Tuesday
the 2nd November was the date set. Millions within
the U$ and the wider globe were prepared for one
of the world’s most significant presidential
elections. After the 2000 fiasco, which saw George
W. Bush’s election coup, rules and regulations
were going to be strictly adhered to. That did not
stop Baby Bush’s wrinkle in the back of his
suit (the wrinkle being a rectangular shaped box
that one might mistake for wiring equipment) during
the first presidential debate with Democratic candidate
John Kerry. Or the fact that Bush’s election
campaign was solely based on discrediting John Kerry
and reminding Americans everywhere to still be afraid
of his friend Osama who happened to incidentally
pop up a few days before the election.
The
political spectrum within the country (USA) was
totally polarised. Those who were voting for Bush
obviously liked the guy – those who where voting
against him loathe him. The Democratic Party endorsing
- how I see it - a weak candidate in John Kerry
to take on Bush was most likely their biggest mistake.
They indeed will have four more years to get together
and figure out where they went wrong. Let's hope
by that time they will have found a suitable candidate
with broader appeal than that of Al Gore or John
Kerry.
So,
prepared as many, I awaited the much-publicised
showdown; waiting almost with my breath held as
immediately Bush climbed above Kerry in the Electoral
College votes. State by state they called for either
Republican or Democrat. Media reports showed us
the lines of thousands of Americans queuing for
their turn to vote. As the night progressed more
and more states were too close to call for either
Bush or Kerry. So, again, the waiting game.
As
the pundits had stated, it all came down to one
state – and not Florida this time – those
27 Electoral College votes went straight to Mr Bush.
Instead it was Ohio and their 20 votes that would
count the most. Hours and hours went by. No one
wanted to call Ohio for Bush and repeat the whole
circus show of 2000. Finally some of the US networks
called Ohio for Bush – he had won.
Despite
vice presidential candidate Edwards telling thousands
gathered in democratic land of Boston that they
could wait one more night for victory until all
votes were counted. The White House had other ideas.
While counting continued they declared victory.
As
reports filled the television screen, I held my
head in my hands and cursed the section of the population
that voted Bush back into power. I thought, how
could these people not take into regard all he and
his administration have done in the last four years:
the only president to have a decrease in employment;
a president who had taken the country to war on
several occasions and one who established the current
“War on Terror” as a direct result of
the attacks on New York and Washington; the same
President who took an economy into surplus and created
the largest ever deficit of several trillion dollars,
estimated to be rising by a billion a day; the same
President who implemented the Patriot Act denying
American citizens and others of their basic civil
and human rights.
As
I belong in the loathing of Bush section the list
of his wrong doings and faults are endless. Not
that his opposition was perfect by any means. The
idea of a perfect politician is indeed an oxymoron.
For a non-American the idea that so much of the
population actually endorsed him was incredible.
However I should have realised the Evangelical Christian
voters would have poured out in their millions to
put a stop to a Roman Catholic U$ President. Or
maybe having a papist as a president was not their
main worry.
In
hindsight maybe if the democrats had a broader appeal
to the white working and middle classes as well
as ethnic groupings their success may have been
better achieved. Whatever their failures they now
have a hard job in attempting to participate in
a government that has not just a Republican President,
but also a Republican controlled Senate and House
of Representatives and shortly the Bush appointed
Supreme Court Judges. This is not going to be an
easy four years for the Democratic Party who are
most likely still somewhere licking their wounds.
If
the system was altered to reflect more of proportional
representation idea as in the state of Maine where
the electoral college votes are not worked out on
a winner takes all strategy as with the other 48
U$ states. If the two party system currently in
use could be rectified alongside campaign finance
to include alternatives other than Rep. Or Dem.
Whatever
the solutions are to these issues, the world has
to prepare itself for four more years of Bush and
his administration playing world police. I can only
sit back and pray to whatever God that will listen
that the issues that currently effect North Korea,
Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, do not lead us
closer into a third world war.
“If
you are not with us you are against us” - George
Bush
For
now my feelings are so strong I am defiantly against
them.
