Division

I still can't believe it's over.

I can't believe it's over and that over half of the counted votes went to Bush.*

What is wrong with people in this country that they were willing to vote for him despite his undeniably atrocious record? How many more people have to die before people wake up and realize that the country has been led in a very dangerous and very wrong direction?

I have a lot more to say about this election, but I'm waiting until I can post a more well-thought out reflection. All I want to say right now is that Bush does not have a mandate, despite what some commentators and the Bush administration thinks. Over 50 million angry people, just under half the voters, does not give you a real mandate. Bush had a mandate among the cultural conservatives, but that's it. I am sick of hearing the word mandate. In such a divided country, there is no mandate. You may have "won" the popular vote this time around, but you will never have a mandate among the blue half of the country. That means that you don't have a mandate from the entire nation. Maybe this is how people politically define a "mandate", but this is not a real mandate.

Bring on the revolution in the Democratic party! If we work wholeheartedly from today until election day 2008, I am convinced that we can make changes. An uphill battle, yes, but we will have a democratic revolution in this country. There is no other way.

* Note that I say "counted." Absentee votes and provisional votes have not been counted in many places (from what I've heard). Not to mention the number of people who were discouraged from voting because of the bungling of the system. You don't have the same number of voting machines in a battleground state for a primary and a presidential election. Ohio messed up big time. I'm willing to bet that there are plenty of people who tried to vote and couldn't be counted.