Mourning In America

My brother broke down the people who voted for Bush into two categories: Christian fundamentalists and people who are scared to death of terrorism. Probably a facile analysis, but I think it captures the essence of what happened yesterday. I knew it was over when I was standing in the middle of a ballroom in the Minneapolis Hilton and on the giant screen in front of me, CNN called Florida for Bush. I hung around until 1:30 in the morning, hoping against hope that Kerry would close the gap in Ohio, but that didn’t happen. I must now reconcile myself with the fact that I, along with most of my friends, now occupy the ideological minority of this country. From my little blue island of Minnesota, I am confronted with a vast red swath of true believers who fervently believe that Bush will save them from the lurking hordes of queers, abortionists, and Muslims. What worries me more is that the vast, grassroots, progressive network that has been built over the last 18 months will collapse in the wake of Kerry’s loss. There are a lot of disgruntled college kids out there who may never vote again, much less volunteer for an organization like ACT.
If we Democrats hope to have any success in the next decade, we need to sustain and grow the infrastructure that we’ve assembled in such a short time. More importantly, we need to package a set of ideals and values that will have some currency with the traditionalists in our midst. To be honest, I’m not sure how we do that without compromising our core Democratic beliefs. That’s a task better left to people much smarter than me. But I do know that I can’t walk away from this struggle now. I’m going to talk to some DFL people I know and figure out what I can do to sell the liberal message in 2005, 2006, and beyond.
But right now, I need to sleep.