hate gays and value microscopic embryos over fully formed human beings, that He is inspiring Bush's policies, and that I will burn in hell for my innumerable sins. I refuse to believe that.
The other option is that America is going through a reactionary phase. Unfortunately, the implications are even worse than in my first scenario. The Western world has seen a succession of hegemonic empires: Rome, Spain, France, England and now the United States. Each empire, before its fall, became socially stagnant, fearful and morally repressive (Inquisition, anyone?), and committed catastrophic economic errors. If this "phase" lasts much longer, we are running toward disaster. This may seem melodramatic, but I'm afraid that this is the beginning of the end for U.S. hegemony and the Pax Americana. Our relative economic power has already been declining since the 1970s. It may take another 20 years, but we can't stay on top forever. The way we're going, I think the fall will come sooner rather than later.
I'd wager that our successor on the world stage will be a politically unified Europe. Already, editorials throughout the "Old World" are calling for political unity, so that Europe may offer an alternate model for the future: a multipolar model based on equality, human rights, peace, the rule of law, and respect for the international system. But as pessimistic as I am, I can't give up on America just yet, not only for practical reasons, but also because this is MY country too, and I won't let it turn into a place I don't even recognize without a fight. And thank God, it looks like I'm not the only one.
In the past week, the consensus among Democrats has been that Kerry gave the campaign all there was to give, but Democrats need to learn the language of values. Our problem is one of message, not content: We have the values, we just don't know how to talk about them, with the exception of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, two sons of the South who were able to appeal to the typical "Red State" voter. As a strong secularist, I am very uncomfortable bringing religion into the public arena, but if we don't learn to reach out to voters in a language that appeals to them, we will be branded as the valueless party.
Trying to educate Americans about secularism and the separation of church and state is not an option; not only will it antagonize voters, telling them how to think is demeaning and insults their intelligence. It is not on the public's shoulders to try to understand the political classes; rather, it is up to Democrats to reach out to citizens (and not just voters) and figure out what makes them tick.
I heard a CNN journalist comment that "Middle America" simply did not connect with Kerry because voters didn't believe that he understood them or what they stand for. I don't know whether that's true, but like a lot of Northeasterners (whether by birth or adoption), I certainly don't understand them. I don't understand why people who believe that life begins at conception aren't content with simply not having abortions themselves. My taxes pay for the death penalty, but you don't see me egging executioners.
I don't understand why people feel so threatened by two strangers, committed to building a life together, enjoying the same rights as heterosexual couples. If homosexuality creeps you out, don't hang out with gay people. I doubt many gay men and women crave your company. I don't understand how our country impeached Clinton for lying about a blowjob, an act that isn't intrinsically harmful, that only affected his family and Monica Lewinsky herself, and then stands by when Bush lies about reasons for waging an unjust war, something that my Catholic faith categorizes as a sin, and that has already cost the world thousands of human lives.
The Republican and conservative monopoly on "moral values" incenses me. Bush doesn't represent my values. That man does not stand for equality regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability or sexual orientation. He does not stand for protecting God's creation - every living man, woman and child, every animal, every corner of the earth. He does not stand for peace, social justice, respect or diversity. He does not stand for life - he not only supports the death penalty, he actively executed it as governor of Texas. He does not stand for the civil liberties we hold so sacred. He does not stand for cooperation or humility. He does not recognize his flaws, nor does he beg forgiveness for the sins he commits in our name.
Those who voted for Bush on "moral values" may have their idea of "God" on their side, but we not only have ours, we also have history. People just like them tried to stop women's suffrage, civil rights and the Equal Rights Amendment. They may have won some of those battles, but the truth is that we won the war.
You can't stop progress, and you can't go backward. No matter our age, we will all die someday, and the next generation will see that discrimination is wrong, and that writing it into our Constitution makes a travesty of our great nation. We progressives will do everything we can to prevent reactionaries from doing too much harm in our time, but in the end, they are on the wrong side of history. You can hide in your gated communities and shield yourself from reality, but you won't stop the world from turning or the clocks from ticking.
In my very first column this semester I said that I wasn't an activist. This election has made me realize that it's not enough to stay registered to vote in a "Red State" in hopes of swaying it. If I really care about this country and the world as much as I say I do, I must go a step further. As the great American author Alice Walker would say, "Activism is my rent for living on this planet." This is why I pledge to spend the summer of 2008 campaigning for the Democratic presidential nominee, whoever it is. If any of you are in touch with me in four years, please keep me to this.
